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very tough switches — Parallax Forums

very tough switches

StampStumpedStampStumped Posts: 7
edited 2006-01-18 22:06 in BASIC Stamp
Does anyone know were I could buy or how to build a switch that I could hit with a baseball bat over and over again?· How about a way to measure how hard the switch was being hit?
·
Thanks
Bill Damerell

Comments

  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,400
    edited 2006-01-17 22:34
    Hey Bill,

    You want to activate a switch with a baseball bat, and you want to know how hard you hit the switch?

    I'd look to the video game / entertainment industry for some inspiration. At Chuck-E-Cheese they have something like this - a "strong man" circus-looking game where a kid uses a big hammer to whack a round sensor. A red cylinder shoots up a red tube to attain a height and some lights and buzzers go off. This may be a pneumatic, non-electronic switch/cylinder setup, but I'm sure you could put a pressure sensor into the system. There's no baseball bat in this system, but it's the nearest I can envision to what you want to do.

    Ken Gracey
    Parallax, Inc.
  • Brian CarpenterBrian Carpenter Posts: 728
    edited 2006-01-18 13:02
    I get frusterated on occasion when a light doesnt work also, but a baseball bat. What a temper. J/K Along those same likes as KEn, what about a cylinder with a freescale pressure sensor and an A/D converter. Just a thought. You would then have to write code to calibrate.

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    It's Only A Stupid Question If You Have Not Googled It First!!
  • Lee HarkerLee Harker Posts: 104
    edited 2006-01-18 15:10
    Bill,
    You may consider using an accelerometer attached to a fairly stout hanging weighted object. You could cover the target with something similar to rubber from a car tire. You can calculate the striking force from the accelerometer output related to the mass of the weight. My physics is a bit rusty. Considering the cost of some of the alloy bats these days, I would be concerned about damaging the bat.
    It always made me cringe when I saw a Little League coach using a $200 C-Core bat to pound in a stake to chalk the baselines.

    Lee Harker
  • steve_bsteve_b Posts: 1,563
    edited 2006-01-18 15:10
    Some of these 'carnival' games are really switches....or at least not one.
    Most of them are opto's. And they measure the difference intime between the first and 2nd opto going off....or the time difference in switches.

    This is similar to those 'hoses' the transportation authority put across the road to measure traffic. If there's only one in your lane, they're measuring volume...if there's 2 in your lane, they're measureing volume and velocity.

    What kind of bat were you looking to use?· Aluminum/Wooden/nerf?

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    ·

    Steve

    "Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."
  • LgamindeLgaminde Posts: 2
    edited 2006-01-18 16:52
    I would use a pressure transducer and a ball filled with liquid or air and read the pressure change and convert it to force.
  • steve_bsteve_b Posts: 1,563
    edited 2006-01-18 17:25
    A strain gauge??

    I did a short stint in a "family entertainment center" (aka an arcade)....LOVED IT!
    But things took SO much abuse....you were always replacing switches and lamps.

    Skeeball was the most dangerous one....people thought they had to throw the hard wood ball at the hole.... Had the neon sign behind the game get wrecked a number of times!! haha

    If you just took a bicycle pump and connected its handle to a mushroom switch, then you could connect the other end of the pump to the pressure transducer (if you have a well pump,you probably have a pressure switch that may work). OF course, this switch is only set for a single trip point. So, if they hit over Xpsi, it would trigger.

    Most people have switches and opto's (and they're cheaper anyhow)...with this you can figure out velocity and maybe force....then use that with your game play.

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    ·

    Steve

    "Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."
  • metron9metron9 Posts: 1,100
    edited 2006-01-18 22:06
    Try putting a standard piezo earphone inside the thing being hit. Depending how you pack it you can tune its response. You will get a voltage spike when you hit the earphone. Depending how hard it is hit it can generate 60 volt spikes so use protection on the input pin, perhaps a 5V zener diode to ground to pass anything over 5V.

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    Think outside the BOX!
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