BowlSense Learn

Building BowlSense — A Smart Sensor Puck for Bowling

What if you could simulate your exact ball and layout before drilling? Here's what we're building and why.

I've been working on something I'm really excited about and wanted to share the early build journey. It's called BowlSense — a small sensor puck that fits inside a bowling ball and captures real throw data (rev rate, axis tilt, axis rotation, ball speed, even pin impact detection), paired with a simulation platform that lets you test different balls and layouts virtually before committing to a drill.

The Problem Most bowlers pick balls based on gut feel, pro shop recommendations, or YouTube reviews. Layout decisions (pin to PAP, drilling angle, VAL angle) are basically "trust the process" — you won't know if a layout works for YOUR game until it's drilled and you've thrown it on YOUR house shot. That's a $200+ gamble every time.

What We're Building The Hardware A 9 axis IMU sensor (Seeed XIAO nRF52840 + ISM330DHCX) that sits inside the ball core BLE connection to your phone for real time data capture 416Hz sampling rate — captures every rotation, deflection, and pin impact Small enough to not disrupt ball dynamics The Software We built a full simulation and analysis platform.