Electronic Circuits and Projects Forum

hi,
What diameters are the holes and the pucks.??

Also must the puck be a 'regulation' type puck. eg: could it be 'doctored' to include say a small magnet.?

Originally Posted by mr_fitz

The diameter of the holes is somewhat flexible, but I was thinking in the neighbourhood of about 8 inches dia.
Diameter of a puck is 3 inches by 1 inches height.
I would rather not doctor the pucks...meant to be used on outdoor rink...pucks get lost easily in the snow despite backstops... about 50 pucks get used throughout the winter. If this is relatively easily done with cheap magnets, sure I am willing to drill 50 holes and backfill with silicone or somesuch.

Some sort of active sensor like the ones protecting us from being squashed by our garage door (opener) cannot be cheaply purchased/incorporated? With the configuration in the images, this would "only" require 3 sensors - if the middle hole is removed or lowered to the bottom row, 2 sensors?

hi,
The requirement of an IR system would mean the beam would have to be broken by the 3in dia puck over a 8in dia hole.

If a simple single beam path could be used you would only require two beams, top left down to bottom right and top right down to bottom left.
The problem is the beam width required to cover a 8in dia hole.

The magnet idea was to use a 8in dia coil around each hole and detect the magnet passing thru the hole.

I am sure it can be done, we will look it over..

Okay MrDEB, since using IR sensors is what I originally had in mind I am curious as to what precisely this would look like. 1) Would you please post a link(s) to the parts you are referring to ("sensor", "IR emitters/detectors" << these are different parts?) - I am partially concerned about cost here - minus the battery and light I can probably do the flapper/magnetic switch system for under $50 - would the IR system be under $100 say? 2)Would you please describe in a bit more detail what you mean by funnelling? I thought that passing two "beams" across each hole would solve the puck to hole size issue. Does funelling solve this problem as well?
3) In addition to fog, snow and frost are potential issues on an outdoor rink - this would concern me.

By the same token, I am not sure how well these magnetic switches will hold up to the kids' slapshots over time - hence the appeal of the "active"? IR system.
thanks.