arduino uno, 8 lights with 5 buttons

Hello
I have an arduino uno kit with breadboard and would like to wire it up with some (for now at least 4) light bulbs (can replace those) and control them with 4 (analog?) buttons. The light bulbs right now are 12V so would need external power.
I googled similar schematics but am still lost, so probably need the right one? i can do the programming part.
Probably the biggest problem i don't understand is how to wire everything up so that it works - power with light bulbs and with arduino?

How much current do these light bulbs take?
You need a transistor and resistor in order to turn them on with an Arduino. What sort of transistor depends on the answer to the first question.

It sounds to me like you are not really convinced that you want to keep the light bulbs. Have you considered replacing them with LEDs? What power are the bulbs? LEDs use lower voltage and far less current to give out the same amount of visible light.

How would you control 8 bulbs with 5 buttons? What makes you think the buttons might be analog? Can you give us links to or pics of them?

No idea on the current of the bulbs, they are some generic 12V bulbs, as long as they fit into the hole they can be replaced with LEDs/anything. Was googling that as well but arduino can't power many of them? would be much easier to just plug them directly on the arduino yeah. will provide pics in the evening when i get home.
now that you mentioned the inputs, they are two buttons and two pedals, both have a "click" when pressed, so are they considered "digital"?

this will be replacing an existing old (1960ish?) complex electronics wiring that doesn't work, so lots of leftover transistors/resistors.

as for control it's done by some programmed sequence, got this covered.

will check the light bulbs and post pictures as well as post the complete thing - i think the minimum is 4 inputs, 4 light bulbs and i think 2x 7 segment display.

quick edit: will buy/replace (anything) just to finish this.

some pictures and updates:
minimum requirements are 4 light bulbs, 4 7-segment displays and 4 buttons, 2 of which are pedals

plan is to replace the light bulbs with LEDs, after googling arduino should handle 4 LEDs, will have to check the 7segment displays tho.

anybody thinks there will be a problem? suggestions for LEDs?

thx :slight_smile:

Whoo nostalgia time. The MC6821 is an I/O chip, with 16 I/O if I remember correctly. The whole of that board is what we had to do before micro controllers. The chip with the label on is the EEPROM that held the code, the 24 pin chip is a serial interface, and their should be a MC6802, or MC6800 in their as well.

If you are replacing just that board then you should be able to wire those connections to the MC6821 directly to the Arduino or port expander connected to the Arduino. That means you can use the existing bulb drivers as the brown boards will be the bulb drivers. Same goes for the input switches, if it goes to a MC6821 it can be wired directly.

will have to check the 7segment displays tho.

Again you would not power the display from the Arduino but use the drivers that the MC6821 talks to. It is just a matter of tracing the wires.



old (1960ish?) complex electronics

No, early 1980s I would say.

So what is it? Which parts of functions are important to keep?

Important ones for now are 4x lights, 4x buttons and the 7segment displays.
Later i will probably have to add the selectable switch that goes from a1,b2,c etc and 4 more lights.

I'll probably disassemble it, trace the wires and check everything with a multimeter today/tomorrow since it doesn't work but i hope the bulb drivers etc are still ok.