Randomising an electronic guessing game

[Edmoo]

Hello guys!
Apologies if I'm slow to pick anything up - I've not played with electronics since I studied the subject in secondary school - but I recently had the idea to create a simple electronic guessing game as a hobby project. Here's a basic description:

The circuit contains 15 lamps.
A Dial allows the user to select a number between one and ten (x).
A toggle switch, when flipped to the on position, selects x of the lamps at random and turns them on. When flipped off, the power is cut, and the lamps will be re-randomised next time the circuit activates.

Does this make sense?
The element which particularly baffles me is the randomisation... Hope somebody can offer some insight!

Thanks in advance
- Ed

 

[barathbushan]

why do you require a dial ??
Is it to choose the number of lamps that will participate in the random on/off ?

If not for the dial , the circuit would result in an electronics dice , where lights glow
at random everytime the switch is closed , which is fun too !!

One such simple electronics dice is given here

http://www.electronicdesignworks.com/circuits/electronic_dice/electronic_dice.htm

of course there are many versions of electronics dice , just google it .

 

[LTX71CM]

You could use a 4017 with the dial feeding the nth digit to the reset line. This would allow you to get only "random" numbers between 1 and n. The dial should be wired to the number above what you want with position ten being open and a pull down on the reset line of the 4017.

There are plenty of methods, ideas and tricks to generating random for this type of project. You could use a 555 with an extremely fast rate so no one can reliably force a number. You could use the decay of a charged cap to let the count slowly wind down and end. Like barathbushan suggested Google for electronic dice and pick your favorite method of generating "random".

 

[Edmoo]

Thanks!

Thanks guys - I'll look into it now .