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Smart Juggling Balls

Smart Juggling Balls for Juggling and Education

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Smart Juggling Balls are Fun balls which can be used for juggling and as an educational platform to demonstrate physics in an interactive and interesting way.
https://github.com/arkadiraf/Juggling_Balls_Public

This is my version for smart juggling balls. The idea is to create an open source platform which can be used (besides juggling) as an educational platform to teach physics using an interactive and fun way. The platform contains a 6 dof or a 9 dof sensor (Mpu 6050 or Mpu 9150) , micro controller, transmitter (NRF24L01) and some LED`s

Currently I have a working version of the balls, which can be used for juggling:

The files I share include PCB Circuit manufacture files (Gerber) STL models for the casing, BOM with links, assembling instruction, and codes (currently Test code). all are available at: https://github.com/arkadiraf/Juggling_Balls_Public

It is possible to assemble the juggling balls using a prototype PCB such as: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8810 my first iterations were based on the same prototype board and later the PCB was design based on the physical dimensions of the board.

Future development:

As a first stage towards educational platform i am planning to improve the PCB design so it will be more user friendly and use it as a platform to teach soldering.

Later the kit can be used to teach coding and communication.

In parallel i am planing to start working on a lecture content for physics class.

  • 1 × Arduino Compatible pro mini 3.3v
  • 1 × MPU 6050
  • 1 × NRF24L01
  • 1 × Li-Ion Battery
  • 1 × circuit PCB or Prototype round PCB

View all 7 components

  • Angry Elephant Game

    Arkadi09/20/2015 at 09:02 0 comments

    As part of the Geekcon2015, (I and a friend) have created the Angry Elephant game, which is based on two Stage lamps dressed as an elephant with a hat. and the point of the game is to make one elephant drop the other`s hat off. Controlling the elephants is done throught the smart juggling balls. Dahh :)

  • EduBall Demonstration

    Arkadi07/01/2015 at 10:42 0 comments

    I have done some tests with the platform and have plot results to show for (recorded in real time at 100 Hz).

    First image demonstrates filter effects on the measured acceleration, for the test i have put the ball in a plastic bag and rotated it in the vertical plane resulting in the effect seen in the graph. As you can guess the purple line represents raw data and the yellow one, is the filtered data with a simple LPF filter at time constant of 1 second. (the graph scale is in g`s)

    After that i have decided to play some throw and catch. (the graph scale is in g`s).

    And for the finish i have decided to test how precisely i can calculate the length of my plastic bag based on the readings of the gyro and the accelerometer. (Centrifugal force)

    (image is taken from this site.)

    And my results: (the graph units is deg/sec for the gyro, accelerometer at g`s. and length in meters).

    Surprisingly (and maybe not) the length turned out to be pretty accurate and as you can see i have played with the rotation velocity).

    So go grab your plastic bag, and do some experiments. (be careful, i managed to bump the ball into my head while trying to press the print screen).

  • EduBall Simulink Model

    Arkadi06/29/2015 at 10:16 0 comments

    A few updates,

    I have recently added a Matlab Simulink model to the GitHub including additional code, the model is also available on Matlab file exchange: Simulink Model.

    The model is designed to check the feasibility of the project, in terms of what Physical phenomena i can actually demonstrate with the current hardware setup. The setup is quite simple, The juggling ball is used to measure the Acc/Gyro values and transmit it to a "dongle" (NRF_Receive) which is connected to the computer via USB. The Simulink model reads the values through a COM Port and performs some simple data manipulations. The update rate of the data is set to 100 Hz.

    The simulink model is used to demonstrate Acc/Gyro Raw values, Acc/Gyro Scaled and biased values. Normal Acceleration and Rotation Rate. angle calculation based on Gyro integration and Acc gravity vector calculation. and the final is complementary filter demonstration with comparison between the different approaches.

    See image as to how it all looks:

    Conclusions:

    From the Acceleration reading it is very clear to distinguish Free fall and average g such as 1g when the ball is still. It is possible to see the high g`s when the ball is hit, but not at enough sample rate to perform any calculations based on the data such as energy conservation when the ball is thrown and caught at the same height)

    The centrifugal forces are also very clear to demonstrate and to actually compare them to the gyro rotation rate, (as long as the gyro isn`t saturated (at 2000 deg/sec).

    finally it seems that the hardware is good enough for most demonstrations, (still there is a lot of work ahead to actually build a class curriculum and run a pilot).


    The current stage of the project:

    - Find a big company which is interested in supporting the project

    - Test better hardware setup, to get higher sample rate (1 KHz), and with wider range of the accelerometer (200g).

    - Find someone interested in education to help with the curriculum

  • Stage LED Lamp

    Arkadi06/29/2015 at 08:43 0 comments

    Something fun to do with the Smart Juggling Balls: Control a Stage LED Lamp, and make it change colors :)

    Enjoy,

  • ShakeIt

    Arkadi05/30/2015 at 11:10 0 comments

    Using the smart juggling balls i have created an interactive art exhibition, more details are available at: https://hackaday.io/project/6039-shakeit

    In addition attaching a video for my other version of juggling balls, consisting of 52 LED`s each:


View all 5 project logs

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Discussions

mativa wrote 07/17/2016 at 21:45 point

hey, nice project! I am working on a different project that involves the mpu-6050 and the nrf24l01, but it seems hard to use the two together (I can get them to run separately). could I ask what libraries you use, and what command you use to pull the data from the mpu/ what command you use to send the data over the nrf24l01? in my world those two commands really don't seem to like each other...

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jupdyke wrote 12/23/2015 at 19:40 point

This is a very cool and simple project. I am not sure if it is of any help, but I am doing quite a lot with small run injection molding. If you are interested in getting a small run of parts I can maybe help you.

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