Belt driving ball sports training machine

A sports training machine ball launcher assembly consisting of

• a tension belt-driven propulsion module comprising:
• a closed loop belt having width about half the diameter of the ball to accelerate the ball;
• a motorized belt-driving wheel powered by a variable speed motor at its ball expelling end and a non-motorized pulley wheel at its ball receiving end,
• where a length of the belt considerably exceeds that needed to cover the distance between the motorized and non-motorized driving wheels, thus creating a slack condition;
• a framework forming the tension belt driven module structure consisting of two identical flat members, each of which attaches to one side of the driving and the pulley wheels, where the shape of said members is
• contained within the perimeter of the belt, and
• biased to create a large clearance between the framework and the belt span that carries and accelerates the ball;
• a tensioning mechanism contained within the framework wherein
• midway between the driving wheel and the pulley wheel, each said flat member has a slot that is perpendicular to the belt surfaces;
• a tension pulley connects the two slots and rides within them, and
• the tension pulley is inside the belt perimeter and is spring-loaded in a direction to maintain tension on the belt, thus
• dynamically removing the slack condition created by the additional belt length that is not taken up by the weight of the ball as it is carried by the top of the belt surface, and
• automatically guiding the ball to follow a dipping arc path in the vertical plane;
• whereby the ball's contact with the belt is prolonged, allowing extended time to accelerate, and conservation of the ball's consequent curved path angular momentum together with its centrifugal reaction force on the belt keeps it on the same;
• a ring subassembly structure comprising:
• a circular frame structure that
• is mounted on the launching assembly at the ball ejection end of the belt-driven propulsion module,
• is oriented so its axis is parallel to the motion of the ball,
• has a diameter larger than necessary for the ball to pass through, and
• supports a multiplicity of motorized ball griping wheels, which
• are distributed at several locations around the circular frame structure,
• make contact with and grip the ball as it passes through the frame,
• assist with acceleration of the ball, and
• cause the ball to have the desired spin magnitude and direction;
• whereby the ball is ejected with the desired translational speed in accordance with that of the variable speed motor and motorized spinning wheels, and with the desired spin angular momentum in accordance with the differential speeds of the motorized spinning wheels.

A combination ball delivery gate component and anti-jam component subassembly contained within a ball feeder assembly and a ball collection assembly of a sports ball training machine;

• where
• the ball collection assembly receives and stores a multiplicity of balls and delivers them as space appears one at a time via gravity-feed to a cylindrically shaped feeder assembly as aided by the anti-jam component;
• the feeder assembly holds a multiplicity of balls in a vertical array and delivers them when needed one at a time to a ball launcher assembly as aided by the delivery gate component,
• the combination ball delivery gate component and anti-jam component subassembly comprising:
• a control motor horizontally mounted just below the bottom of the feeder assembly that rotates a disk whose axis is also horizontal;
• a vertical pushrod whose lower end is attached near an edge of the disk with a floating pin, where
• the top of the pushrod is in the collection assembly and is attached to the edge of a horizontally placed circular guide ring whose diameter exceeds that of the ball but is less than 50% larger than same,
• the guide ring selects a ball each time the pushrod is ascending, thereby preventing a jam, and
• at a location of the pushrod close to the bottom of feeder assembly, it is attached to a ball delivery gate component, formed to be shaped like the arc of a vertically placed circle, such that the gate is closed when the pushrod is at its lowest point and open when the pushrod is in its highest point;
• whereby the combination ball delivery gate component and anti-jam component subassembly releases a ball from the feeder assembly to the ball launching assembly at time intervals in accordance with the control motor speed while simultaneously selecting a replacement ball from the feeder assembly.