I'm trying to essentially build a Raspberry Pi powered pachinko machine, where I need to detect when a magnetic marble falls through a gate/opening/region. Are there any electrical components/breakout boards/ideas I could use to detect such an occurrence? I've been debating on using a Hall Effect Ratiometric sensor paired with an ADC converter and GPIO ports to detect magnetic fluctuation to detect when the marble passes, but I didn't know if there were any better ideas. Maybe some sort of gate that won't mess with the marble's trajectory? A light or motion sensor? Something that can quickly detect the marble's presence?

For reference, here are the magnetic marbles that I'm using. I'm using a Pi Zero too.

  • those magnetic marbles may be too brittle for your application .... also, what material are you planning to use for the pins? – jsotola Mar 26 '18 at 4:29
  • Hmm do you think those marbles will shatter? I actually won't be using any pins :) I'm really building a sort of Rube Goldberg machine that students will assemble in order to guide a falling ball down through a series of gates/openings, where I need to detect when they're successful in making it through one of the gates. – Ampp3 Mar 26 '18 at 4:42
  • I'm wondering if the phototransistor setup here might work well for this... my only worry would be if the phototransistor would detect a ball moving very quickly. youtube.com/watch?v=5xQcbjkGq0A – Ampp3 Mar 26 '18 at 5:09
  • the marbles may shatter if dropped on the floor or if banged together – jsotola Mar 26 '18 at 5:13
  • I've been trying to run a few experiments :) I just thought it wise to ask the hive mind if there were any simple ideas that I might not have thought of. – Ampp3 Mar 26 '18 at 5:14

A light sensor usually works pretty well when you can illuminate it with a LED and make sure that the passing marble will block that light.

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You only need an ADC / comparator when you want to measure / detect a very specific illumination level. If you instead can make sure there's enough illumination difference to toggle between 0 and 1, you can connect it directly to a digital pin.

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  • I like this idea, and I see a few other people who have used similar solutions. Thanks for the idea! – Ampp3 Mar 29 '18 at 2:39

You don't specify the size of the region through which the marbles pass.

If a Hall effect sensor can be positioned so that a marble always passes within a millimeter or so then it would seem a natural solution. No need for an ADC. The ones I have (OH3144E) default to Vcc and pull to ground when a magnet is close.

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  • Sorry for the lack of details, I haven't nailed down the exact dimensions, though the gap is planned to be around 3 inches wide. Sounds like a Hall Effect sensor might not be my best bet then. – Ampp3 Mar 29 '18 at 2:39
  • I wouldn't have thought so, but I'm just a hobbyist with very limited experience using one type of Hall effect sensor. – joan Mar 29 '18 at 7:13

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