In this project, I will show you how to make a simple Unbiased Electronic Dice with LEDs. This project consists of 6 LEDs, a 555 Timer IC and a 4017 Decade Counter IC and produces a random number between 1 and 6 by lighting up the corresponding LED.
- Introduction
- Electronic LED Dice Circuit Diagram
- Components Required
- Operation of Unbiased Electronic Dice with LEDs
- Applications
Introduction
Dice games have been around for a long time. We all enjoy playing with it. Picking up a dice and ensuring that it is unbiased is required while playing with dice. It’s an old storey to transform a block into a dice and cut it clearly to ensure that it’s unbiased. If the shape isn’t carved properly, the dice get skewed.
Deformations can also cause the dice to become skewed. If the die is made of wood, it can distort owing to moisture in the air or mechanical stress. To tackle all of the problems that a traditional dice has, we created a dice circuit that solves all of the problems that a traditional dice has.
We’ll now demonstrate an electronic LED dice that is practically unbiased. The circuit operates at such a rapid speed that it is nearly undetectable to the human eye, therefore there is no way to deceive. There is relatively little maintenance required, and the circuit ageing is minimal. The frequency may fluctuate somewhat due to changes in power supply voltage and the ageing of active and passive components, but the unpredictability will remain intact.
Electronic LED Dice Circuit Diagram
Components Required
- LEDs X 6
- 555 Timer IC
- CD4017 Decade Counter IC
- Resistors – 2.2KΩ, 100KΩ X 2
- Capacitors – 1nF and 0.1µF
- Push Button
- 9V Battery
- Breadboard
- Connecting Wires
Operation of Unbiased Electronic Dice with LEDs
This circuit uses 555 timer as an astable multivibrator. In this mode, the circuit is arranged with R2 = 100 KΩ, R3 = 100 KΩ and C2 = 0.1 µF.
The circuit functions as a pulse generator with a frequency in the kilo hertz range in this form. This means that the circuit generates a clock cycle of around 0.000210 seconds, which is undetectable to the naked eye. We can’t see the values that change at that rapid of a rate, thus there’s little chance of the dice being skewed.
The clock pulses are sent to an IC 4017 counter cum decoder circuit, which has a seventh output that is set to reset. It has nine alternative outputs, the seventh of which is set to reset because we only need a count up to six because a dice only has six faces. The first six outputs are sent to the LEDs in order for each LED to light for t seconds.
LED-1 will light up if the count is one. If the count is two, LED-2 will light up, and so on until the count is six. When the count reaches six, the sixth LED will light up, and the counter will advance for the next clock pulse, increasing the count to seven. The circuit resets itself in this count because the reset pin, PIN-15, receives the seventh count.
As this is a schematic generated by the software Proteus, the power supply pin and ground are not shown in the circuit layout. The 16th pin of IC 4017, on the other hand, is supplied a 9V power supply, whereas the 8th pin of IC 4017 is grounded.
This is how the circuit functions and you can increase the frequency of the circuit if you feel that you need more randomness so that it is very hard to perceive. This circuit can be implemented on a general purpose PCB with a 9V DC power supply.
Applications
This unbiased electronic dice with LEDs can be used wherever traditional dice is used like:
- Snakes and Ladders
- Chutes and Ladders
- Ludo
- Monopoly
- Business
