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DIY electronic Speed test

A DIY replica of electronic speed test game, manufactured by Coinline in Finland. A similar game is also manufactured by DPS-Promatic in Italy. These games became very popular in Finland in 90s because they were part of a tv-show competition. The speed test game is still fun and addictive. You must press the buttons as they lit up. The speed gradually increases. See links to videos from below to understand how it works.

Features

You can select between speed test and memory test
Easy and hard modes for speed test. Hard speed test is the same game but it begins from 100 points. This way you can skip the slow beginning when trying to beat new high score
Sound effects as in original game. You can select between old and new version (old speed games had higher pitch)
High scores saved, separately for speed test and memory test
Speed test has 'memory' or 'stack' of 50 presses. So you can press the buttons a bit late, as long as the sequence is correct
Demo mode
Instructions on screen when you switch power on

See this youtube video of the game in action. Another video which has the latest version of electronics.

HW

The circuit is based on PIC16F15355 micro controller. Piezo buzzer and button lights are driven with ULN2003 Darlington array. 7-segment display is driven directly from micro controller pins. It is possible as long as the used display has high efficiency LEDs. The display types listed in BOM work well. Switches connect to ground and their readout uses PIC internal pull-ups.

Speed test assembled PCB

The PCB uses only though-hole components so it is easy to build by beginners. It is 2-side PCB with plated through holes so it is easiest to order the bare PCB from factory. See below section Getting parts. The board has screw terminals for connecting wires. It is advisable to solder the screw terminals to bottom side of board, like shown in picture above. Then you have easy access to those even when the board is attached to front panel of enclosure.

nopeustesti_v1_circuit_diagram.pdf Circuit diagram
nopeustesti_v1_assy_and_bom.pdf Assembly drawing and bill of materials
nopeustesti_v1_hw.zip PCB design files, made with Eagle 5.12.0
nopeustesti_v1_gerbers.zip Manufacturing files in Gerber 274-X format
nopeustesti_v1_idf_and_step.zip 3d-model in IDF and STEP formats

FW

Firmware source code and compiled .HEX available below. Compiled with CCS compiler version 5.081.
nopeustesti_v1_fw_v092.zip (20.9.2019)

Instructions

Speed test

Start speed test by pressing red button. You can also start speed test from score of 100 by pressing yellow button.

Press the buttons as the light up. The game speed increases gradually. The game has a stack of 50 presses, so you can press the buttons a bit late. That is, it doesn't matter if the next button has already lit as long as the sequence is correct. The game ends when you press wrong button or if you lag 50 presses behind. Each correct press gives you one point.

Memory test

Start memory test by pressing green button. In memory test, the game first shows a sequence and then the player must repeat it. The sequence starts with only one button and length increases by one on each round. When the player presses the last button of the sequence that game confirms that with slightly longer sound. Unlike in speed test, in memory test the sequence can have same button several times in a row. Each correct press gives you one point.

Changing settings

You can get to setup menu by keeping all the buttons pressed while switching on the power.

Red button changes sound volume. It has 4 settings. The new settings is shown on score display.

'qUiEt' quiet sound from the piezo buzzer on the PCB. This is the default setting.
'EXtErnAL' sound effects are player from the external speaker connected to screw terminals. The external speaker has only this one volume setting.
'SoUnd oFF' all sound effects are turned off.
'LoUd' loud sound from the piezo buzzer on the PCB. With this setting, the sound effects are also played from the external speaker, if connected.

Yellow button changes sound effect type. There are three different versions. The setting affects both speed test and memory test.

'nEW SoUnd' low pitch sound effects as in newer genuine speed test games. This is the default setting.
'mEmory GAmE SoUnd' really high pitch sound effects as in original memory test game.
'oLd SoUnd' high pitch sound effects as in early original speed test games.

Green button turns demo mode on or off. In demo mode the game slowly lights the lamps when game is not ongoing. If you use incandescent bulbs as lights, it's recommended to keep demo mode off, which is the defalut setting.

Blue (or rightmost) button allows to change light brightness. It has four settings. The brightness is adjusted with pulse width modulation (PWM).

'diMMESt' this is the dimmest setting. The lamps are driven with 12.5% duty cycle (that is, the brightness is 12.5% from the maximum)
'diMMer' second dimmest setting. Lamps are driven with 25% duty cycle.
'diM' Lamps are driven at 50% duty cycle.
'briGht' The brightest setting. Lamps are driven with constant voltage. This is the default setting.

Exit the setup menu by switching power off. When in setup menu, all button lights are lit so the game will switch off a little faster.

Clearing high scores

The game remembers the high scores of both the speed test and the memory test. It is possible to clear the high scores by keeping both middle buttons pressed while switching on power. The game will then ask to confirmation to clear the scores. Press red button to accept, any other to cancel.

Button test

Keep the leftmost and rightmost buttons press while powering up the game to enter button test. In button test you can test the button micro switch contact bounce time. Press one button at at time. When you press it, the display shows contact bounce time in milliseconds, with accuracy of 0.1 ms. When you release the button, the display briefly shows the release contact bounce time in milliseconds. The release contact bounce time is indicated by r on the left side of the display.

