The Jumpwatch was designed for athletes to improve their vertical jump. I was inspired by a similar product, and was hoping to create something valuable and much less costly. 

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Key learning: how to use a Dremel, dividing up teamwork equally, became more comfortable soldering, more Arduino coding, practice in testing analysis

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Our product ended up costing roughly $50, whereas a comparable product costs $600 on average. Overall, our product offers an affordable and mobile platform to track a users vertical jump height.

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The Jumpwatch consists of two pieces of plywood held together by a hinge on one side. There are three switches inlaid in the bottom piece of plywood. Because of the impact of someone jumping on the board, there are also springs on top of the switch boxes so the switches won't be crushed. The switches stick out enough that when the board is compressed from the weight of someone, no matter where someone stands on the board, one switch will always be activated. 

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The electrical hardware was set up to run with an Arduino and served to detect whether or not a person was directly on the platform. This was accomplished with several single throw double pole overload switches connecting to a 5V source, a 0V source and a reading pin on the Arduino. There is also a pair of LEDs for feedback which run on a very simple resistor LED circuit.

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The software component of the device runs on the simple principle that if any of the switches are depressed then the pin it is connected to on the Arduino will read 5V. This is considered “HIGH” for the digital pin and so the Arduino rests on any empty while loop until this changes and all the switches are open. The Arduino measures the time on its internal clock and stores it. The same thing happens until the condition of all switches open is violated, in which case the user has landed back on the board and the Arduino stores a second time. Finding the difference between the 2 times allows for the use of kinematics to determine the user’s jump height.

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This project has been my favorite so far because I was able to create something that is very interesting to me. I am a volleyball player, therefore I have and will continue to do a lot of jump training for my sport. I believe the Jumpwatch can be a very useful tool when it comes to tracking my progress. I look forward to being able to see how much my vertical improves after training for a few months.