Housing

The housing is constructed of clear polycarbonate, and is designed to house the motor, encoder, disc, gears and axles, and optical sensors. Balls dropped into the housing should be contained and exit through a small door. The housing is broken into the drop basin, component basin, sensor housing, and motor housing.

The base of the housing features adjustable feet to allow the device to be leveled.

Related

Components and Functionality

Drop Basin

  • Base of the Tunneling Ball device.
  • Contains all dropped balls and routes them to elevator base.
  • Prevents ball from becoming trapped between the disc and the basin.
  • Consists of a flat bottom board, an angled floorboard, four walls, two angled inner walls, and a removable topboard.
  • Back wall is bored to allow up to a 40mm ball to exit the basin (this is the base of the elevator).

Component Basin

  • Houses motor, motor axle and gear, and disc axle and gear.
  • Protects motor from contact with a ball.
  • Centered in the drop basin; floorboard is cut to accommodate.
  • Consists of three rectangular walls and one triangular wall.
  • Routes control wires between the floorboard and the bottom board (prevents contact with ball)
  • Axles fit into cylindrical bearings in the basin bottom and component basin top.
  • A fan is mounted in the rear wall to cool the motor.

Sensor Housing

  • Houses two optical sensor units.
  • Consists of a rigidly connected corridor and a sensor mount.
  • Allows ball to pass through corridor and sensor towards the drop target.
  • Sensor mount allows sensor heights to be adjusted.

Motor Housing

  • Permanent upright positioning of the motor and encoder.
  • Gears to connect motor axle to disc axle; geardown ratio of 1:2.
  • Thin (but stiff axles) fit in cylindrical bearings.

Notes