How much can you pay per target? Get 64 conductor ribbon cable (3.2" wide) and lay two of them vertically next to each other, and 2 of them horizontally next to each other behind the paper. Attach connectors to them, which plug into PCBs nearby. Use a bunch of multiplexors to scan continuity through all 200 wires, and compute exact bullet penetration to within 0.05". It's a very low cost system with high cost replacables - each target would use perhaps 4 feet of cable and 8 connectors that would be reusable for a few targets, but in the end each target would still cost $12 or more, and it would only cover a 6.4" x 6.4" square. With relatively intelligent scan interpretaion you can use one array for more than one target - even if the bullet goes through the same hole, it's unlikely that it'll be exact to within 0.05" and miss all four remaining wires bounding the hole. Low cost start up, high cost consumables, or high cost start up, low or no cost consumables? If it works well, you could probably buy or have someone weave custom wire cloth with stripped ends that clamps into a frame of contacts. Even if several wires never make contact, or short out, you'll still have more than enough information for reasonably good position information. This could cost less than a dollar per mesh. You might even be able to find such mesh available right now, and can strip the ends after trimming chemically, or design the frame to pierce the insulation. Window screen comes to mind. Lastely, in quantity PCBs are very cheap. If you get a very thin PCB (not standard FR4) then it won't shatter with a bullet. Buy in quantity, have one edge for all the contacts and use an edge connector. Should be $5 to $0.50 each depending on quantity and size. Double sided, not plated through, no mask, no silkscreen. Very, very cheap in huge quantities. Or print the target in white silkscreen on top of a black soldermask on one side. Lots of options there. With space/trace requirements of cheap PCBs approaching 8/8 mil, you could get a resolution of 0.016" or 62 lines per inch. With no testing and lower PCB quality control you can lower the cost because you don't really care if a few dozen traces are bad or shorted. Feel free to send my royalty checks when you hit it big. Alternately, encourage me to make one as a summer project so I can make it big. ;-) -Adam On 4/16/08, Vic Fraenckel wrote: > As the OP I apologize for making this such a complicated question. All I > wanted was some ideas as to how to make an 'intelligent' target that will be > able to say 'that shot was in the 9 ring at 2 O'clock or that shot was a > bullseye' and perhaps report the coordinates of where the bullet passed thru > the plane of the target. Of course the intelligent target must have a paper > target for the shooter to aim at. But the scoring would be done by the > 'Intelligent Target' not an observer. > > Vic > > -- > ______________________________________________________________ > > Victor Fraenckel > KC2GUI > windswaytoo ATSIGN gmail DOT com > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Moving in southeast Michigan? Buy my house: http://ubasics.com/house/ Interested in electronics? Check out the projects at http://ubasics.com Building your own house? Check out http://ubasics.com/home/ -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist