Marblatron

The Marblatron produces a brilliant pulse of light, signaling the arrival of a metallic ball from the Luminiferous Ether. This ball spirals downward. Mainly this is due to the effects of gravity, amongst other things. Until finally it disappears from whence it came.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zvh_fvajl0


The light is generated from a 24 LED Adafruit Neopixel ring. This ring fits neatly in the cap piece, and a ribbon cable runs down through access holes in the riser sections to the base. In the base there is a location for an Arduino Nano that runs the Neopixels and ball sensor. The ball sensor is simply two wires that are at the top of the screw section. These sense when a ball is about to be ejected onto the track as it comes in contact with them. The Arduino then produces a bright pulse of light just before the ball pops out. At other times, the Marblatron simply generates a rotating pulse of yellow light to help gravity do it's work.