God bless you
Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
31–40 of 375 posts
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#32Right now I'm working on adding LED + DMX DJ light control - I kinda want to be able to order LED strips to "chase" a ball as it goes down the lane or back up the return. I plan on triggering laser-light shows and such with the DMX controller. Eventually, I want to allow a customer walk up to the lane, tap to pay and start bowling immediately, too. Kiosk-ize bowling alleys, yknow? I'm pumped. So much room for activit…
How are you handling bowling shoe rental?
Isn't that included in the lane price? Always has been for me.
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#33Back when I was in school I interned at a company installing bowling lanes / machines. Even back then it was fairly simple technology, no cameras or speed measurement yet, just some inputs from the machine as to what pin-cords had been pulled out (i.e. what pins fell down) translated to some simple animations. I remember the screens being just a simple VIA motherboard running DOS + their software from a compact flash…
In the US tethered pins with cords aren't really a thing, instead most bowling alleys use mechanical pinsetter machines. These machines are large, complex, and expensive (see here for a video on how they work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iod6uwUGM2E ) which is why he's talking about the equipment being 70+ years old- with the revenues most bowling alleys make, it's not economical to replace a pinsetter instead of…
I'm disappointed that the USBC is starting to certify tethered pin setups, though it is fortunately a separate category of competition. The pin action is wildly different.
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#34Hi, What you accomplished here sounds interesting, both from an entrepreneurial point of view and also from the engineering side. A good, nice, detailed technical write-up of what you achieved here would be very interesting. Maybe a Hackaday.com blog entry, too? Put it on GitHub? Have fun :)
+1 Hackaday
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#35This is great content. Have you thought about a second income stream by teaching prospective tech business owners on Youtube? It's a model ppl are successfully using?
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
How are you handling bowling shoe rental?
Isn't that included in the lane price? Always has been for me.
I think they mean the physical process of handling the shoes. At most places you rent your land and get your shoes at the same counter, basically in one transaction, which seems difficult to handle with a kiosk.
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#37I started bowling in my teens and as a programmer have often wondered about how these things work, and have had a few opportunities to peek under the hood of the machines. Incredible stuff. Thank you for this work, I'll point my alleys to your creation when it's public.
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#38- A Digital Twin of the facility in 3D?
- R3F and Drei for React-based 3D Three.js animations; but it might be best to pre-render at high FPS and encode with ffmpeg
- ProjectM, MilkDrop3, limit
- TIL about shuffle skating aka jam skating
- OpenNext NextJS
- Serwist for a PWA so that you can access your stats when not connected
- IndexedDb, sqlite-wasm, duckdb-wasm
- To run lights, projectors, etc. (with low enough hertz to avoid PSE Photosensitive Epilepsy risk) I have heard about: OSC (BespokeSynth, Resolume,), SMPTE LTC, Resolume projection mapping, mapmapteam/mapmap projection mapping,
Open Lighting Architecture has a list of Ethernet Protocols including OSC, and a list of USB/Serial/Network devices.
HyperHDR does ambient lightning to match displayed video.
Sometimes the glare from all of the lights is too much for visually impaired persons and animals FWIU; no varying lights hour might win too.
- If the machines are so old that all you need is a relay, there's possibly not as much need to model the whole system with TLA+ and check the proof.
Could ask the model about an "SIL" (Safety Integrity Level) controller or similar for a bowling alley. Rust RTIC and Rust embassy have RTOS features.
How to write unit and integration tests for the system without hardware simulators that can randomly fault.
- Soft-white backlit multicolor(?) ePaper displays would save energy and cut glare.
Most flying insects cannot see red, orange or yellow light;
Red preserves night vision. Blue keeps operators awake. Blue and white cause the worst glare. Jet instrument gauges are reddish/orange-ish.
- UV Blacklight paint, UV LED Black light.
Blue light glasses are great for reducing UV blacklight glare.
- Best LED projector 2026
- Gogs/Gitea/Forgejo host Issues, repos and can run Actions with nektos/act.
Cool project. Integrate an issue tracker with mobile notifications?
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#39Right now I'm working on adding LED + DMX DJ light control - I kinda want to be able to order LED strips to "chase" a ball as it goes down the lane or back up the return. I plan on triggering laser-light shows and such with the DMX controller. Eventually, I want to allow a customer walk up to the lane, tap to pay and start bowling immediately, too. Kiosk-ize bowling alleys, yknow? I'm pumped. So much room for activit…
How are you handling bowling shoe rental?
We just charge a flat rate with shoes included. We do $5 / person or $25 for a whole hour for larger groups. Wanted to take some of the advanced calculus out of the price of bowling, yknow?
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't that included in the lane price? Always has been for me.
I think they mean the physical process of handling the shoes. At most places you rent your land and get your shoes at the same counter, basically in one transaction, which seems difficult to handle with a kiosk.
Totally - we've got notifications wired in though, so our counter instantly knows "lane so and so needs such and such shoe sizes"