That's How I Roll! (Skeeball build)

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thatpurplestuff:
Yeah I bent all of my switches into little "J" shapes and they work great. Initially, I sat there thinking "How in the hell am I going to get these switches installed so they trigger perfectly?" until I realized that I could just bend the metal arm wherever I wanted it.. haha. I'm hoping I just had some bad luck with those two switches, because so far I haven't had any problems after I replaced them.

unclet:
I forgot to attach the picture in my last post .... I will attach it now.

Xiaou2:

It could be that when the ball hits, it flexes the wood or brace enough to cause that
additional switch trigger, via Strong vibrations. (or bounce)

It would probably be better to brace all your mini-ramps together with some
thin strips of metal. Binding it to the top and or sides of the box.

The little L-brackets you used probably wouldnt hold up to the stresses of those
heavy balls for very long without upper bracing anyways.

Burke LaShell:
I didn't see how you are doing the scoring. Do you have a custom program doing the work? If so, you might be able to add a little "debounce" code. Switches tend to bounce a little and produce multiple "pressed" events. Maybe you could use something like...

--- Code: --- 1 Setup a counter variable, initialise to zero.
2 Setup a regular sampling event, perhaps using a timer. Use a period of about 1ms.

3 On a sample event:
4 if switch signal is high then
5 Reset the counter varaible to zero
6 Set internal switch state to released
7 else
8 Increment the counter variable to a maximum of 10
9 end if
10 if counter=10 then
11 Set internal switch state to pressed
12 end if

--- End code ---

Awesome work. It makes me want to make my own.

thatpurplestuff:
Burke- Right now I'm using RandyT's Jumpball Software, but eventually I hope to write my own Skeeball software... we'll see.

Thanks for all of the great feedback about switches everyone, but I actually got the switches working perfectly over the last few days.

I keep putting off making the net frame (mainly because I'm not exactly sure how I want it to look yet, but also because we just spent all day Saturday vacuuming layer upon layer of MDF dust off of everything in the garage... it literally got EVERYWHERE and was absolute hell to clean up). I've been officially banned from cutting MDF inside the garage, so all of my future work is going to have to be done in the driveway or backyard.. haha. After this project I'm going to consider using other woods for future projects, because while MDF is easy to cut and work with it also made me very paranoid about breathing in my own garage.

Won't have much free time this weekend, but I'm hoping to get the nasty mess of computer guts actually organized and mounted within the machine instead of just crammed in. I'm going to take the pot off the speakers and attach it outside of the cab, as well as hook the pc power up to a button outside and possibly even mount the power led on the back. I literally bought these pushbuttons and ledholders 4 or 5 years ago for use with another project, and they've been sitting around waiting to be used since then.

Figured I'd also include some pics of the different types of netting that I've purchased so far, but I still haven't rejected some of the other ideas either (plexi, fishing line). The red netting is more string-like and may not be as durable, will look pretty good with the color scheme I'm going with, and it has 2 inch holes. The brown-ish netting is from an Army supply store and is super durable, fairly ugly, and the holes are about 1/2" (and also looks like the kind of netting people might use to catch fish or kidnap human beings).

One of my buddies was kind enough to offer to stitch a border on the netting to fit whatever frame I decide on, and I may push my luck and ask her to sew up both types (or at least both types for 1 side) just to see what looks/functions best. Anyway, thanks again for all of the input and comments everyone!

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