[Dan] took a $13 electronic dartboard and made it work with an Android device. The idea behind it is that these cheap electronic models feature a very sparse display. At this price that doesn’t surprise us. He wanted to add the features you’d find on a coin-op model like the ones found in bars. So he added some hardware that lets him use Android as the scoreboard.
To do this all he needs is the ability to detect when a dart has hit the board and what value was registered. The board is really nothing more than a 62-button input device organized as an 8×8 matrix. He soldered jumpers between the pins and a DIP socket. After the work was done he programmed his Cordium BASIC microcontroller, a 28-pin chip, and dropped it right in. It communicates with a serial Bluetooth module which provides the connectivity with an Android phone. You can see a very quick clip of the app embedded after the break.
This would be just perfect if you’re using an Android set-top-box on a TV near the dart board.
That’s really cool, makes me want to build one. I wonder if you couldn’t make it work with excel or something on an actual computer to keep track of your scores more long-term, then you’d be able to see improvements and such, or archive your stats.
I feel like the old movie line, when talking to the newspaper reporter
That’s a Coridium; with 2 i’s, BASICchip.
wow this is awesome, about 5 months ago I was looking to do almost the same thing, when I took apart my old dart board i noticed the 8×8 was cracked so I put off the project. I ended up buying a Halex Aurora 15.5-Inch Soft Tip Dartboard from amazon for $69.
My project was going to be slightly different, my old dart board didn’t have leds for cricket so playing it was hard from a distance and the LCD was not backlit, so i wanted to build out some LED light rows to keep track of a cricket game.
anways awesome work, maybe one day i will fix my old dart board and use it for practice to keep a running log of my skills to track improvements.
Another idea which would be awesome, make a write up for people who want to build their own and have it networked via an internet connection, play darts physically with people online cmon that would be awesome.
You can actually already play darts with other people online AND have your stats and improvements tracked online. Arachnid just released a new coin-op dart machine, the Galaxy 3, with all those features..