It all started in the summer of 2020.
During a dubbles game of badminton at the local club, none of us could keep the scoring.
Even though we were 4 persons playing, after some intense battles, no one knew the score.
This is how is sounds like:
Player 1: “-It’s 8-6!”
Player 2: “-No, its 7-7!”
Player 3: “-I think its 7-8!”
Me: “-I have no idea…”
I want focus on the game and hope that someone else remember the scoring.
It turns our nobody does.
If you have played with a player that says he/she keeps the score in mind, be altert!!
I decided to try to do something about this.
We need something to keep track since we cannot do this ourselves.
I studied electronics in school but haven’t practiced since then.
However I have been working with design and design software during my 27 years profession.
I started ordering cpus, sensors, buttons, leds and lasers and put something together:
First prototype in a box. A ice cream box did the trick
I started to design a proper case.
Wiring a soldering was a mess and the case was bulky:
I managed to rearrange the wires and redesigned the laser holders.
This gave a smaller case.
You can see that I still use the old Arduino Nano with the ATmega328 which only runs at 1 MHz.
It’s not fast but it was enough at the time.
Racket Buddy 0.4
Lasers and Nano be gone. Bluetooth and Espressif ESP32 are here.
Since ESP32 has BLE build in the core, I started to use remote controls for the scoring trigger.
Racket Buddy 1.0
It was time to stop solder and create a proper PCB.
I added 2 pockets for the storage of the remote controls, alias Buddys.
Battery is now 3.7V Li-on, which gives a smaller formfactor than the former power bank I was using.
Racket Buddy 1.1
Smaller changes to the front was made
The right “score down” was replaced by a menu button.
The firmware was totally rewritten by Filip and is now more stable and has more functionality
Racket Buddy x2
Version x2 is the current version. The one in the shop.
The larger display enables not only better visibility but also can show more information at the same time
Also a a 1/4″ thread is added for easy mount on tripod/go-pro mounts
