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Electronic target project

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 2:07 pm
by Ovenpaa
I am considering a bell target for myself for practising here in the workshop. I want it to look like a proper original version so steel plate and box however with a modern twist:

Two LEDS, one green showing ready to shoot and one red if the 'bell' is rung.
An audible output such as a buzzer or even a WAV file to replace the bell
A remote control to reset from green to red for the next shot if required.

Is this a Raspberry Pi candidate or a simple circuit project, bearing in mind I am crap at electronic design and I equally would like to keep costs down.

Thoughts anyone?

Re: Electronic target project

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 2:34 pm
by 1066
Interesting project - Could be done with a hinged plate and a micro switch to momentarily sound a buzzer/LED but you would need a transistor/capacitor circuit to set some sort of delay so buzzer sounds for half a second or so.

Could certainly be done with a Ras Pi, although I've never used one. Could be done with an Arduino with a bit of thought, they're as cheap as chips, you could set your sound/lights on delay to whatever you want.

You could detect your shot with a microphone.

Re: Electronic target project

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 2:40 pm
by strangesam
I considered doing this (though I've yet to get round to it, using one of the plug in accelerometer modules for the raspberry pi.

Stick the module to the back of a hanging steel plate, and hopefully the accelleration caused by an impact will supply an output.

Re: Electronic target project

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 2:51 pm
by Ovenpaa
An accelerometer is a nice idea however the .177 pellet is going to be striking at anything up to around 10-11ft lbs energy which is enough to sting a bit so I do wonder how long the printed circuit would last.

Arduino is an alternative I had not considered.

Re: Electronic target project

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 2:59 pm
by dromia
"An audible output such as a buzzer or even a WAV file to replace the bell"

That is just so wrong on every level.

Why make a "not a bell target"! wallhead

Just because you can doesn't mean you should, is nothing sacred from digital destruction?

Re: Electronic target project

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 3:09 pm
by strangesam
Ovenpaa wrote:An accelerometer is a nice idea however the .177 pellet is going to be striking at anything up to around 10-11ft lbs energy which is enough to sting a bit so I do wonder how long the printed circuit would last.

Arduino is an alternative I had not considered.

If its behind a suitably sized lump of steel, it will be fine, the physics means the g-forces experianced by a 200gram lump of steel when struck by a 0.5gram pellet shouldn't be too excessive (I did the maths a while ago for .22LR and a ~2Kg plate and it was well within the limits of the cheap one I'd found which i think was 60 or 80g.) Think of it as lorry vs smartcar.. the lorry often won't notice the collision.

Re: Electronic target project

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2019 7:35 am
by Ovenpaa
Well that is an Arduino Uno R3 clone (Elegoo) ordered and a fairly random selection of sensors to detect the impact, plus some LEDs and a buzzer as an output.

The potential issue is going to be isolating the striker from everything else so 5.1 hits are detected and those to the target plate ignored. This design has an LED light bar underneath so a hit is lit up and will reflect down and back onto the rear plate, this will show for 5 seconds along with the buzzer. Sensing is via a swinging plate at the back, isolated by studs and springs and will have either a tilt sensor or a Piezo device.

Right now it has cost me a couple of hours of thought/design and under twenty quid for the Arduino stuff.

Many thanks to 1066 for providing inspiration :)
Box.PNG

Re: Electronic target project

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2019 8:37 am
by 1066
:) You could incorporate a musical doorbell sounder - you could then switch it to play Jingle Bells at Christmas.

Re: Electronic target project

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2019 1:34 pm
by Pete
I just checked out my remote doorbell push.........a suitable steel disc over the plastic button with a steel surround over the plastic body of the thing, and Bob's your mothers brother..............

But I have to say, I'm with Dromia on this one................

Pete

Re: Electronic target project

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2019 5:33 pm
by Ovenpaa
Ah, but this is far more interesting :)

Well everything arrived, plugged into the PC, it found the correct comms port instantly, I sent the few lines of code needed and that was it, done, tested and finished. Next job is to add to the code and make it far more complex for the sake of it....