Goal
A device that can track if an object has passed by a sensor (through the sensing cone).
Prototypes So far IR Sensor
I have done a prototype using an IR sensor, but that could only tell if something was in front of it and not if it was an object that already existed at sensor start (simply a boolean)
Ultrasonic proximity sensor
so I tried the ultrasonic proximity distance sensor however as the ball speed has increased it has proved to be quite unreliable,
Help Requested
A) making the ultrasonic more responsive
B) If you can get an IR sensor with programmable sensitivity/distance
C) Other options
Thanks for the response, unfortunately, that wouldn't fit the use case I am looking for as it would require one sensor in front of the other.
Probably to clarify I don't actually need to measure the speed, instead rather that something has passed by, I was intending to pop this on the corner of a goal to check if he had hit the corner, so sensing within 50cm in a 45degrees cone.
Hi aarg, I am new to the forum and have attempted to lay out my question in an easy to follow format (but it seems like I have failed), what area would you like me to expand upon?
Hit the corner of what? The net behind a soccer goal? A specific part of the net? If it's target practice, maybe a simple limit switch or momentary pushbutton sandwiched between a couple plastic targets but honestly if you just want to know if the ball went through the top corner of a net, say, I think I'd simply hang a bell there on a string.
You need light as a sensor. Problem is mounting without interfering with play ....
The balls are white, right? So a laser would reflect...
Ok, try this, A laser emitter (KY-008)
and a detector mounted side by side but optically shielded. The laser shoots a beam up constantly. The reflection will be detected only when an object moves thru the field of view. The FOV of the laser is very narrow but it can be expanded to a line instead of a spot. This would effectively define a light plane that the ball would reflect during passage.
Just a thought. Edmund Scientific sells all sorts of optics and laser beam shapers.
A laser rangefinder might work but generally the sample rate is so low you can't detect fast movers.
So you want to know if someone kicking penalties is keeping the shot tight within a small corner section of the net? Again, I'd just hang a target, like a soccer ball in a bag or a bell or a cone of foam with a bell. If you're trying to keep track of % of attempts on target, you could use targets with magnets to the metal crossbar that a sensor break of a reed sensor would detect, or just the thing flying off would give you an indication.
Another thing to consider is Machine Learning, a camera, a Raspberry Pi and a program on the Pi; I'd use Python. A trained machine model would be able to detect the object in a particular area.
How do you know? Put a shroud around the detector to narrow it's FOV. Put a filter over it tuned to the laser center spectral line. This will make it only respond to the specific laser. Pulse it rapidly and watch for returns, this will make it not bothered by the sun as the sun is steady and not a pulse train.
PS: I worked on IR guidance systems for Northrup back in the day ...
Mag sensor is short range. Field falls off by square law, double the distance, QUARTER the signal. Worse with fast movers. Magnets are heavy and how are you going to keep a sticker on the ball? esp during kicks?
I have no doubt that, as a Northrup IR guidance engineer complete with those resources at your helm, it's doable. I only have the experience of building Arduino laser mazes at my properties every Hallowe'en since 2015 so I guess I don't know what I'm talking about. Kicking a soccer ball in and near an LDR, mounted in daylight, sunny, maybe overcast, maybe rain, with a laser pointer aimed at a spot from where, the ground? When the shot hits the crossbar and vibrates it out of alignment, just adjust it again? Set it up every time or leave it to the elements (my laser maze never comes down, it's too much work to set up every Hallowe'en). What about the power stage/batteries? There isn't typically mains access on a soccer pitch, that's power for the controller side and the laser side although I suppose you could just clamp the pushbutton on a pointer with an alligator clip and use the LR44s it comes with, until it gets hit with a ball, flies off and you lose it in the grass.
You're right, though, it can be done. I'm not surprised though that OP is having such a tough go figuring out something workable, especially without giving a lot of other details. Sounds like he's trying to invent something, if I'm honest. But I'm just an average hobbyist, what do I know? After all, I never worked for Northrup.
Seems like best electronic idea here yet to me, anyway. Or maybe a hula hoop, neodymium magnets on top to affix it to the crossbar, and a cord or two across the hula hoop that disconnects a switch from one end every time a ball is kicked through it?
I am trying to provide additional details as we go, I am trying to figure this out hence my questions, I do appreciate any help anyone is able to give but frankly bit confused why your getting annoyed if I knew everything I wouldn't ask, I think my title is quite clear that I am trying to work this out.
Not annoyed with you, friend. Just my personality; standing up for myself when folks flex like "ackshully I worked for NASA" or some such stuff. I thought this forum was about regular Janes and Joes having a conversation to try to help each other enjoy finding solutions to Arduino and other electronic problems. Unfortunately, while I'm still new here, the gatekeeping is already driving me nuts. I believe in Arduino and the spirit it was created in: for everyday people to get prototypes up and running fairly quickly and at as reasonable a price as possible. Just because I'm a regular Joe doesn't negate my opinion by default. So I'm not a former Northrup engineer. So what? Are you?
To your second point, if you're going to ask for help, it will help others to help you if you describe exactly what you want to accomplish in the first place, as the forum introduction we're all encouraged to read, suggests we should. I don't mind hashing out a few things, but you started with one vague idea and then said you wanted it to do other things as well that a simple solution doesn't cover, and maybe a few other "use cases" down the road. I don't mind telling you that, to me, it sounds like you're trying to invent something you might want to patent, and you want us on the forum to figure it all out for you. Why be vague? Not even a hand drawn high level diagram to go on? C'mon man, can you meet us halfway?
Lastly, whatever your solution turns out to be, what will work for what you hope to accomplish will either have to be fairly advanced and intensive, such as the Rasp Pi/camera suggestion offered by Idahowalker (since reliability will come at the price of lots of configuration and calibration ahead of time, hopefully just once, since you're hoping to reliably detect a soccer ball traveling at a very high rate of speed potentially) or as simple as possible (so setup on the pitch is fast, and the thing works reliably--as reliably on a 100kph shot as on a 20kph shot). This brings my mind quickly back to the laser idea: a fast shot will travel past that beam undetected lots of times even well calibrated for the lighting conditions using an Arduino if it was going to involve using an LDR module or LDR voltage divider circuit. In any case, good luck!
You know what? As I wait for my bread to toast, you know what I'd do? I'd use a speed bag for boxing to hit a button at the end of its path of travel. You could use a couple of buttons too, depending on the angle the shot originates from. Limit switches would probably work well, fast response too with easy peasy code.
