Paddle Ball, Arduino Style

I'm not too coordinated and paddle ball has never been a great skill for me. I thought an Arduino, assisted by a servo motor and some 3d printed parts, could perform on a par with me. I was not disappointed.

Step 1:

Start by printing the base (which slides onto the end of my glass table) and the rod and servo motor bracket.

Step 2:

Mount the motor to the bracket.

Step 3:

Attach the motor and bracket to the base. I "weld" the PLA pieces together using a low wattage solering iron (it just melts them together).

Step 4:

Affix the rod to the servo motor horn. I used magnet wire, but fishing line would work just as well.

Step 5:

Glue the paddle to the rod assembly (I used super glue gel).

Step 6:

Using pin 7 of the Arduino Uno as the control pin for a servo motor, I installed the sketch "servo.ino" to make it run. The servo is powered by four AA batteries. Negative from the batteries is tied to negative on the Arduino. I powered the Arduino with a 9 volt battery (through V in).

Slide the device onto a glass table and turn it on. If you don't expect it to hit the ball, you won't be disappointed.