Tennis Ball Machine

A tennis ball machine I designed and built on my own in the year before university.

The launcher: two motors, a pair of grooved wheels on bearings, and the bracket that carries them. The ball is squeezed between the wheels.

Role: Designed and built it myself
Period: 2023, before university
Built with: Autodesk Fusion, 3D printing, wood, three-phase motors on a frequency converter
Status: Finished

I designed the Launcher wheels and the yaw axis in Fusion and printed on my own printer. The ball speed can be set using the frequency converter. A Lego Mindstorms set does the aiming and ball - feeding.

machine in action. Ignore my horrific backhand

What this project has taught me

It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of trial-and error. I often just started building things without proper planning, which sometimes got me into trouble. Also, the main priority was to make it work. It did, but ended up being so bulky and loud that it had no practical value. I now understand that usability and handyness is just as important as making something work at all.

machine in action again. Listen to that beatiful sound.

The finished tennis ball machine standing on an indoor court: a wooden frame on castors with a launcher chute angled upward, two blue motors inside, and a cable running off to the side. — The finished machine on court. It didnt even fit into our car.