11/20/2013

On 11/20/2013, we began to acquire the parts in order to start constructing some of the ball launcher. These parts included two 9-18v motors, wire, solder, connectors, and batteries. We began to finalize sketches and determine exactly what parts will be 3D printed. The part that we had difficulty finding was an H-Bridge to control the two motors. Radioshack only had a motor shield that would have worked, however it was rather expensive and did more than we needed it to. At this point, we will either build our own H-Bridge, or continue to try to find a cheaper IC version of the H-Bridge. We decided today that the arm attached to the servos will be located inside of the barrel where the ping pong balls are, and also that there is going to be the least amount of space possible between the barrel and the motors to launch the ball. This will minimize the chance of a ball getting stuck and will also reduce the footprint of the device.

Below is a piture of the two 9-18v motors that we will be using.