Office Mini golf ball dispenser

For the hole design, we want to try to have an automated system to deploy balls. Plan to have a keycode system, where if a good pin is entered, the ball gets released somewhere which makes the hole easy to complete (Happy place). If a bad pin is entered, or no pin, the ball gets dropped somewhere which makes the hole harder to complete.

Logical layout

Components to be built

1. Ball storage and release mechanism
   • store balls and release one when instructed (ie, push the '#' button on the keypad)
   • was going to try a plunger/electromagnet method, but think a servo/stepper motor method is more consistent
   • the Arduino will watch for a signal from the keypad and spin a stepper motor which will push out a ball
   • the ball will continue down a ramp to a decision point.
2. Decision Point
   • similar to a train switch, or pinball bumper gate
   • If the code is entered correctly, the 'happy' path is opened for a set amount of time.
   • Any balls dispatched at that time will go to the happy place
   • after the set amount of time, the gate closes again so balls go to the normal position.
3. Keypad
   • used to enter a pin and dispatch balls
4. Display
   • a 4 digit display
   • can show a number to be used to determine the pin
   • can show status (like show 4 dashes to denote happy path is open)

What's next

See issues for what needs to be done