See it working!

After one year of work, I took the tennis ball machine to the court to test it, and enjoyed some backhand practice with it. Lots of fun!

Ideas and Planning

After seeing this video on Youtube I was excited to build a tennis ball machine. But I knew it wouldn´t be easy. I researched other ways to launch the ball and settled on the 2-wheel solution. It was during this time that I decided on the motors, components and materials I would use.

From Design to manufacturing

How hard can it be ... right?

6 months

CAD Design

Definitely this was the most "brain intensive" step, where I had to detail every part of the machine, according to the available resources.

I´ve also bought some commercial parts, such as the main motors, electrical stuff and some machined parts, such as the wheels.

4 months

Building & Assembly

Hands-on time! A lot of learning, sweat ... and errors. Definitely very tiresome but also very rewarding, since you start to see your creation coming alive.
I decided to use mostly wood for the machine´s structure. I wanted to learn some woodwork and avoid expending too much money.

2 months

Electronics & Painting

After I finished building and testing if the ball was being launched correctly (I had to put some overgrip on the wheels!), I learned some Arduino to program the ball feeder.

At this time I also dissasembled the entire machine (ugh!) to paint every part and then assemble it back.

Final Thoughts

Well, it was quite an adventure to build this machine! As every hobbist know, it always seem easier than it is ;-) Of course I thought about quitting many times - but I kept on trying, fixing, re-building , until I got it working.

In the end it was a great project to learn new things: woodwork, arduino, painting and much more. Was it worth it? Definitely!