Quiz Buzzer System

Last Christmas I built a Quiz Buzzer System for my mother. She is a big fan of television quizzes and love to organize some with her friends and family. The particularity of this project is that you can choose your team buzzer sound from a list of more than 30 digital sounds.

The system is composed of a main console, 8 buttons, a power supply and a set of telephone cables. The core of the console, built in a plastic project box, is made of an Arduino Duemilanueve micro-controller coupled with an Adafruit wave shield. The 8 buttons are made out of small project boxes and arcade buttons, again from Adafruit. The buttons are connected to the main console using telephone jack and cables.

For this project I am using all the IO available on a standard Arduino board. I even have to use the pins #0 and #1 to achieve my goal. To drive the buttons LEDs I am using a 74HC595 shift register chip. To drive the control panel LEDs without using additional IO pins I am using two 74LS32 OR gate chips. Finally, to drive the cluster of LEDs I am using a L293 driver chip.

To change your team buzzer sound you maintain the main console button pressed and push any button of the team who wants to change it’s buzzer sound. Every tie you push the team button, the next sound in the list is played. When you find the perfect sound for your team you release the main console button and voilà …

You can find the Arduino source code on my Github at https://github.com/pchretien/quiz.

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25 Comments

  1. […] Adafruit customer Philippe Chrétien built a quiz buzzer system for his mother. Last Christmas I built a Quiz Buzzer System for my mother. She is a big fan of television quizzes and love to organize some with her friends and family. The particularity of this project is that you can choose your team buzzer sound from a list of more than 30 digital sounds. […]

    Reply
  2. Tony
    May 31, 2012

    Nice job!

    Reply
    1. pchretien
      May 31, 2012

      Thank you …

      Reply
  3. […] are the team buzzer boxes which [Philippe Chrétien] built for his mother. She’s a big fan of quiz shows (we’re […]

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  4. […] are the team buzzer boxes which [Philippe Chrétien] built for his mother. She’s a big fan of quiz shows (we’re […]

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  5. […] are the team buzzer boxes which [Philippe Chrétien] built for his mother. She’s a big fan of quiz shows (we’re thinking […]

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  6. […] are the team buzzer boxes which [Philippe Chrétien] built for his mother. She’s a big fan of quiz shows (we’re thinking […]

    Reply
  7. […] are the team buzzer boxes which [Philippe Chrétien] built for his mother. She’s a big fan of quiz shows (we’re thinking […]

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  8. Mike
    June 15, 2012

    Any chance I could commission you to build me a set?

    Reply
    1. pchretien
      June 15, 2012

      Thank you for commenting. I which I had time to make it for a living but unfortunately I can’t make it at a reasonable price …

      Reply
  9. Christopher
    August 23, 2012

    Philippe,

    Wow! Your quiz buzzer set looks incredible. You must be busy, but is there any way you could publish your schematics and any more details on how you constructed the set? I would really like to give it a try. In any case, your description and photos are inspirational at the least.

    Reply
    1. pchretien
      August 24, 2012

      Thank you for the comment … I’ll post the schematics in the next couple of days … this has been a very busy summer! :)

      Reply
      1. Tim
        December 30, 2012

        Have you posted the schematics?

        Reply
        1. pchretien
          January 10, 2013

          Not yet unfortunately.

          Reply
  10. Luis
    April 21, 2013

    I’m interested in the boxes you used. I’ve got a project for my wedding nearly complete, but I need a good case. Right now, I’m just using a cardboard box, but that will not do for the final version.

    Thanks.

    Reply
    1. pchretien
      April 23, 2013

      Hi Luis,

      I bought my boxes in a local electronic surplus store but you can find many websites selling these. Search for “electronic project box” and you will find what you want.

      Good luck with your project … and wedding,

      Phil

      Reply
  11. […] “basbrun.com.” basbruncom. N.p., 30 May 2012. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <https://basbrun.com/2012/05/30/quiz-buzzer-system/&gt;. […]

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  12. Dan
    August 21, 2014

    I too would love to see schematics for this project. It’s the best looking DIY quiz system I’ve seen around. Did you ever end up posting them anywhere?

    Reply
  13. John
    January 20, 2016

    Do you have the schematics for this project? I would love to make this at home! Thanks

    Reply
    1. pchretien
      January 21, 2016

      Hi John,

      Unfortunately I wanted to do it for a long time and never had time!

      Philippe

      Reply
  14. Raj
    September 23, 2018

    did you ever end up making the schematics? If not could you just give a rundown of how its wired?

    Reply
    1. pchretien
      October 14, 2020

      No sorry, never got time to make it there.
      Have a nice day

      Reply
  15. Kenya Levy
    September 8, 2020

    Good Day, would it be possible for me pay you to make something like this for me?

    Reply
    1. pchretien
      October 14, 2020

      Unfortunately I don’t have time for this … there are much cheaper solutions out there.
      Have a nice day.

      Reply
  16. pchretien
    October 14, 2020

    No sorry, never got time to do it.
    Have a nice day!

    Reply

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