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That's How I Roll! (Skeeball build)
thatpurplestuff:
This is an upgrade I'm really excited about. The first iteration of my machine had the ramp and holes illuminated with RGB LEDs. Once I'm done with this beast, it will have the ramp, holes, net area, and ball return area all illuminated with RGB LEDs. These can all be controlled individually with my software, so it really introduces some great options regarding lighting the balls up with the current players color, etc. While it may seem like LED overload, I hope I'm making design choices that will make this look great by not blinding anyone with visible LEDs... most if not all LED color will be visible because it is shining on to something, not because you can see the LEDs themselves.
I started playing with some ideas after I cut the hole viewing hole out of the side panel. With black skeeballs, it was very difficult to glance in the hole and see if there was a ball there or not, so I figured I would need to illuminate it somehow. After a few different attempts at lighting it from above, this is what I settled on.
I was feeling lazy, was going to remove the bottom wood and route it at my router table, but figured I could probably get away with routing it in-place with my dremel.
It worked, but I seriously should have just taken it out and used a router as it took forever and wasn't quite as clean as it would have been. I don't think I saved any time.
Sanded some plexi to give it a bit of a frost.
Loving the look of this. Will look unreal with the ramp lit up as well (and again, the colors are independent of each other so the ramp and ball return can be different colors).
The hole I cut out as viewed from above, still needs to be sanded and repainted.
The goal is to not be able to see any LEDs directly... so the rings, ramp, net, ball return will all have a glow but you won't see any hot spots when standing in front of the machine in a "resting" position. The hot spots in the last pic aren't nearly as bright as they appear in the pic, you can definitely see the individual LED locations but it's not nearly as hot looking (and frankly, they are only exposed for a second when a ball is pulled). I'll see how I like this, and once everything is done I'll decide if this works for me or if I want to make it edge lit instead. I gotta say, though, that right now I am very happy with how it looks!
More updates later!
thatpurplestuff:
--- Quote from: HitTheShowers99 on April 23, 2020, 12:45:34 am ---Hello, in regards to your free hoops software ( much thanks for, btw). I have a gutted b ball machine that I'm running this program with. The cabinet has a motor driven arm attached to the net that I'm guessing would move the net back and forth in the original pcb. Is there a way to modify the program to send a start command to the motor for the last say 15-20 sec of free hoops game play? If so, how? Much thanks and appreciation.
--- End quote ---
My apologies, I somehow missed this post until just now! The best I can do is make the Free Hoops software copy a specific command to the clipboard at a given time (it's how I operate the LEDs for Skeeball). Basically I use AutoHotKey to monitor the clipboard, then execute a command when it detects a specific string copied to the clipboard. I believe you could use the same concept to send a command to the motor using an LEDwiz or something once the software sends the appropriate command via the clipboard. Let me know if you're still interested and I can look into adding some code that you can use to trigger the motor!
Mike A:
That LED lighting looks good. It was smart to go with "less is more".
Too many people use direct LED lighting everywhere. I fear for their retinas. ;D
nipsmg:
Those round LEDS are perfect.. do you have any info on those? I need a low profile solution like that for mine— there’s no clearance once the TV is in there.
thatpurplestuff:
Mike A- Thanks! I'm really looking forward to seeing how all of the lighting works together... so far all of it looks great independently, but I haven't done any coding to get it all running at the same time yet. Like a standard cab, I'm being very mindful to keep this thing in pieces and unplayable until I'm done with everything, otherwise as soon as balls start rolling all progress seems to stop.
nipsmg- I'm not 100% sure that I understand, but I think you're referring to the new lights in the ball return? Here's a better pic, it's just a standard LED strip. The "frost" that I applied to the plexi using sandpaper definitely softens/rounds the LEDs a bit.
Below is a link to the exact LED strip
https://www.amazon.com/Govee-Waterproof-Bedroom-Changing-Adhesive/dp/B07PCR7LPS/
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