Need Programming help

Archiver

I am a teacher in a middle school technology lab. I have 16
workstations with two students at each station. When they need help
with their work, they press a button to turn on an 'attention light'. I
would like to write a program such that the first person's button causes
their attention light to come on and blink. The second person's local
led would come on when they pressed the 'help button' but would not
flash the call light until the first student's help was finished. I
would like to have this function over 16 stations on a first come first
serve basis. Any ideas on the best way to do this? I thought of using a
16 - 1 priority encoder. But from there ???

thanks in advance for your help and kind suggestions.

Leroy

Archiver

Look for examples on projects people have built for pinewood derby timers /
finish flags. They use a similar technique.

What you could do is continuously poll all the buttons, and when one is
pressed, store the button # in memory. If a button # is already in memory,
ignore it. When you service a particular button, clear it from memory.

---

Original Message

---

> I am a teacher in a middle school technology lab. I have 16
> workstations with two students at each station. When they need help
> with their work, they press a button to turn on an 'attention light'. I
> would like to write a program such that the first person's button causes
> their attention light to come on and blink. The second person's local
> led would come on when they pressed the 'help button' but would not
> flash the call light until the first student's help was finished. I
> would like to have this function over 16 stations on a first come first
> serve basis. Any ideas on the best way to do this? I thought of using a
> 16 - 1 priority encoder. But from there ???

Archiver

--- In basicstamps@y..., Leroy Hall <leroy@f...> wrote:
> I am a teacher in a middle school technology lab. I have 16
> workstations with two students at each station. When they need help
> with their work, they press a button to turn on an 'attention
light'. I
> would like to write a program such that the first person's button
causes
> their attention light to come on and blink. The second person's
local
> led would come on when they pressed the 'help button' but would not
> flash the call light until the first student's help was finished. I
> would like to have this function over 16 stations on a first come
first
> serve basis. Any ideas on the best way to do this? I thought of
using a
> 16 - 1 priority encoder. But from there ???
>
> thanks in advance for your help and kind suggestions.
>
> Leroy

You reference an "attention light" and a "call light" are they the
same light fixture/lamp?

Guy

Archiver

Yes they are the same, however I wanted a light at the workstation to
let the student know they were successful in pressing their button and
then a second light above their station that would call the facilitator.

thanks,

Leroy
digital_interior wrote:


You reference an "attention light" and a "call light" are they the
same light fixture/lamp?

Archiver

So i understand that there are 2 lights at each station and a
momentary switch for the "push for help". How about the reset
button/switch. I suspect that when the facilitator gets there he/she
would reset the process/logic/lamp? If so, 2 lights & 2
buttons/switches at each station?

Guy
--- In basicstamps@y..., Leroy Hall <leroy@f...> wrote:
> Yes they are the same, however I wanted a light at the workstation
to
> let the student know they were successful in pressing their button
and
> then a second light above their station that would call the
facilitator.
>
> thanks,
>
> Leroy
> digital_interior wrote:
>
>
> You reference an "attention light" and a "call light" are they the
> same light fixture/lamp?

Archiver

Thanks for your help and reply. I will try to implement your
suggestions, although I am a little foggy about writing to and clearing
memory, but I will try anyway. I did a google search for pinewood derby
and got one hit, I am not sure how to apply what I saw to what I need.

Thanks again,

Leroy

Rodent wrote:
>
> Look for examples on projects people have built for pinewood derby timers /
> finish flags. They use a similar technique.
>
> What you could do is continuously poll all the buttons, and when one is
> pressed, store the button # in memory. If a button # is already in memory,
> ignore it. When you service a particular button, clear it from memory.
>
>

---

Original Message

---

>
> > I am a teacher in a middle school technology lab. I have 16
> > workstations with two students at each station. When they need help
> > with their work, they press a button to turn on an 'attention light'. I
> > would like to write a program such that the first person's button causes
> > their attention light to come on and blink. The second person's local
> > led would come on when they pressed the 'help button' but would not
> > flash the call light until the first student's help was finished. I
> > would like to have this function over 16 stations on a first come first
> > serve basis. Any ideas on the best way to do this? I thought of using a
> > 16 - 1 priority encoder. But from there ???
>
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