Project idea (dart board interface)

To start, I have a basic understanding of electronics and circuits, and a tinkering nature... but not much experience so please be gentle :slight_smile:

I recently bought an electronic dart board (for the automatic scoring features) and soon came to realize how limited in functionality most commercially available electronic dart boards are.
It got me to thinking... why not interface the simple sensors behind the board with a controller to a computer so I can add the functionality found in the commercial grade boards to my home dart board.

But, being a beginner at this stuff, I am not really sure where to start.
I figure a minimum of 62 inputs are required (assuming both "single" scoring pads of each number on the board are counted as one) so I assume I would need a port expander shield and the ATmega2560 since it has only 54 digital inputs... but at this stage I am just guessing.

If anyone could point me in the right direction or provide any insight, It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Fun project!

Post a photo of the dartboard and its dissection !... maybe on YouTube (?)

we might recognize parts that can be interfaced with or so. Without more material its hard to give advice.

I am working on the same thing. I plan to use an arduino micro to decode the 8x11 input matrix. I am trying to determine if I can write instructions to scan the matrix for hits quickly enough to register the quickest dart hits. Approximately 1ms should catch nearly every hit. A reference time from another matrix scanning board would be helpful

My circuit and sketch can be found here.
http://justifiedandroid.co.uk/Dartuino

I pieced it together from a number of other sites such as this one.
http://www.martinpersson.org/wordpress/2010/08/electronic-darts-board-to-pc/

The dartboard face sits on top of two sheets separated by an insulating layer with holes under each segment. When a dart hits a segment the two sheets make contact completing the circuit. One sheet had 7 tracks, the other 10 creating a matrix (think grid with row/column) to map each segment to. For example single one could be 1/1, treble 20 could be 5/10, and bulls eye could be 7/8. Both single segments shared a cell so 70 is enough to cover the 62 possibilities.

It's basically this tutorial with a different multiplexer/demultiplexer.
http://playground.arduino.cc/learning/4051
The 4061 has more pins so I will be able to detect each segment (ie. 82 of them), and use the board's new game/bounce out buttons etc.

I thought the circuit would be the hard part, but the physical connection to the dartboard is proving more difficult. I've since ruined the acetate the dartboard's matrix circuit is printed on. I don't have any good ideas on how to replace it, or if I buy a new board or reliable way to connect my circuit to it.

Hi, any progress with this project?

I'm starting my own project.

Thanks!