Newbee needs help
springbok
Posts: 1
Hey guys,
First off, thanks to the CS rep at Parallax for his help an suggestions. I am a newbie. I don't know squat about building any electronic component. I do however have a problem that I need to solve, and was hoping 1 of you would be able to help me.
The Problem
I am an avid golfer. I have a drill that I like to do, and need a gizmo (in the form of a laser activated trip wire) to provide feedback that indicates if I am doing it correctly. Basically, I stick a golf shaft into the ground at a 60* angle, about 5 feet back, in line with my golf ball. The drill is to swing the club·up over the shaft, and then to swing it down under the shaft. The purpose of the gizmo is to provide an audible beep, if the club passes under the shaft. This will allow me to know that "hey... you swung the club under, as apposed to over the shaft on your downswing.... bravo". For now, I DON'T care how far the club passed under the shaft. I only care that it did. That is a project for later. I found a video on YouTube where a guy rigged a basic microcontroller to trigger a paint ball gun (see link below)
http://www.teamcynergy.com/articles/laser_motion_detector_paintball_mod.aspx
I was told I don't need a basic controller for my requirements. What was mentioned was the following:
A·555 Timer
An Opto Interruptor
And something to modulate an IR beam (if a laser is not used) at 40KHz, since this device would be used in sunlight
As mentioned, I need to gizmo to work in sunlight. I also need it to be as small as possible, cheap as possible, and IT MUST BE battery operated.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your time.
·
First off, thanks to the CS rep at Parallax for his help an suggestions. I am a newbie. I don't know squat about building any electronic component. I do however have a problem that I need to solve, and was hoping 1 of you would be able to help me.
The Problem
I am an avid golfer. I have a drill that I like to do, and need a gizmo (in the form of a laser activated trip wire) to provide feedback that indicates if I am doing it correctly. Basically, I stick a golf shaft into the ground at a 60* angle, about 5 feet back, in line with my golf ball. The drill is to swing the club·up over the shaft, and then to swing it down under the shaft. The purpose of the gizmo is to provide an audible beep, if the club passes under the shaft. This will allow me to know that "hey... you swung the club under, as apposed to over the shaft on your downswing.... bravo". For now, I DON'T care how far the club passed under the shaft. I only care that it did. That is a project for later. I found a video on YouTube where a guy rigged a basic microcontroller to trigger a paint ball gun (see link below)
http://www.teamcynergy.com/articles/laser_motion_detector_paintball_mod.aspx
I was told I don't need a basic controller for my requirements. What was mentioned was the following:
A·555 Timer
An Opto Interruptor
And something to modulate an IR beam (if a laser is not used) at 40KHz, since this device would be used in sunlight
As mentioned, I need to gizmo to work in sunlight. I also need it to be as small as possible, cheap as possible, and IT MUST BE battery operated.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your time.
·
Comments
A 555 Timer is capable of being triggered by a pulse, which could then activate a buzzer. If you will be dealing with bright light you could modulate the beam using another 55 or a 556 Dual Timer. This will make the light beam more impervious to ambient light noise. Of course, the detector would need to be able to decode the modulated signal. An old Forest M. Mims III engineer’s notebook from Radio Shack had a project for an IR communications system that showed how you could do this. Take care.
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support