Golf Ball Feeder

This project is an automatic golf ball feeder. You can take it with you to the driving range and use it when practicing. In order to use the feeder, wave your club in front of the sensor, and then a golf ball will roll out in front of you. This is a very easy project to both code and construct, and it is highly practical for golf players.

Arduino Uno, breadboard, wires, ultrasonic sensor, gear motor, cardboard, hot glue gun, golf balls

This is the box where your electronic components will be housed. It can be created either by using an old shoebox, or by gluing together small cardboard pieces with your hot glue gun. If you are gluing together small cardboard pieces, follow these steps:

1. Cut two 8x4 inch rectangular pieces of cardboard
2. Cut two 6x4 inch rectangular pieces of cardboard
3. In one of the 6x4 inch pieces and one of the 8x4 inch pieces, cut a small hole on the bottom. This will be where the ultrasonic sensor and wires are placed later
4. Cut one 8x6 inch rectangular piece of cardboard
5. Lay the 8x6 inch piece flat on the table and attach the remaining four pieces vertically to form a box with an open top.

The final box should be 8x6x4 inches, with one hole in the front and one hold in the right side.

Next, we will construct the ramp that the golf balls will be launched from.

1. Cut one 7x9 inch rectangular piece of cardboard
2. Face the cardboard so that it is orientated like a piece of paper. Fold the left and right edges to form the shape shown in the picture. Make the edges at least 2 inches thick

In order for the machine to hold multiple golf balls, there will need to be a spinner to cycle through the balls. The one we will be making will hold four balls.

1. Cut one 7x7 inch square piece of cardboard
2. In that 7x7 inch piece of cardboard, cut four 2 1/2 inch squares as shown in the image
3. Repeat steps 1-2 two times to create three total pieces
4. Use your hot glue gun to glue together the three pieces to make the spinner taller. This is to ensure that the balls do not go out of place while spinning
5. Cut one more 7x7 piece of cardboard, but only include one hole. This will serve as the base of the spinner

Next, we will need to create a support to keep our machine standing up straight.

1. Cut one 10x4 inch rectangular piece of cardboard
2. Fold it so that it creates three sections. The left section should be 4 inches long, the middle section should be 4 inches long, and the right section should be 2 inches long

Now, we will take the things we made from steps 1-4 and put them together to create the full chassis of the golf ball feeder.

1. Attach the ramp and the body as shown in the imagines. Ensure that the ramp is at an angle to the ball can go down, and also ensure that the ramp is on the side with a hole on it
2. From Step 3, we created a 7x7 piece of cardboard with only one hole. Align that hole up with the top of the ramp and glue it to the body
3. Take the support and attach it to the body and the aforementioned 7x7 piece of cardboard
4. Put the spinner in line with the hole from the 7x7 piece of cardboard. Make sure that a golf ball can fit through both holes. Do NOT glue the spinner yet

Wire your physical board exactly like the image shows. If you have a different bridge for the gear motor, you may have to make some slight changes. here are the changes you have to make:

1. Enable 1&2 -> PWMA
2. Input 1 -> AIN2
3. Output 1 -> AO2
4. Output 2 -> AO2
5. Input 2 -> AIN1

Copy the code exactly as it is written

Now we should have everything we need for the golf ball feeder to work. We just have to put all our steps together and make any necessary changes:

1. Glue the gear motor to the 7x7 cardboard piece as shown in the picture. Cut a small hole so that the axle can fit through
2. Put the circuit inside of the box. Make sure that the ultrasonic sensor is lined up with the cutout
3. Glue the spinner to the axle of the gear motor that should be poking through. Make sure no glue gets on the 7x7 cardboard piece
4. Fill each of the four spots with golf balls. Manually spin the spinner to see if there are any problems. You may need to add some more small cardboard pieces so everything flows smoothly
5. (OPTIONAL): roll some golf balls down the ramp. If they are going at a good speed, then you are all done! If you think they are going too fast, you may want to build a flap to slow them down.

You are now done creating the project!