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Hello to all and yes I have a newbie question

mpdive

Aug 16, 2011
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Hello to everyone. I am by far an electronics guru but I am trying to make up something that is relatively simple. If anyone is familiar with the game "cornhole" where you throw the bean bags through a wooden board then you may be able to help. A lot of people play it in the dark and I was looking for a way to have a small led strip mounted on the front of the game to light up when the beanbag goes through the hole. It would be mice if it would flash a couple times but I'm not picky. I was thinking of a motion detector but I was not sure if that would catch it fast enough. Like I stated, I am not an electrical genius and figured someone on the board would find a cheap, low power, battery operated way to achieve this. Many thanks in advance for any input on this and the winner gets free cold ones and unlimited cornhole play when they come to South Carolina! LOL
Mike
 

mpdive

Aug 16, 2011
5
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Aug 16, 2011
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I meant to say "NOT an electronics guru". Sorry. Looked like I was blowing my own horn!:p


Hello to everyone. I am by far an electronics guru but I am trying to make up something that is relatively simple. If anyone is familiar with the game "cornhole" where you throw the bean bags through a wooden board then you may be able to help. A lot of people play it in the dark and I was looking for a way to have a small led strip mounted on the front of the game to light up when the beanbag goes through the hole. It would be mice if it would flash a couple times but I'm not picky. I was thinking of a motion detector but I was not sure if that would catch it fast enough. Like I stated, I am not an electrical genius and figured someone on the board would find a cheap, low power, battery operated way to achieve this. Many thanks in advance for any input on this and the winner gets free cold ones and unlimited cornhole play when they come to South Carolina! LOL
Mike
 

davelectronic

Dec 13, 2010
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game detector

Hi Mpdive
I don't do a lot of optical sense circuits, and ive never heard of the game, sounds interesting, i think though motion detection would work fine.

Its finding a circuit that breaks a beam of IR light, or something similar, security PIR might be an option scaled down, all though ive not built a circuit like that myself, i am sure one of the other members on here have, and might be able to give advice or a schematic drawing,
In the link below there are some sensor circuits, oh and a warm welcome to you, ive not been a member long, but the site/forum is cool. Dave. :)

http://www.educypedia.be/electronics/electronicaopening.htm
 

mpdive

Aug 16, 2011
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Aug 16, 2011
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Don't most of these types of games use momentary switches?


Thank you Dave and Jacko for the replies. These are handbuilt boards that measure 2 foot by 3 foot with a hole in the middle. Their big in the South but personally "I don't get it". Maybe after a few cold one's. Some people have asked me to build them some custom boards with Georgia Bulldogs and Clemson Logos. I just wanted mine to stand out from the rest. Here is a link to them...http://www.americancornhole.com/

Like I said, I wanted to mount an LED strip along the front and have some kind of motion detector or light sensor inside the hole that would trip the led light and have it blink for a couple seconds when people are playing at night. I may just be out of my league on this but thought I would ask just in case there was some components pre wired for this. Again thanks a lot for the replies.
Mike
 

daddles

Jun 10, 2011
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My first design inclination would be to use one or more IR transmitters and receivers per hole. However, the design would depend on the size of the object d getting thrown with respect to the hole diameter D -- as d/D gets smaller, it gets harder and harder to detect when it goes through the hole (assuming detection at the hole). If instead you wait for the bean bag to go through e.g. a pipe after going through the hole, detection can be easier -- but the signal will be delayed a bit from the case of detecting things when they go through the hole. But this delay may not be too important to players of the game.

Another option would be a small microswitch that would get activated when a bean bag goes through a hole and e.g. falls down a pipe. The switch could be in the pipe, but things would have to be designed so that the bag always tripped the switch. I can think of some variations on this idea too, as well as putting the IR detection inside the pipe where the bean bag barely clears, so that detection is certain.

A magnet could be put inside the bean bag and that could be detected e.g. by a Hall sensor just inside the hole.

Other more sophisticated methods also come to mind, such as acoustic or pneumatic. But these are probably getting out of the scope and budget of the project. :p

The electronics for causing an LED to light momentarily upon the bean bag passing through the hole are pretty simple. The challenge will be to design a simple and reliable sensor for passing of the bean bag. The optical approach is probably the method of choice...
 

mpdive

Aug 16, 2011
5
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Aug 16, 2011
Messages
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My first design inclination would be to use one or more IR transmitters and receivers per hole. However, the design would depend on the size of the object d getting thrown with respect to the hole diameter D -- as d/D gets smaller, it gets harder and harder to detect when it goes through the hole (assuming detection at the hole). If instead you wait for the bean bag to go through e.g. a pipe after going through the hole, detection can be easier -- but the signal will be delayed a bit from the case of detecting things when they go through the hole. But this delay may not be too important to players of the game.

Another option would be a small microswitch that would get activated when a bean bag goes through a hole and e.g. falls down a pipe. The switch could be in the pipe, but things would have to be designed so that the bag always tripped the switch. I can think of some variations on this idea too, as well as putting the IR detection inside the pipe where the bean bag barely clears, so that detection is certain.

A magnet could be put inside the bean bag and that could be detected e.g. by a Hall sensor just inside the hole.

Other more sophisticated methods also come to mind, such as acoustic or pneumatic. But these are probably getting out of the scope and budget of the project. :p

The electronics for causing an LED to light momentarily upon the bean bag passing through the hole are pretty simple. The challenge will be to design a simple and reliable sensor for passing of the bean bag. The optical approach is probably the method of choice...

Thank you Daddles. Those are all great ideas. When I grow the company into an empire you will be appointed Vice President of Engineering. I like the idea of the pvc or maybe some type of switch that has an arm on it that would extend into the hole area that would trip when the bag hit it. Again, thanks for the reply.
 

jackorocko

Apr 4, 2010
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If you replace the variable resistor with a photoresistor then you pretty much have what daddles described I do believe. then you can set the reset time and the led blink speed by adjusting the 4060. I had plans on using a normal pointer laser as the light emitting device.


Maybe you can use it for your project? This design is also expandable with a little more logic. I also very much like the idea of a magnet in the bean bag triggering a hall sensor.
 

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duke37

Jan 9, 2011
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My inclination woud be to mount a vibration detector on a piece of plywood which is clobbered by the missile when it goes through the black hole.
A suitable detector could be made from a loudspeaker with some mass added to the cone (modelling clay) to give relative movement when the board is vibrated.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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I would mount a chute under the opening so that the bean bag falls through it. On the way through it should hit a spring loaded plate or flap attached to a microswitch.

That way it's all mechanical, very simple, and almost foolproof.
 

mpdive

Aug 16, 2011
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I would mount a chute under the opening so that the bean bag falls through it. On the way through it should hit a spring loaded plate or flap attached to a microswitch.

That way it's all mechanical, very simple, and almost foolproof.


Wow! I have got to hand it to this forum. You guy's are very helpful and willing to lend a hand. I like the idea of the spring plate. The vibration sensor sounds good too although the bags weigh about a pound each and I wonder if when the bag hit the top of the board if it would trip the sensor even though it didn't go in the hole. I was going out of the garage today when I noticed the door sensors and thought about what Daddles mentioned. Not to be really stupid but however those work, is there miniature ones that could be wired to turn on the light when the beam is broken? The idea of a PVC chute is a great idea and if those eyes were opposite each other mounted through the PVC it would be great. How to wire something like that may be out of my realm. Again, I know time is precious and I appreciate YOUR time.
Sincerely
Mike

PS I'm impressed that you people can look at a wiring diagram and not see a plate of RAGU!
 
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