Alright... I've been putting some thought into this and have come up with a general layout. Ive done a lot of Googling and haven't gotten much positive yet. This is completely an outline in my head atm and I wanted to get more experienced feedback. Ill layout what I have in my mind. Im looking for possibility of project, better or alternative ways to accomplish, or anything I might run into along the way. I will try to be as detailed as possible as I have no pictures yet to share.
Table Dimensions: 96" x 32"
The breakdown:
I want to break down the overall size into smaller "tiles". This will make it easier to work with and not seem so daunting. So I'll have 48 - 8"x8" "tiles".
Each tile is going to be an ATMega328, 8x8 led grid(1" spacing), and in the center ill have a cantilever style vibration sensor.
The tiles underneath the cups will use LDR to detect if the cup is present or removed.
The General Outcome:
There's a lot I can do with this and haven't settled on too much in solid form but I have a few "must do's".
When the ball strikes a tile it will be picked up by sensor and create a ripples with leds.
Use the leds to display stats, border, and rando visuals.
LDRs will sense cup or not and light up border around them. They will also be used to keep track of whos ahead.
Id also like to use some sort of sensor to detect the ball and/or a hand crossing the edge of the table. A bowling foul type of thing.
Something I definitely don't know is possible but curious about. Is there some way to track the ball in the air? Not every shot is a bounce shot and I thought maybe an led tail while in air would be cool.
I know I could do tracking with a cam and a pi or computer. But right now trying to just roll "simpler".
Now questions and thoughts that have crossed my mind:
Power... I need to power pretty much 50 ATMegas, Each running(at max) - 5leds at a time, and up to 3 sensors.
Communication... I need these all to be in somewhat communication for the visuals. The ripple is easily individualized but borders, scores, and when to display these needs talk.
A lot of things I read, especially people wanting LED walls and such, is to buy prebuilt matrices. Money isn't the question here. But I'm a hardcore DIY and when im doing it myself I want to do as much of it myself. Im ok with all the soldering that's going to go on here. I read a lot on LED driving ICs. I don't know anything about these let alone where to start.
I know its kinda vague. Its a twinkle in my eye and im just trying to get more experienced opinions. I did say it might be overly ambitious.
Thank you for your help in advance.
