Trombone Controller Fail

The beautiful distance sensor box that I made yesterday only has one problem. It just doesn’t work. When you put the tube over the distance sensor you get a fixed distance reading. I think it is something to do with reflection off the end of the pipe. Above you can see what happens to the light on the sensor, perhaps something similar is happening to the distance signal.

Oh well. Perhaps I should have tested this approach before I designed and printed the box, but I was concerned that to test the sensor I really had to have it mounted and aligned just right, and a proper box was the best way to do it. I just have to move the sensor outside the pipe and create a target. And anyway, it’s only a failure if you didn’t learn anything from it.