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Luckily Dimitri Never Inhaled

By Design News Staff -- Design News, April 4, 2005

Preferring his tennis games to be of the table-top variety, Dimitri didn't like to repeatedly bend down and pick up balls. It slowed down his play and created wear-and-tear on his back. So he built a microcontroller-based, automatic ball dispenser. A player simply pushes a switch on the four-ball device, releasing one ball at a time. Using an infrared optical detector, the system automatically counts down the ball inventory, updating and displaying the number remaining. When the last ball is released, a buzzer sounds, notifying players to replenish.

For Dimitri Merrill's complete instructions on how to build your own automatic ping pong ball dispenser,

Automatic Ping Pong Ball Dispenser Parts List
Amt	Part Description	Allied Part #
1	H-bridge, 3A, 55V	288-1572
1	Acoustic buzzer	623-1997
1	12V, .42A dc power supply	653-0242
2	10 nF capacitor	881-3322
3	330 Ù resistor	296-5216
2	Normally open button	948-7199
1	Proto board	977-1951
3	1,000 microF capacitor	852-0011
1	Optical detector	263-0909
1	Infrared emitter	980-9991
Additional parts required: 1 Xilinx Spartan-3 Starter Kit (Xilinx part number DO-SPAR3-DK)

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