Hello everyone
Time for a fun kit review. Aren’t all kit reviews fun? I think so, however sometimes kits can be very practical in use and perhaps not fun – unlike this little monkey. Some of you, including myself, may have childhood memories of the computer game unit from Milton-Bradley called the “Simon”. As demonstrated by the children in this video clip, Simon was a noisy game with four illuminated buttons, your task being to mimic the ever-increasing pattern of flashing buttons and matching sounds:
At first it looks easy, and it is – however after a few repetitions the length of pattern increases and becomes more complex, forcing you to use your brain and take notice. Some would say it is useful for brain training as well. This can only be a good thing… which brings me to this kit. The packaging is very good for a change, something you could give as a gift to a non-technical person. That is, you could give a geek a kit in an anti-static bag, and they would understand, however a beginner may not:
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The contents reveal several pleasant surprises:
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Finally – a battery-powered kit that actually includes the required power source; and not yum-cha cells, actual Duracells. Nice one Sparkfun. (If you haven’t seen that type of Duracell before, they are “trade-only” versions, generally used to deter theft). The other surprise was the inclusion of an ATmega328-PU microcontroller …
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… the exact same model as the Arduino Uno and compatible boards. Simon was starting to become more interesting every minute. But more about that later. The final object of interest is a real, live, instruction book. (You can download a copy from here). At this point you can tell this kit is made for beginners (of all ages). There is also a surface-mount component version, which people tell me is great for learning SMD work. Not for me! Good packaging, simple instructions, and a PCB that is solid and well marked out:
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Again, some more interesting things – what looks to be holes that would match up to an FTDI cable, in-circuit programming interface as well as some pinouts for the ATmega328.
[Update - if you're the hacking type, it would pay to mount the IC in a socket, just in case]
However I will move forward and start the soldering. This was quite simple, just follow the guide and all is well. The instructions make a good note when a component is polarised or needs to be inserted in a certain way, very helpful for the beginner:
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and the other side was equally as simple:
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On this side you also need to get those AA cell clips installed. The push into their respective holes on the PCB easily, however they can be a trap to solder. Consider the following photo of one of the clips:
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Although the large hole in the PCB is necessary, it has left quite a gap around the wide pin. The inexperienced may end up melting lots of solder and watching it fall through to the other side; to prevent this, place the tip of your soldering iron under the acute side of the pin, and apply solder on the other side. This will force the solder to melt back onto the exposed ring on the PCB and make a good connection, instead of allowing gravity to take over the situation.
After the soldering was finished, the next task is to place the rubber button-mould over the LEDs, and then the black plastic bezel on top. The included screws go through each corner of the bezel, through the white moulding and PCB, and finally break through to the other side – where you can attach the stand-offs. Which leaves us with the final product:
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After inserting the AA cells into their new homes, the power was turned on and the unit blinks the LEDs in a sequence until you press a button to start the game. However at this point one of the LEDs did not come on at at all. A quick check with the meter showed it was being fed almost 2.8 volts, but alas – no blinkiness. After a quick desolder/resolder job a green LED from my stock made a replacement. This would have been the only downfall for a beginner, not everyone has boxes of electronics components laying about – nor the high-intensity versions used in this kit.
However life goes on, and Simon still works just as the originals did all those years ago. Here is an example of him in action:
This is something I will need some practice on. Furthermore, the ability to control the sounds is a bonus as well; however if this Simon is aimed for small children, one could be tempted to not install the piezo transducer at all (mini speaker)! So at this stage we have an easy-to-assemble kit that is colourful, noisy and fun – a good start to help introduce another person to our fascinating world of electronics.
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But wait – there’s more! Now it is time to revisit those programming holes and see what other secondary uses we can find for Simon. Seeing one of the LEDs isn’t the brightest, I will keep this one for myself, and experiment further. Therefore, the next thing to do to is solder in some header pins to allow connection to an FTDI cable:
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This cable converts the USB interface down to serial line levels suitable for our Simon, in the same way as the FTDI chip does for the Arduino boards (except the Uno). At this point please note you’re on your own, so if you fritz your Simon don’t take it out on me! With hindsight it would be a good idea to use an IC socket for the microcontroller.
Looking at the schematic, we can determine the pins for the LEDs, buttons and so on. The included ATmega328 has the serial bootloader for Arduino programming, so we can have a lot of easily-generated fun with it. However, note that the board does not have an external crystal or oscillator, so timing may not be as accurate as expected.
Disclaimer - this worked for me, however your experience may vary. Alter your Simon at your own risk!
Anyhow, to use with the Arduino environment, insert the AA cells, plug in your FTDI cable, and select the board type in the environment:
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Select the second option Arduino Duemilanove or Nano w/ ATmega328. Now you can upload sketches as you would a normal board. The setup functions for the LEDs are:
and for the buttons:
So armed with that knowledge you could create some custom interactivity with your Simon hardware. If you are unsure about Arduino programming, there is a small tutorial over here that you will find helpful.
Update – New post from Sparkfun about modding your Simon. High resolution images are available on flickr.
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You can purchase the kit directly from Sparkfun and their resellers. As always, thank you for reading and I look forward to your comments and so on. Furthermore, don’t be shy in pointing out errors or places that could use improvement. Please subscribe using one of the methods at the top-right of this web page to receive updates on new posts. Or join our Google Group.
[Note - The kit was purchased by myself personally and reviewed without notifying the manufacturer or retailer]
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