Automatic golf ball dispenser

[BTO]

Ok so I simple need to power sources

Hey, i can see you're pumped about this.  I'm curious, once you work out the bugs, what do you plan to do ?
is it gonna be a one-off where you use it for yourself or are you planning to make a business of this and sell a few of them.
I reckon you should do the latter

Just another point of view (as a 50 year old who's been in business for 35 years).
Electronics is cool and all but if you can design stuff then sell it, You get make money and have fun.
in your case, You get to make money, have fun and play golf

so, what was your plan here ?

[Maclarkson]

The final prototype. Check this out.
https://youtube.com/shorts/KOmL9WKCEq0?si=3pFnC7feHF5k9J2u

[BTO]

The final prototype. Check this out.
https://youtube.com/shorts/KOmL9WKCEq0?si=3pFnC7feHF5k9J2u

- Checked it out
- Had the priviledge of leaving the first comment 

Bunnings bucket huh ? I suggest a modification so that every 10 golf swings, it dispenses a bunnings snag and can of coke.
or how about using a DF Robot MP3 player that is triggered not by the hit but by the dispense mechanism and it plays a sound file that says
in a slow suspensful voice

He's got the ball on the T,........ the crowd is silent........... He lines it up........You can just feel the suspense in the air..........
winds are not too bad today and his caddy seems a bit low in spirits but ... i think he's gonna do what he can with the unfortunate circumstance
that he's in.
He knows everything rests on this one shot. but he's chosen a 5 iron.... don't know if i would have gone for that one, i would have gone for
a 3 iron myself....  Oh no a car just went past and i think it might have upset his concentration but let's see if
he recovers
 


Now, that aside, it seems to work well, How are you finding it thus far, any issues ?
Also... Since it's purpose is to setup a golf ball, What about when you missed and the ball fell off the T , Shouldn't it also
dispense it then ? or... You're not gonna worry about that ?

but yeah, can you see any issues with it, Especially with Alignment, as you stated before , So can you say, Get through 100 balls without it
falling out of alignment with the T ?

[Maclarkson]

Ok guys, the final prototype.
https://youtube.com/shorts/KOmL9WKCEq0?si=T7d2N874ycgET7hB
It would have been nice in their forum if someone could have suggested ways to achieve this.

[ledtester]

Ok guys, the final prototype.
https://youtube.com/shorts/KOmL9WKCEq0?si=T7d2N874ycgET7hB
It would have been nice in their forum if someone could have suggested ways to achieve this.

Here's how it seems to work... the plunger of the solenoid above the ball exit keeps balls inside the bucket. When the solenoid is activated the plunger moves upwards letting a ball roll onto the ramp. The solenoid is timed to only let one ball onto the ramp at a time.

The components are just two battery packs, a relay module and an Arduino and perhaps some sort of sensor (optical? perhaps a microphone) on the lid. I think the sensor on the lid is just used to trigger the solenoid.

[BTO]

Ok guys, the final prototype.
https://youtube.com/shorts/KOmL9WKCEq0?si=T7d2N874ycgET7hB
It would have been nice in their forum if someone could have suggested ways to achieve this.

How do you mean ?  I mean, You're a newbie so i'll humour this .
But granted that a lot of people didn't respond but those that did did try to help , so.. what did you mean exactly ?
If however you meant that someone should have told you how to do it completely... NO, that's not the way it works.

Mate we derive pleasure from electronics, a large part of that is learning how to do stuff ourselves , therefore i we just said
do this and that and that and this and solder this to that and use this code.  You would literally have nothing to do .
We would feel that we deprived you of the pleasure of learning, which is also... the entire point of why i pushed you into the arduino and
ESP32 direction.

so. You are expected to pull your part of the weight as well, (and you did )
Now, you do have an option to ask us to do it all for you, but that would require payment , and that would give you the right to not
care how it's done and to have us just build it for you.

However most people here want to do it for free and to learn, I made the assumption that that's what you were after
so, I'm confused,   did you mean that you wanted to be told how to do it all upfront or did you mean you didn't get any support ?

or.. Did you mean that you wanted me to explain how that commentary DF Robot thing works   I didn't really understand your comment properly.

so i guess the question is...
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED SO FAR
AND WHAT DO YOU WANT EXPLAINED

[BTO]

Ok guys, the final prototype.
https://youtube.com/shorts/KOmL9WKCEq0?si=T7d2N874ycgET7hB
It would have been nice in their forum if someone could have suggested ways to achieve this.

Also.. if you want us to have a look at your code, .... Post it

[Maclarkson]

Ok so I  8)have now bought a second hand 3d printer to make the housing. Infact I’ll just print the whole thing from scratch!! And the journey continues. I used a microphone by the way. Works well but not for kids who can’t hit the ball hard enough to get it to make a loud enough sound. Oh well I guess they will just have to do it the old fashioned way.

[Doctorandus_P]

One way to automate it, is to remove the "wooden peg", and/or integrate it in the arm. The Idea is that the weight of the ball keeps the dispensing arm folded out, and as soon as the ball has been removed, it will fetch the next ball.

A disadvantage is that the system is vulnerable. The gulf club is likely to hit the arm occasionally and destroy it. This can be mitigated by making the arm easily replaceable and having some spares, or by building the whole thing on some sort of plateau, with the result that the arm sinks "below ground level".