[dshallenberger]

Ok, I hope this is the right forum for this... I've tried other programming forums, without much success.

Here's what I'm doing. I have a list of questions to read to students, like a quiz, and each of them (no more than 6 students) would have a buzzer/button, like what they use on Jeopardy. If someone knows the answer, they press their button. I need to be able to see on my computer what order the buttons were pressed, so I can get answers in the order until I get a correct one.

I have no clue where to start. If I can just think of a starting point, I can probably take it from there and run. I don't need anything fancy at all, just functional.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm not opposed to programming something, but so far I only know web based scripting, and those won't work for something like this.

Thanks in advance for any ideas...

Dan

[itistoday]

I sent you a private message. You can check them in the User Center.

[MaxPower2k3]

If you have some basic soldering skills, get some buttons from radio shack and build your own buzzers. (perhaps mount them in the end of a pice of PVC pipe, or something like that) then, get a USB keypad, take it apart, and solder wires from the switch to a key on the keypad (so each buzzer would correspond to a number on the keypad). then, simply write a program that responds to number presses.

[itistoday]

Ok, I have a semi-working version of it ready. It's somewhat rough, somewhat ugly, and it doesn't really check for user-incompetance (i.e. entered IP incorrectly, or their name imporperly).

However, my personal tests have shown it to work fine.

You need to have at least Java 1.4 installed on your system(s) for it to work.

Here it is.

To get it up and running simply extract the zip file. You (the teacher) will use QuizServer.jar (double-clicking should launch it). Students will then use the QuizClient.jar to connect to your IP address. Press the ready button when you are ready for them to answer questions, and they in turn will press the space bar (or click the button) to "buzz" in. On your app you'll see who pressed it first. It's pretty straight forward.

Enjoy.

BTW, if you're behind a firewall forward port 4242. It doesn't compensate for lag though, so do try to be on the same network.

[dshallenberger]

Thanks for your replies (and work!) everyone. This is a great starting point for this project.

Dan