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Ping Pong Printer Project! — Parallax Forums

Ping Pong Printer Project!

Vern GranerVern Graner Posts: 337
edited 2008-04-01 18:13 in Robotics
PingPongPrinter

prop-2-pingpongprinter.jpg

The subject of a recent article in Nuts and Volts, the PingPongPrinter was inspired by the need to find a low-cost "ammo" source for the Ponginator our Ping Pong Ball shooting robot.

The resulting device uses a Prop-2 to power four servos, a gear head motor, three strings of LEDs, a CCFT light and a Serial Inkjet kit!

It was a lot of fun to make and produces a seemingly endless supply of Spherical Business Cards. turn.gif You can see a video of the device in action here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ep5OC3E02I

Or pick up the current issue of Nuts and Volts to read about it there. Here's some photos that I didn't use in the article as the article went to press before the unit was really done. [noparse]:)[/noparse]

http://picasaweb.google.com/VernGraner/PingPongPrinter

Let me know if you have any questions. [noparse]:)[/noparse]

Vern

PS: Some of you who also visit the EFX-TEK forums may find this post strangely familiar.. smilewinkgrin.gif

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Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course,if the network
http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" ©VLG

Comments

  • computer guycomputer guy Posts: 1,113
    edited 2008-02-08 23:31
    Hi Vern,

    Nice printer, I would like one.
    Don't know what I would use it for though, I have nothing to advertise. smile.gif

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    Check out my robot using the propeller RECONAUTOR
    If you like my avatar then check this out Propeller Domed Sticker
  • Mike CookMike Cook Posts: 829
    edited 2008-02-09 00:06
    That's pretty freaking COOL...............

    Nice work on the mechanics!


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    Mike
  • James LongJames Long Posts: 1,181
    edited 2008-02-09 00:07
    I think it is cool too.....now to make it print and shoot......

    Great gimick for advertising.

    James L

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    James L

    Partner/Designer
    Lil Brother LLC (SMT Assembly Services)
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2008-02-09 12:30
    Very creative... Is than an upside-down water bottle as a feed? Looks very proffesional.

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    PLEASE CONSIDER the following:

    Do you want a quickly operational black box solution or the knowledge included therein?······
    ···················· Tropically,····· G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse]·黃鶴 ]·in Taiwan
  • DigitalDjDigitalDj Posts: 207
    edited 2008-02-19 03:12
    SWEET! Excellent Job and Very Profession Looking!

    Kevin



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  • Timothy D. SwieterTimothy D. Swieter Posts: 1,613
    edited 2008-03-10 04:46
    Great job, it is certainly shows craftsmanship! Nice videos too.

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    Timothy D. Swieter

    www.brilldea.com·- check out the uOLED-IOC, an I/O expansion for the uOLED-96-PROP
    www.tdswieter.com
    One little spark of imagination is all it takes for an idea to explode
  • Vern GranerVern Graner Posts: 337
    edited 2008-04-01 18:13
    An update on the Ping Pong Printer! smile.gif

    The original ping pong printer shown at the top of this thread used a modified 5 gallon water jug to hold the blank ping pong balls that would gravity-feed into the printer. We discovered that this approach had some serious drawbacks:
    • The ping pong balls have enough surface traction that they tend to bunch and resist being "agitated" by the rotating metal arms.
    • This resistance to agitation caused the motor running the agitator to "pop" up off the top off the jug and twist, stressing the wiring loom and/or disconnecting the motor.
    • The balls moving inside the plastic jug would build up enough static electricity to cause them to cling to the insides of the jug and not drop into the printer
    These things combined to cause us to go in search of a new method of feeding the balls into the hopper. Rick Abbott created a new hopper with a chain drive "elevator" to scoop/lift/deposit the balls into the printer. We added an IR LED and an IR photo transistor to the trough so we can tell when a ball has passed on its way to the printer and stop the chain drive motor at that point. A picture of the updated hopper from one of our events is here:

    new-hopper.jpg

    I'll get some better, up close shots along with some updated videos of the unit in operation soon. [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    Vern

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    Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course,if the network
http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" ©VLG

    Post Edited (Vern) : 4/1/2008 8:23:15 PM GMT
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