This DIY Basketball Scoreboard Looks and Sounds Like the Real Thing

This DIY Basketball Scoreboard Looks and Sounds Like the Real Thing

Arduino Team — July 3, 2022

Inspired by his days as a marker in elementary school, Collin Wentzien, now a high school student, wanted to recreate this setup by building a DIY scoreboard several years ago. His idea was to create a bright display consisting of several seven-segment displays that could all be controlled by an external device to set scores, start/stop the clock, etc.

The controller sits inside a small custom box that contains a pair of button arrays, which either increment the home/guest team score or provide a keypad that can be used to enter numeric values and set the clock. Beneath its custom PCB is an Arduino Mega 2560 which handles all button inputs, as well as a character LCD display to show what has been entered and an nRF24L01+ wireless transceiver to send new data to the dashboard. .

Originally, Wentzien had planned to use hundreds of individual LEDs, but due to the resulting wiring complexity, he instead opted for a single string of WS2812B LEDs which were not only cheaper, but also allowed for fun animations and colors. Similar to the controller, the dashboard houses an Arduino Uno as well as an nRF24L01+ in order to receive commands. Even better, it even has a loud horn that can be used to signal the start and end of each quarter.

To see how Wentzien built this highly interactive project, you can read his article here on Hackster.io or watch his video below!