Penny Hockey

My Penny Hockey Project was a great learning experience for me. I learned a lot more about how to apply circuits and also how to use tools in the Makerspace. The first thing I did was make my design on Adobe Illustrator. We were taught how to use this program and now I am very familiar with it, I’ve used it more and it’s actually pretty easy to use. I downloaded the logos I wanted on the computer and put them into Adobe. I then cut a piece of tile to my desired measurements and then engraved it. I learned all about the laser engraver and can now use it without any help. I was taught the settings for power and speed while engraving. After I engraved my design I used the sticky back of the tile to put it on MDF wood I cut using the table saw. The table saw was one of the scariest machines to learn but once you get a hang of it, it is very safe and easy to operate. Following that, I started to build my walls. This was by far the hardest part of the project. The Miter cut was very hard because a slight imperfection throws off the whole thing. Eventually, I got almost perfect walls. Unfourtanely though, I had a slight mistake while gluing and nailing the walls to the “ice” part. Because of this, my Penny Hockey Board’s biggest flaw is the small gaps in the corners. I also was able to spray paint my walls blue to make my board look a lot cooler. Another tool I learned to use was the band saw. I used this saw to make my players and legs. After I made my players I learned to use the cordless drill and drill holes in my Penny Hockey set to fit the players in. I also needed to learn how to use the drill press in order to make the goals for Penny hockey set. This machine was very helpful in making perfect circles the size of a Penny for my goals. Now I had finished my board and was moving on to the electronic component. I was gonna make an LCD screen that says, “GO IRISH” since that was my theme and also red lights that light up when a goal is scored just like a real hockey game. In order to make the light go off only when a goal is scored I used copper tape and wire under the goal so the copper penny completes the circuit lighting up the LED. The LCD screen was by far the most frustrating to make. Eventually, after a long time, I got it to work with the help of some of my classmates. The LED was easier at first when I got it to work on the first try, but I encountered the problem of the circuit somehow getting messed up in the storage room. I couldn’t figure out what went wrong but realized the Copper Tape I was using wasn’t conducting so I had to rewire the whole thing. Thanks to my classmates and teachers I learned to solder the wires also, I used this to connect the wires from my Arduino to the Copper Tape and connect my LEDs to the copper tape. Eventually, I got it to work except my big problem was that the penny wouldn’t stay in the hole to complete the circuit. I cut little pieces of wood and glued them to the bottom in order to keep the penny in. I also created a small device with a pen that has a sticky tip that can pull the penny out.

Summary Video