Episode 607 Reboot request

You may need to start by sharing some pictures of the version of the game that you are after creating, as they vary quite a bit.

Over here in my youth it was known as the 'Donkey Derby' but that I believe that was a copy of George Valentine Tonner's 'Kentucky Derby' game. Some had animatronic horses on a Scalextric type track whereas some were pulled along by ropes wrapped around pulleys more like Lorrainbow's design. Some were controlled by rolling balls into pockets, and others by tapping switches alternately. Horses have been replaced by camels and rabbits as well.

I recall that some were based on linear tracks like Lorrainbow's Strava version whereas some were based on oval tracks.

Size varied a lot as well from the large arcade versions like this Blackpool Pier Entertainment - Donkey Derby to small table top toys like this Desktop Horse Racing Derby .

The ball-rolling ones tended to be at the larger end of to scale so not clear as to how large a build your were thinking of ?

If you are going for lots of discrete switches and LEDs, then you may want something like the Arduino Mega2560 which has quite a lot of GPIO connectivity.

I have an an ESP32 I was going to use.

Well that was a quick and easy decision...

You can get GPIO expanders if you run out or you can just add another microcontroller, like has been done here where 200 buttons are being used:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypBI0wJYfcQ

If you are using RGB pixel LEDs then that can greatly reduce the pin count.

Some sensors are available with I2C interfaces, however some have fixed addresses which may require extra work.

The sensor arrangement on the Elton Derby game can be seen here:

   https://rollaball.co.uk/product/score-tray-optical-sensor-v4/

in the spares section.

Looks like 3 pairs of optical break beam sensors with the chutes directing balls from certain pockets through the different sensors.

According to a comment here:

   https://forum.arduino.cc/t/roll-a-ball-horse-race-game/417850

apparently in 2017, the game cost £18,000.

I love the mouse on the bus game. The camel racing was great too. 18,000 must include everything.  I like the scoring system.  It would be easy to replicate. Thank you for the links. I'm guessing, but I imagine there's a chain driven system using NEMA 23 step motors. These are similar to this episode project.  It's exactly what I wanted,  just bigger.

Mikeatencio said:

I'm guessing, but I imagine there's a chain driven system using NEMA 23 step motors.

The original carnival versions were more like Scalextric sets with a powered track and motors on the horse carriage

https://rollaball.co.uk/product/model-motor/

The horses also had linkages to animate their heads and tails and rider as they moved along the track

You have a choice of sticking with this method or going with a belt type drive with a static motor.

A static motor would perhaps be easier for determining carriage position but perhaps more fiddly if you wanted to add in an extra 6' of race track, as you would need to change the length of the 12 belts.

You may find some of these construction tips videos by Tim Hunkin useful:

   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtaR0lZhSyANYB0Xxb9OSp47pHuQmj3Ol

He has spent a lifetime building electromechanical arcade machines.

I absolutely am chuffed.  Thank you so much.

Scalextric style power perhaps has the advantage that it supplies power to the carriage as it is being driven so you have the option for powering other stuff on the carriage as well as the motor.

Although these days you could use rechargeable batteries with a belt drive system.

Depends if you ever see yourself wanting to get creative with the carriages. At Xmas you could be racing Xmas trees and want them to light up as they move down the track or have the reindeer noses and Santa's sleigh light up.

If you are going to be putting a fair bit of time and effort into building this, then you perhaps want to try keep your options open for enhancing it.

Hmmm. Interesting. Similar to the old automatons from the 18th and 19th centuries. Do you think this is like a slot car track underneath? Two brushes? How would I send a signal without using stepper motors? A timer? This is very simple, yet my brain is more advanced. This is a case of TMI with newer technologies (sadly). I believe a simple design is the best and most effective plan. This falls into that category, but I'm not sure how. The horses can be 3D printed along with the jockey and levers, and even the chassis. Getting voltage to the motor isn't a problem. It's telling the motor how many revolutions ---> distance to go for each point scored. And provide a beam breaker to identify the winner at the end. I found the company that makes this: https://eltonamusements.com/derby-games/  

Which would you create with what we've both researched? I'm no engineer. I'm a guy who tears everything apart to figure out how it was built and reassemble it, and think about how it works in other applications. 

Hmmm. Interesting. Similar to the old automatons from the 18th and 19th centuries. Do you think this is like a slot car track underneath? Two brushes? How would I send a signal without using stepper motors? A timer? This is very simple, yet my brain is more advanced. This is a case of TMI with newer technologies (sadly). I believe a simple design is the best and most effective plan. This falls into that category, but I'm not sure how. The horses can be 3D printed along with the jockey and levers, and even the chassis. Getting voltage to the motor isn't a problem. It's telling the motor how many revolutions ---> distance to go for each point scored. And provide a beam breaker to identify the winner at the end. I found the company that makes this: https://eltonamusements.com/derby-games/  

Which would you create with what we've both researched? I'm no engineer. I'm a guy who tears everything apart to figure out how it was built and reassemble it, and think about how it works in other applications. 

The wheels have rubber tyres fitted so it's not like train sets. In the photo of the carriage it looks like brushes by the rear wheels.

You could use a slot car setup seeing as you already have the track. You could use a simple timer, just be aware that motors tend to run at different speeds and that tyres can slip. 

The approach will ultimately depend on the final goal and how much resource you want to put into it. You said you had some track already, along with an ESP32 so I'd say start with that and see if you can get a couple of cars moving around a small oval track. Check out the previous link to the race car being controlled by an Arduino microcontroller under PWM speed control as a starting point. You can then start to add in timer control and observe the results. Once you are happy with that then add the end of track sensors and perhaps get the ESP32 to turn on a LED for the winner. You could use the end of track sensor as a speed calibration sensor by timing each car down the length of the track and adjusting them so they run at equal speeds.

That's something fun to try out. Retirement is for doing stuff needing a lot of time. Guess what I'm doing this year - lol

Mikeatencio said:

Guess what I'm doing this year

A lot of reading I suspect   

A couple of books that may be of interest to help you along the way: 

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/arduino-cookbook-3rd/9781491903513/

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/making-things-talk/9781680452143/

I'll purchase those. They will help. I'm taking an electronics course on Udemy. An electrical engineer created the course, and there's a lot of theory and information. It is a bit overwhelming, but he answers questions quickly. It's a lot.

Are all of these books free? I browsed a few, and they are short. There is not a lot of information, but enough in simple terms to grasp what is going on. Thank you for this. I added to my startup in my browser.

Mikeatencio said:

and they are short

Short ? 

Arduino Cookbook is 771 pages
Making things Talk is 496 pages

Mikeatencio said:

Are all of these books free?

No, but there is a 10day free trial on the O'Reilly site.

You can probably pick up some cheap second hand. Some of the earlier editions will cover the concepts but may not show the latest IDEs.   

My library is about to increase in size.