I have constructed a very rudimentary Jeopardy machine for competitions during in-services at our EMS agency. It has four controllers going to a simple PIC controlled box that lights the appropriate LED’s for three seconds while creating a buzzer that is different for each team. I have some additional upgrades planned for the unit.

1. Add voice capabilities for each team’s buzzer.
2. Add wireless to a couple of controllers
3. Make the controllers touch sensitive so there are no switches.
4. Add a Led or LCD indicator to each controller so the team knows that they have buzzed in first.

I have started on the voice item first. I have received a Winbond ISD1750 voice chip. It allows either SPI interfacing or old fashion push buttons. I am prototyping on an stand alone circuit with the button controls, small output speaker, input line, etc. I wired the unit per the pin outs on the datasheet for the chip. If I hold the FT (feed through) button and pass a sound to the chip through the audio in jack, it feeds the sound to the speaker like it is supposed to. If I hold the REC button the led turns on like it is recording; however, when I momentarily press play I get nothing but a quick flash on the led. If I hold play I get a buzzing sound. The erase seems to work erasing the blank recordings.

I see a lot of mention of needing chip programmers on the ISD devices. The data sheets never even refer to needing a recorder. Can these chips be used for my purpose? I am also having trouble finding actual instructions on the operation of the chip. I have looked at the briefs and datasheets.

Any suggestions? I am a bit surprised that I am having issues even recording simple sound.

Thank everyone for their help,

Rickey Bell, Paramedic