Help Required to build a ball firing machine

A battery-powered vacuum cleaner can pick up foam balls quite easily.

It is light-weight and can be controlled by a computer easily also.

Velcro too :-)

I'd suggest vacuum cleaner though, or one of those "garden vac" things as they have nice "output" which you can direct straight into your hopper.

For something on the dangerous side [fun for college students], I recall at my high-school graduation party, someone showed up in a boat out on the lake and proceeded to fire tennis balls at the party on shore, powered by an acetylene cannon - basically a hollow tube and ignition chamber. Apparently acteylene is "relatively" unlikely to blow up the guys firing the cannon - but I cannot guarantee it. It's your neck.

For something more mundane, there are a couple of soccer bots that shoot balls along the floor ... one uses a paddle and one uses spinning cylinders ...

Thanks Dan ! Haha, don't worry, we are a bunch of peace loving people. Hehe.

A friend of mine just built a ping-pong ball gun using a golf ball practice putting return device's solenoid and a PVC pipe. (based on an idea from someone in this group). It works great. An RC servo based gripper could pick up your balls.

BRW

Thanks Bennet for your suggestions ! I wonder if you have a picture of the machine as we badly need one to refer to....

I'll ask him to post a link.

BRW

Thanks alot man !

That worked well? Good to hear.

I've changed names and email addresses due to excessive spam. Haven't been in the groups much either, due to excessive work! Anyway, glad to hear that at least one of my suggestions turned out.