Ping pong ball launcher

[Critchley]

For my latest robot, I hope to have some kind of ping pong ball launching mechanism. Think of a tennis serving machine, except with ping pong balls. How exactly would this work though? Maybe I would use a pneumatic mechanism?

Any thoughts?

[trigger]

For my latest robot, I hope to have some kind of ping pong ball launching mechanism. Think of a tennis serving machine, except with ping pong balls. How exactly would this work though? Maybe I would use a pneumatic mechanism?

Any thoughts?

How about a spring-loaded armature that ejects the ping-pong ball when a pin blocking the armature is displaced, and the armature is moved back to the starting position by a servo? The pin could be servo-controlled for fully-automatic use or manually controlled (e.g., a trigger).

[gamefreak]

well since im just starting on my none kit robot i would think a solonoid maybe. Have a pipe with a ramp on the end lead into the shooting chamber, then fire the ping pong after so many seconds or when a button is pressed.

[Brandon121233]

I think it depends on how far and with how much force you intend to launch it with. You stated a tenis ball seving machine, so if you plan on it going over 20 or so feet (pretty far for a ping pong ball) I would suggest using a pneumatic device which would use like a paint ball CO2 tank with an electronic auctuator attached to some some 1.5 inch pvc pipe. For the lower end  (under 10 feet) some sort of servo activated spring launcher would be best. If you have any specific questions just email me at [email protected] and I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible.

[Hal9000]

As above, it would be a matter of how far you wanted them to go. Being ping pong balls, they are normally far too light to do anything really far with, right?

This guy, as you can see, uses two big fast spinning wheels to chuck out the balls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSCPLHfdpSA

This also looks good for the slower, but probably stronger (and not continuous fire)

http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/inventions/invention.asp?id=%7BF59E3BB0-57C4-E211-96EE-598AF8DB26A7%7D&SlotN=2&galleryid=337

And, um, theres this weird looking thing

http://www.amazon.com/Ping-Pong-Ball-Launcher-Butterfly/dp/B000KC1L74

[JesseWelling]

This guy, as you can see, uses two big fast spinning wheels to chuck out the balls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSCPLHfdpSA

the guy said it looked like an ice cream maker!

[Hal9000]

I cant hear anything on this PC because it has no speakers.

Lolz at the ice cream maker. Bet it tastes really yummy where HE gets it from!

There is a much more fun version of this (although cant find it at the moment) of the two wheels throwing cds. It looked lethal 

[Sam_Charette]

I would go with the spinning wheels myself.  It's probably the easiest and cheapest way, and it works well.

[ed1380]

How about a robot actuated air potato cannon, but smaller so it can fire a ping pong ball. and with a co2 tank, so you don't have to pump it up everytime.