Interactive Beer Pong (Beirut) Table

Have you ever played found yourself in a long, boring game of Beer Pong wishing there was a little more excitement in the game? I know I have so I decided to try and make pong games a little more exciting in our house by making this interactive beer pong table! The general idea behind the table is to make the table respond to the state of the game, and change as the game progresses. In the example I have made here a series of tri-color LED's in the middle of the table change colors as cups are removed. (if you don't know how to play pong, please check this out first!) The table's main parts are force sensitive resistors (to sense the cups), an arduino microcontroller, and lots of tri-color LEDs.

For time and expenses sake I have only made half of the table and with 6 cups instead of the traditional 10. However, as you will see there are endless customizable options to the table once you have the sensors built and arduino working. 

This project served as my final project for a course at Carnegie Mellon University taught by Mark Gross called "Making Things Interact". Class Blog

Step 1: Parts List

Note: All parts listed below are to build only half the table, you will have to double everything but the microcontroller. 

Materials needed:
(for electrical parts)
1 x Arduino Microcontroller
6 x Force Sensitive Resistors  
18 x Tri Color RGB LEDs (buy in bulk on ebay)
3 x TIP 120 Transistors
1 x Breadboard
1 x 9v battery and connector
100 Ohm and 100Kohm resistors
lots of different color wires (definitely comes in handy...)

(for construction)
3'x4' 3/4" Plywood
Thick Foam or Mat Board - 2 pieces of 24"x36"
Balsa wood for LED bar

Tools required:
Soldering Iron and solder
Jigsaw
Drill
Electrical Tape
Hot Glue/Super Glue
Wirecutters
Boxcutter/utility knife

Comments

[runfromnuke]

Could you, by chance, add a video of the table in action?