So, I got this wild idea a while back – a remote control golf ball. Sounds simple, right? Just a bit of fun. Well, let me tell you, getting that little white sphere to do my bidding turned into quite the adventure.
Getting Started – The “Brilliant” Idea
It all started on a lazy Sunday. I was watching some golf, probably dozing off, and thought, “Wouldn’t it be hilarious to nudge a ball just a tiny bit with a remote?” The kind of dumb idea you get that then sticks in your head. I figured, how hard could it be? Slap a tiny motor and a receiver in there. Famous last words.
First thing I did was grab an old golf ball. Took a good look at it. Realized pretty quick that these things are solid. And small. Really small when you start thinking about stuffing electronics inside.
The Guts of the Problem
My initial plan was to hollow one out. I tried drilling. I tried cutting. I mostly just made a mess and ruined a few perfectly good golf balls. The core material is tough, and there’s not much space once you get through the cover.
Then I started looking for components. Man, you go down a rabbit hole looking for tiny motors, receivers, and batteries.
I needed:
- A motor small enough but strong enough to actually make the ball move.
- A receiver that could fit.
- A battery that wasn’t a joke.
- Some way to actually make it roll – not just vibrate like a pager.
I spent hours, days even, scrolling through websites for hobbyist electronics. Most of the stuff was for little drones or RC cars, which, believe it or not, are kinda bulky compared to the inside of a golf ball.
Trial, Error, and More Error
My first “prototype” was a disaster. I tried to use one of those tiny vibrating motors from an old phone. Yeah, the ball just buzzed angrily on the spot. Didn’t roll an inch. Big surprise.
Then I thought, maybe an internal weight? Something off-balance that spins? I got a slightly larger motor, attached a tiny piece of metal off-center to the shaft. This was getting somewhere. It would wiggle, sometimes even lurch forward a bit. But controlling it? Forget it. It was more like a possessed golf ball having a seizure.
I also had to figure out the shell. Hollowing out real golf balls was a bust. So, I tried 3D printing a two-part shell. My first few prints were too brittle or didn’t snap together right. More wasted time and plastic.
A Glimmer of Hope (and a Slightly Bigger Ball)
Okay, I cheated a bit. I decided to make a slightly oversized “golf ball” first, just to see if the mechanism could even work. Think more like a ping pong ball with a weight problem. This gave me a bit more room to play with.
I managed to cram in:
- A small gear motor – more torque!
- A tiny RC car receiver.
- A LiPo battery, the kind for micro drones.
I wired it all up, painstakingly soldering these tiny connections. My eyes were killing me. I stuffed it all into my 3D printed shell. It looked… well, it looked homemade. But when I hit the controller, it actually moved! It waddled, it wasn’t fast, and it certainly wouldn’t fool anyone on a real golf course. But it was remote controlled movement!
The “Final” Version (Sort Of)
Getting it down to actual golf ball size was the next mountain. Everything had to shrink. I had to get creative with how the motor was mounted, how the weight was distributed. I even tried to embed tiny magnets and use an external coil to make it roll, but that was way too complicated for my patience level.
I eventually settled on a very compact internal eccentric rotating mass (ERM) motor, a more powerful one than the phone vibrator. I had to design a custom, super-tight internal chassis, also 3D printed. The battery life was terrible, maybe 5-10 minutes if I was lucky. And precise control? Still a dream. It would move in a general direction, more of a drunken wobble than a smooth roll.
The outer shell was still 3D printed, painted white. I even tried to add dimples, but they looked a bit sad. It wasn’t fooling any golfers, let me tell you.
So, What Did I Learn?
Well, I learned that some silly ideas are way harder to execute than you think. I learned a lot about micro-motors and just how fiddly tiny electronics can be. My soldering skills got a bit better, mostly out of sheer necessity.
Did I create a perfect remote control golf ball to cheat at my local course? Absolutely not. It’s more of a novelty, a funny little thing that rolls erratically when you press a button. But the process of figuring it out, failing, and then finally seeing that little white ball twitch and move on its own? That was pretty cool. It kept me busy, and I guess that’s the point of these kinds of projects, right?
It’s definitely not going to win any engineering awards, but it did make my friends laugh when I showed them the wobbly little thing. And sometimes, that’s all you need.
