Predator Counter

Arduino Nano 33 IoT

PlatformIO

Soldering kit

Predator Numbers PCB

<html><body>In this project, Predator Numbers , I wanted to create the famous counter present in the first Predator and AVP movies. <figure><img src="https://media.tenor.com/hemRGQU5tYEAAAAC/predator-bomb.gif"/><figcaption>The Predator's counter in the movie</figcaption></figure>For the project I've created a PCB that joins two 16-segments in order to make one "alien digit". The PCB makes all the soldering job more pleasing, but it is posible to make this project without a PCB if you find the through-hole equivalence from the SMD components. You have available (in <a href="https://github.com/rogermiranda1000/PredatorNumbers">the GitHub of the project </a>) <a href="https://github.com/rogermiranda1000/PredatorNumbers/blob/master/schematic/schematic.pdf">the schematic </a>if you want to check it. You can check there for the components. <h3>What it does?</h3>This project is a counter, displaying the remaining time on a 4-digits display. The initial value can be setted with BTN0 and BTN1. As I've said, the objective is to use the Predator style. I've used the image from below as reference (I've only used digits, and the '0' is turning off that digit). <figure><img src="https://external-preview.redd.it/MxwNBxq9xdxlLR3ib0JIXgw77sDK6n-kcKR9mm9xUtQ.jpg?width=640&amp;crop=smart&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=a60b614cc35bd25b56cca9712986a862981f9b48"/><figcaption>Predator font</figcaption></figure> I've seen some other people creating this kind of project, but what they does is simply transform our numeric system into this other font and print it. I didn't want to use that approach because our numeric system is boring (most of the time it only changes one digit: the last one), so in order to get this Predator feeling of all 4 digits changing each second I've created my own numeric system (it was kinda rushed, so I'm open to hear other alternatives, maybe more loyal to the original numeric system). What I've done is creating a formula to get the value. Assume 4 digits: 'a', 'b', 'c' and 'd'; the current value will correspond with the following formula: `a + a*b^2 + b*c + b^2*d`. This formula gives a lot of changes, being the only downside that the maximum number represented is 1,548 (instead of 9,999).To add some tension, the delay waited for a number to go to the next step isn't constant. If the number is larger than 60, then it will take 1 second to go to the next step, but if it's lower it will change faster the closer it is to 0 (it will go from 1 second/number to 0.5 seconds/number).Additionally, as this counter is not easy to know the remaining time, you have available a website to check the current number (the 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd' digits in base-10) and how much time does it take to reach 0000.<h3>Demo</h3>You have here a demo video. Please note that I drive the displays with multiplexing (taking advantage of the human-eye "refresh rate"), and sometimes this technique messes with cameras (that's why in the video you can see some flickering, but in reality it was fine). <figure><iframe src="https://youtu.be/_QwOZDd4uf0"></iframe></figure> I hope you like it!</body></html>

Predator Counter

A counter like the one in the Predator movies