Mechanics of a Box for Dog Sport

[Pugless101]

Hey all I just want to test your ideas on a box that is used for a dog sport. Simple way of explaining is that a dog will run down the lane over jumps and will trigger a box that holds a ball. But this box that is made out of wood and has a face plate that will be hit by the dog as the face plate which they are trained to hit will then move as held in by a bolt and spring which is then attached by a nut and bolt which then hit a medal connection which will fire the mechanism and then realized the ball for the dog to catch. But I want to come away from the bolt and spring which will make the plate move to realize the ball.

What I'm after is doing a non moving face plate which will not move when the dog hit it, but to use the wood to move and trigger the mechanism. But they have to reload as well but not sure on how this would work? They reload by pushing the plunger in where the. Ball sits and then the nut and bolt which is connected to the face plate is already loaded again which the nut and bolt will then be ready for the next dog to collect the ball and run.

 

[.Scott]

If you don't want any significant motion of the face plate to trigger the release, then you probably need to go from mechanical to electromechanical. Perhaps detect the sound or vibration of impact (microphone or piezoelectric crystal), or some other touch switch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_switch).
You could also do it when the dogs nose crosses a beam just in front of the face plate (such as an IR beam break sensor).

There are many possibilities that are similar in costs to a block of wood, a hinge, and a few other misc parts.