I would like to effectively make the game catch phrase. For those of you who don't know that game it has a timer and there are two teams trying to guess words. when the word is correctly guessed you would press a button to go to the next word.
I would like this to be completely programmable so that the words you have to guess come from a word bank that I determine.
To my understanding this would require:
- LCD to display the words ( however there are variants of the game that I have thought would be cool to include and those would require several words to be displayed at once, for that reason a 4 line 20 character display would be ideal).
2)SD card reader, as the word bank would hold approximately 1000 words which seems to be too much to store in the microcontroller.
- buttons to cycle through the mode of operation. I would say that only two or three buttons would need. one button to select and the other to cycle through options. with one extra on the off chance I find an additional mode I would like to implement.
- A microcontroller to compute everything.
The main issue I have is that I am very much a beginner and am not sure which parts I should purchase. I suppose I would need a microcontroller that has three ports( one for buttons, SD card, and LCD). For the buttons I would like them to operate using interrupts if that impacts the type of microcontroller needed.
Would that be the main requirement or would I also need to ensure that the SD card shield can work with the LCD?
any advice as to what components to purchase or tips for getting started would be great.
I recommend you an Arduino Starter Kit, to become familiar with coding and connecting to the outer world. Then work through the example sketches, learn how to read buttons, how to write to the LCD display, and how to make work several things at a time. Finally add a SD card reader module or shield, and learn how to work with files stored on a card.
So if i were to buy an arduino uno would that be capable of having buttons, sd reader and lcd all working all together at once? That way I could build the project step by step without having to replace parts?
Why do you fear that you should have to replace parts?
Nowadays microcontrollers typically work on 3.3 or 5V, so that all peripheral devices use these voltages as well, and can be connected to every controller. In fact you can replace parts later, if you like, such as replacing the somewhat clumsy Arduino Uno or Mega boards by a smaller and cheaper Mini or Micro, or whatever controller you like best. I.e. "replace" does not mean to dump parts, but to replace them by smaller, cheaper or better ones.
when i say replace parts i mean, can an arduino uno be connected to an sd card reader, lcd, and external buttons all at the same time without conflict.
Details depend on the shields or modules you are using. Shields are easy to install, they simply stick into the Uno/Mega headers, but multiple shields may use the same pins and may not be usable together. Breakout boards (modules) can be connected to arbitrary pins, so that such conflicts can be avoided. As a last bottleneck some libraries may use the same pins, then changes to the libraries may be required (not really often).
When you have more concrete ideas which shields or modules to use, look at the data sheets and libraries for the pins used by each one by default.