Reaction Time Tester

Fatley’s Pi Pico Reaction Time Game — This project helped me understand the wiring and coding and was very useful during the creation of my project.

Mini STEM LED Game Platform — This project showed useful wiring and coding examples, although it used a different Pi Pico model.

After Dinner Reaction Time Tester — This project helped me understand the coding and improve my own program.

Parts:

1x Button

1x I2C Screen

1x Pi Pico

1x Protoboard

Tools and components:

Hookup Wire

3D Printer

soldering iron

wire stripers

Wire as shown

import utime

import urandom

from machine import Pin, SoftI2C

from pico_i2c_lcd import I2cLcd

# --- Configuration ---

I2C_ADDR = 0x27

I2C_NUM_ROWS = 2

I2C_NUM_COLS = 16

# Initialize I2C and LCD

i2c = SoftI2C(sda=Pin(4), scl=Pin(5), freq=400000)

lcd = I2cLcd(i2c, I2C_ADDR, I2C_NUM_ROWS, I2C_NUM_COLS)

# Initialize Button on GP15

button = Pin(15, Pin.IN, Pin.PULL_DOWN)

# Global variable to store the best time (initialized to a very high value)

best_time = 999999

def format_time_decimal(total_ms):

"""Helper to convert ms into 'S.ms sec' string"""

seconds = total_ms // 1000

milisec = total_ms % 1000

return "{}.{:03d} sec".format(seconds, milisec)

def run_reaction_test():

global best_time

lcd.clear()

lcd.putstr("Get Ready...")

random_wait = urandom.randint(1500, 5000)

start_wait = utime.ticks_ms()

# Jump Start Detection

while utime.ticks_diff(utime.ticks_ms(), start_wait) < random_wait:

if button.value() == 1:

lcd.clear()

lcd.putstr(" JUMP START!")

lcd.move_to(0, 1)

lcd.putstr(" Try again...")

utime.sleep(2)

return

utime.sleep_ms(5)

# Signal GO

lcd.move_to(0, 0)

lcd.putstr("--- !!!GO!!! --- ")

start_time = utime.ticks_ms()

while button.value() == 0:

pass

end_time = utime.ticks_ms()

current_ms = utime.ticks_diff(end_time, start_time)

# Check if this is a new Record

is_new_record = False

if current_ms < best_time:

best_time = current_ms

is_new_record = True

# Display Results

lcd.clear()

if is_new_record and best_time != current_ms: # Only flash 'New Record' if not the very first run

lcd.putstr(" NEW RECORD! ")

else:

lcd.putstr("Time: " + format_time_decimal(current_ms))

lcd.move_to(0, 1)

lcd.putstr("Best: " + format_time_decimal(best_time))

utime.sleep(5)

lcd.clear()

lcd.putstr("Press the button\nto try again")

# Main loop

lcd.clear()

lcd.putstr("Reaction Timer\nPress to Start")

while True:

if button.value() == 1:

while button.value() == 1:

utime.sleep_ms(10)

run_reaction_test()

utime.sleep_ms(50)