COMPLETED (Until next year) - Electronics/Microcontrollers/Computers Meetup?

[granz]

What about Wheel of Names?

I'm not sure what that does. I clicked on the wheel to spin it, and it just spun around and then stopped on one of the names, and popped up a window saying that that name won. Is that a fancy way of choosing a name out of a hat?

[Chris Savage]

I'm not sure what that does. I clicked on the wheel to spin it, and it just spun around and then stopped on one of the names, and popped up a window saying that that name won. Is that a fancy way of choosing a name out of a hat?

That's exactly what it does. You put the names of all the people in the "raffle" in the box to the right, then click the wheel. That's what I used to do for the monthly prize giveaway on Savage///Circuits back in the day. I used an online random generator.

Well, specifically, I used random.org, because I had to choose from the replies to a thread, which were numbered from 1-n. So I would just set, "Max" to the highest reply number and click generate. No fuss, no muss, no bias.

[granz]

I'm not sure what that does. I clicked on the wheel to spin it, and it just spun around and then stopped on one of the names, and popped up a window saying that that name won. Is that a fancy way of choosing a name out of a hat?

That's exactly what it does. You put the names of all the people in the "raffle" in the box to the right, then click the wheel. That's what I used to do for the monthly prize giveaway on Savage///Circuits back in the day. I used an online random generator.

Well, specifically, I used random.org, because I had to choose from the replies to a thread, which were numbered from 1-n. So I would just set, "Max" to the highest reply number and click generate. No fuss, no muss, no bias.

That random number generator seems like it would work great for that purpose, but I'm thinking that spending the extra time  (or tying up a computer/laptop/tablet and person) to enter all the names, might take too much. For random stuff, maybe the old fill out a card, and then put it into a "hat" would work. Of course you can do whatever you want at your table.

Maybe for the door prize(s) using cheap raffle tickets and your random.com would work. Should someone who won one of the prizes be removed from consideration for another door prize? Probably. In that case, we should use the "pull a name out of the hat" thing; that way the person would automatically be removed from consideration for additional prizes.

I'm also thinking that a small door prize, where everyone who attends would get one, would be nice. For that we would need an estimate of how many might attend.

[Chris Savage]

I'm also thinking that a small door prize, where everyone who attends would get one, would be nice. For that we would need an estimate of how many might attend.

I have a box of new old stock ultrasonic sensors. What about that?

[granz]

I'm also thinking that a small door prize, where everyone who attends would get one, would be nice. For that we would need an estimate of how many might attend.

I have a box of new old stock ultrasonic sensors. What about that?

That would be great for us old hands, but people who are brand new to electronics/microcontrollers may not have a use for those. We need to noodle this a bit.

I was thinking of something that has a microcontroller on it, or maybe a blinky 555 thing. It should be something usable (when I was in the USAF Basic Electronics course, our soldering class soldered together an astable multivibrator board - a cool demo.) Another thing that I was thinking of was like a Digispark ATtiny-85 arduino:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806456527791
The best price that I have found for these is $2.98 with free shipping for over $10. So, buying about 20 would be about $60. Add in about $20 for a tiny breadboard (about $1 each) would boost it up to $80.

Aliexpress has Tiny-88 boards, similar to the Arduino Nanos:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803841319037.html
These run $2.02 each, so twenty of these would be $40.20 (discount for over qty 10), with the shipping price of $4.73, for a total of $44.93. Another $20 for the tiny breadboards (I checked, the Tiny-88 board has 15 pins per side, and the breadboard has 17 pins per side) and it is up to $65 for twenty.

We would need to come up with a web site, or a document, to get people started with whichever of these we choose.

We should add a few LEDs, a speaker and pushbutton to each - I have bunches of those. I'm willing to put up for twenty of these, but what if we have more people? Maybe we could use your ultrasonic sensors, and ask the people who come in which they would prefer (or if they are experienced with microcontrollers then put them in for the ultrasonic sensors, and the Tiny-88 if not.)

It still comes down to how many people are we expecting...

[Chris Savage]

The first link doesn't work?

[granz]

The first link doesn't work?

That is strange, it worked last night.

It turns out that I forgot to include the .html at the end of the link.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806456527791.html

[granz]

Okay, one of the Tiny-88 boards is on order. We shall see how those work out for this purpose.

One other thing that I missed earlier - these require USB cables. As usual, Aliexpress has them pretty cheap - just over 38 cents each in quantities of 100. The thing is that I cannot tell from the pictures of the Tiny-88 board if it uses USB-mini, or USB-micro. So, I'll wait to see which connector is on the board that I receive. That cable, as cheap as it is, still adds an additional $40 to the total (although, I will only use a small part of that order for these prizes.) But, the Tiny-88 has much more I/O than the Tiny-85, so that may be the way to go.

[Chris Savage]

Maybe we could use your ultrasonic sensors, and ask the people who come in which they would prefer (or if they are experienced with microcontrollers then put them in for the ultrasonic sensors, and the Tiny-88 if not.) It still comes down to how many people are we expecting...

Whatever you end up with, I probably have enough of these sensors to add one to each package. I feel like I should send you one so you can get some example code ready? I will try to get an exact count on these in the next couple of days.

[granz]

Whatever you end up with, I probably have enough of these sensors to add one to each package. I feel like I should send you one so you can get some example code ready? I will try to get an exact count on these in the next couple of days.

That sounds good - thank you.

[JKnightandKARR]

Anything I can help with??

[granz]

Anything I can help with??

Maybe, do you have any thoughts on a door prize? We need things that are useful for beginners in electronics, but are very low cost. Also helpful would be bigger/more expensive items that we could "raffle" off.

[JKnightandKARR]

Anything I can help with??

Maybe, do you have any thoughts on a door prize? We need things that are useful for beginners in electronics, but are very low cost. Also helpful would be bigger/more expensive items that we could "raffle" off.

I can probly get something like one of those learn arduino kits with book or something like that?

[granz]

I can probly get something like one of those learn arduino kits with book or something like that?

That might be a good thing for single give-away.

[granz]

I've been looking over that Tiny-88 Dev Board, that I ordered. Amazon has the same thing for a little bit more, but it can be delivered in one, or two, days. Maybe.

In checking out that Amazon offer, several of the reviewers mentioned that it is a bit of a pain because it is not actually covered in the Arduino IDE. You need to download new board definitions, ironic since some of the original Arduinos used the ATtiny 88 chips.

So, in the interest of making it easier for newbies, maybe a real Arduino (Nano) would be a better choice. My Tiny-88 board is still on order, and I will check it out when it arrives, but...

In anticipation of changing, I found the following Amazon sale:
https://www.amazon.com/ATmega328P-Compatible-Controller-Microcontroller-Development/dp/B0DG8VYRJY

$3.37 each, in qty of 8. So, 24 would be $81, plus USB cables.

At least with a board (the Nano) that is popular, and "natively" supported in Arduino IDE, there will be less trouble for beginners. Also, I believe that the Arduino bootloader (which is already loaded on Nanos) is supported by BASCOM-AVR, which allows development in beginner friendly BASIC. Also, there is a free, trial, version of BASCOM-AVR, so it would be great in that way, too.