Accessible Foosball Table

This is a simplified version of a foosball table that is made accessible for those with limited motor skills. I made this as a project to be donated to the Boston College Campus School.

Raspberry Pi Pico W

Breadboard

2 Servos (Check strength to change power of "kicks")

2 Dowels

6 Laser Cut figures

Ball (I used a ping pong ball)

Foam board

2 Alligator Clips

Copper Tape

MPR121 Capacitive Touchpad

The code for this project is pretty simple. It uses Adafruit's capacitive touch libraries to register when the copper tape is touched, moving the servos between two states: up and down.

All wiring for this build connects to the Pico W on the breadboard.

Both Servos connect to ground and 5v power supply.

The 12 pin capacitive touch sensor connects to the board using standard STEMMA QT connections.

The Alligator clips are attached to ports 0 and 1 on the MPR121 with copper tape on the other end.

For my "field," I used foam board and glue to essentially build a box with two goals. Depending on the size of the field you want, dimensions for each piece can vary. The servos that I used for my are on the weaker side, so I if I were to build it again I would make the field a bit smaller. I also added legs to the bottom to make room for the wiring.

A few things to keep in mind when find the dimensions is the high of the side walls. The need to be short enough that the laser cut players can reach, but tall enough that there is space for the ball to roll under them when in the up position.

The six players were laser cut out of 1/4 inch birch and super glued onto a dowel the length of the field. To attach the dowels to the servos, I drilled out a small hole on the end of the dowel. After a few drops of super glue, I could squeeze in the end of the servo to secure it in place.