Bowling Ball Chronograph

This device was the brainchild of Ray Edwards of PBA tour fame. We built it together to help during practice to make the consistency of your ball speed more apparent. It consists of two IR emitter/receiver pairs controller by an AVR microprocessor. The AVR measures the time it takes for the bowling ball to break both beams and then uses the known distance between the beams to calculate speed in mph. The 125 nanosecond period of the AVR allows this device to be accurate up to several thousand mph, although I have only been able to get readings up around 300 mph.

Ray Edwards and son using the device.

View of my dainty 13 mph back-up ball.

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