Fastest Finger First project

When any user presses their button, the CAP line will go high. As buttons always 'bounce', there will be a whole raft of pulses in the first few milliseconds before the contacts in the button settle down. IC1A is configured as a monostable that drives the CK line - this will go low for about 100mS when the monostable is triggered. Remember that 4013 RS flip-flops are positive edge triggered, so when IC1A times out, the CK line will go high. If any button is still pressed, the BNx line will be latched through to its Q output (see IC2A above), turning on its relay. At the same time, IC1B will latch the CAP line to its Q output. If any button is pressed, this will cause IC1A's RESET input to go high, forcing the CK line low regardless of any other pulses on the CAP line, thus debarring other users who may subsequently press their buttons, i.e. IC1A's monostable cannot be fired again until the RESET button is pressed. This mechanism ignores noise spikes and bounces on any button line, and completely blocks other users once the first user has pressed their button. The only way one or more outputs may be triggered at the same time is if the users press their buttons within IC1A's timeout period (about 100mS), thus indicating a draw. Because of the high noise immunity of the circuit, you can use multi-core cable to connect the control unit to the users' boxes. Each box requires 4 wires - two of these,...