Homemade Reactive Archery Target

[Liza Sarychev]

Hello,
I'm making a homemade archery target that will flash a light every time the target has been pierced. I'm thinking of using the idea behind resistive touch screen technology. So every time the arrow pierces a resistive layer would contact a conductive layer and increase the resistance of the circuit.

My problem is: how do I take that increase in resistance and use it as a signal to turn on a lightbulb.

I am not an EE, and have VERY limited knowledge, so thank you for helping and being patient.

Also, is there another way to solve this problem of turning a light on every time the target is hit, perhaps with capacitance? Maybe use a grid of switches that once hit and ruptured could trigger a capacitor to flash a lightbulb?

 

[anorlunda]

Welcome to PF.

The problem with most of those ideas you suggest is that they would degrade with time as more and more arrow holes puncture it. My suggestion would be a cheap microphone to pick up the sound. A little metal shield in front of the mike would protect it from being pierced by an arrow.

Others on this forum are much better than I at circuit design, so I won't propose a circuit myself.

Good luck. That sounds like a fun project.

 

[Liza Sarychev]

Welcome to PF.

The problem with most of those ideas you suggest is that they would degrade with time as more and more arrow holes puncture it. My suggestion would be a cheap microphone to pick up the sound. A little metal shield in front of the mike would protect it from being pierced by an arrow.

Others on this forum are much better than I at circuit design, so I won't propose a circuit myself.

Good luck. That sounds like a fun project.

Hi anorlunda, thanks for your input!

The idea would be to print circuits on paper that would be disposable and plug them into a control unit.

 

[Baluncore]

A microphone or vibration / movement detector behind the target is probably the simplest solution.
Is any hit a score or do you want different scores for different distances from the centre.

 

[Liza Sarychev]

A microphone or vibration / movement detector behind the target is probably the simplest solution.
Is any hit a score or do you want different scores for different distances from the centre.

Hi Baluncore,
Any hit that's on target is a score. The target can be anywhere from 2 in in diameter to 6 inches or even more.