In current firmware version 0.92 there is 15 ms debounce on press and 5 ms debounce on release. If you get longer contact bounce times than these in button test, the game will interpret the contact bounce as new press. This usually means that your game will end even though you pressed the buttons in correct sequence. In this case you should replace the failing switch with a better one. Turn off power to exit the button test mode.

Getting parts

Order the bare PCB from PCBWay using this link. Price is ca. $13 for 10 pcs with cheapest shipping.
Parts for the PCB from e.g. TME in Poland, here is shared cart.
You can also get some other needed parts from TME. Buttons, enclosure, power supply and PC sheet, here is shared cart.
M6 DIN 603 mushroom head square neck bolts, red paint, 6.3 mm and 4.8 mm Faston connectors, hook-up wire
You can get the buttons from eBay cheaper than TME. Search 'arcade button led 45mm', or use this link
If you don't have PIC programmer, check this for more info

Build

I have used case aluminum enclosure Hammond 1550J. You can download a milling template from here. The template is intended to be used with the Hammond 1550J enclosure and 44 mm or 45 mm diameter pushbuttons. The spacing of buttons is 60 mm as in original game. You can print the template in 100% size on paper, tape in on the enclosure and use a punch to mark hole locations.

Enclosure with holes waiting to be painted. Holes were made with milling machine. Artwork will be placed under transparent PC sheet which is fixed with mushroom head bolts as in original.

Painted enclosure and parts which will go inside. Picture above shows 60 mm arcade buttons, but you can use smaller ones. The original game uses 45 mm buttons.

Electronics parts for speed test

Here are electronics parts for new version. The buttons above are from TME, and they have 45 mm diameter.

Rear panel has power switch and IEC mains connector with integrated fuses.

Inside view. I really recommend to use external, approved mains supply and not place it inside the enclosure. When there's only +12V DC voltage in the enclosure the risk of electric shock is greatly reduced. Picture above still shows old version of electronics which is split to two boards.

The picture above shows wiring diagram of the game. The PCB is seen from bottom side, as it would be installed to the front panel of the enclosure. The buttons need to be installed to specific order. Looking from front, left to right: Red, Yellow, Green and Blue. You can replace the blue button with white or orange, like the original speed test games usually have. This is taken into account on front panel graphics, as the color of the last button is not mentioned. The wiring diagram above shows button colors in reverse order since it is drawn as looking from inside of the enclosure.

If your lamps are rated for 5V voltage (rare), you can connect the common wire of the lamps to screw terminal marked as '5V' instead of '12V'. This wire is shown in yellow in the wiring diagram. Most of the LED type lamps need correct polarity in order to work. Often the polarity is not marked on the lamps, so you will have to rotate 180 degrees the lamps which don't lit. It's easier to turn the lamp and not exchange the wiring as the Faston connectors sit very tight on the lamp holder.

The piezo buzzer on the PCB usually produces loud enough sound which even when inside the enclosure. You can also connect an external loudspeaker to screw terminals. The external speaker can be standard, voice coil type small loudspeaker. The external speaker must be enabled from the setup menu. There isn't volume control for the external speaker. You can quieten it by adding a resistor either in parallel (approx. same size as speaker impedance) or in series (e.g. some hundreds of ohms) if needed.

If the micro switches you are using have 3 terminals, connect the wires to ones marked COM and NO. Leave the NC marked not connected.

You can download the wiring diagram in PDF format by clicking the image above.

Finished game. You can download the artwork below in .pdf format by clicking the picture. Original Inkscape svg -file available here. Note that if you use the svg file you must also have the K22 Xanthus font installed on your computer. If you just intend to print the graphics without any modifications, I recommend to get the PDF version since it has the fonts embedded.

Modifications and improvements

If you are using adjustable power supply, you can set the voltage to slightly higher, ca. 13.2 V. This way you can get full 12 V to button lights, because the reverse protection diode D1 and Darlington array ULN2003 will cause ca. 1.2 V voltage drop. Alternatively, you can replace D1 with Schottky -type e.g. 1N5815 and IC2 with MOSFET -type e.g. TBD62003APG. You could even replace D1 with just jumper wire but then you must be careful about correct polarity. However, difference of one volt is not significant to button illumination brightness. The used LED type has much bigger effect, see below.

You get better contrast to score display if you use red or smoked display lens. It also makes display easier to read in daylight.

The micro switches delivered with the big arcade buttons are usually crap. The are stiff and have poor contact. It is advisable to replace those with quality, low force micro switches. E.g. 75 gram Cherry switches or 50 gram E-Switch switches work well. With these, a skilled player can easily gain tens of points to high score.

Also the LEDs delivered with arcade buttons are usually quite dim. Good in dusk, but in daylight they could be brighter. I have tested many types of LEDs and currently the best known LEDs look like this. These LEDs can be even too bright indoors, therefore firmware v0.92 adds possibility to adjust light brightness. You can get those e.g. from eBay. You get best results when you use same color LED as the button color. When using white leds the color will be pale. More information on the subject from my LED comparison.

kair.us/ projects/ nopeustesti/

page created 7.8.2013
last updated 6.6.2021 webmaster@kair.us