I'm trying to rewire an arcade game, and I need one button (a simple microswitch hooked up to the coin acceptor) to have a longer press than a coin passing by provides. I'm not sure exactly how long a press the software is looking for, but what would I need to wire in to lengthen the pulse? A capacitor, or maybe a retriggerable multivibrator? I'm a total novice, as you can see.
Electronic – Lengthening button press signal
buttonsignal
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I think you are making things more difficult for yourself than they really are. The procedure for a count up is:
- CPU and CPD are high (system in rest)
- CPU is make low
- wait some minmum time
- CPU is made high again (system in rest)
I don't fully understand what you mean with "and am trying to set up a button to increment or decrement it": one button to count up, another to count down? That is easy, just debounce the buttons (a pair of 555, or one 556, would do), and feed the signal (must be high in rest!) to the CPU and CPD inputs.
If you want to have a button that selects the function (up or down) of a count button the circuit is a little bit more complex. I think there are other counter chips that have a select and clock input insetad of two clock inputs, which would be easier in this case.
You can use something like this for each channel.
D1 = BAT54
R1 and C1 so that you have the extra 1.7 ms (in the order of 1 uF and 2 kohm)
U1a = U1b = 1/6 of 40106
The output will be high as soon as the input is high, it will remain high while the input is high and, when the input goes low, the output will remain high for some extra time that is proportional to R*C. That extra time should be your 1.7 ms.
Best Answer
The astable multivibrator will send many electrical pulses once it is turned on,regardless of the fact that the button is pressed or not.Or,if you wire it so it activate on button press(and not by another source) it will send impulses with a time delay continously ,only while the button stays pressed.It's not useful.
If you wire a capacitor to the button,you won't obtain much,but you can get the task done if you build a monostable multivibrator with one,from discrete components,that is:http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/waveforms/monostable.html. This kind of circuit will emit a continous pulse per press and will continue emitting until a capacitor discharges,even if it doesn't get an input signal anymore.Note that if you press the button again,before the output switches off ,the multivibrator will be triggered again and the output will constantly send the pulse,as if you kept the button pressed this whole time.This is what you need.You can also use a 555 chip , as transistor stated:http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/waveforms/555_timer.html. There are many other examples out there,on the web.
Here is a simple one:
simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab
When the button is pressed,the capacitor is charged instantly and when you let go,the capacitor will discharge through R2 and keep the transistor running as the light shines.
Note that, when you're rewiring ,you're going to need a transistor(BJT NPN) to act as another switch.Cut the button off ,place it in one of the circuits I mentioned ,connect the cut wire which carries the current from the source of the game to the collector of the transistor,the other to the emitter and the output of the multivibrator to the base.I don't really know how your game's setup works,so this paragraph might be inaccurate.If you want to know how to actually do it,post another question and give details about your setup.