I 'm looking for an electric scheme on how I can make a kind of a 'quiz board'. Every man (say 4 men) have a switch or a button and a lamp. The quizmaster also have a switch or a button. The quizmaster asks his question and then the first one who presses his button, his lamp lightens up. If someone else now presses his button, then the lamp doesn't lighten up. When the quizmaster presses his button, then the 'quiz board' is resetted. I hope I get some solutions, not electronical but electrical, in such a cheap way possible.
A tiny bit of "electronical" can make this very simple and very cheap- just by using a thyristor and a few simple components for each contestant. Very fast too and able to resolve the teeniest time difference between players. With a DC supply, the thyristor automatically acts as a memory - remembering that it was activated even though the button has been pressed only momentarily. The circuit is trivial and needs no setting up - it just works.
You can do the same thing if you have latching buttons and say use neon lamps. The battery operated push-lamps, used in cupboards and under stairs can give you a good start as the switches - as they latch and are big and round and cheap and llok the part. Basically, you replace the low voltage lamps in the units with neon lamps. Then you arrange things with the neons fed from a common supply via a common resistor - when one neon fires and lights, it drops the voltage across the others to too low a voltage to allow them to fire. As this is a high voltage solution, you need to know what you are doing - so please don't try to make this up unless you do. I just mention it because it is cheap and isn't "electronical" in that it doesn't use semiconductors - and it does work. No reset button is needed - the switch just needs to be operated again to reset it.
You can do the same thing with relays - especially latching relays. Again, you use the first relay to activate to remove power from the circuits of the others - so they can't operate. This can be more difficult than it sounds and high speed latching relays (often reed-relay based) cost far more than the cheap thyristors needed with the first solution. I wouldn't recommend this approach as it can give very unsatisfactory results.
So, quite honestly, in spite of your reservations about electronics - I would suggest going for the thyristor solution. They are often/ mostly used by electrical engineers and not "electronicals", after all. Any thyristor cookbook will have the circuit you need but, otherwise, email me (without the invalid bit) and I will send you one.
Get the recipe wrong and it also does nicely as a local=20 entertainment guide - fire engines and ambulances normally=20 attract a crowd. Unlike CMOS cookbooks, which are better for=20 those with more conservative tastes.
Of course, those experienced with the ingredients don't need=20 cookbooks, they can invent their own recipies - but no=20 practical cook can get far without a breadboard.
Who says electronics engineers need to get a life? All the=20 ones I know are keen on athletics, such as endless practice=20 with hops, steps and jumps. However, after the hops=20 practice, the steps and the jumps are mostly ICE*.
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