[KenWittlief]

the problem you are having is that the become light is very strong, and it will reflect off walls or people standing nearby, or any other nearby objects

so if you are trying to test them in a small room, then no matter which way you point the sensor or the beacon, it will flood the room with light and the sensor will trigger.

so first step is you gotta set the beacon up in an open space, like it will be on the playfield

then you have to put your sensor into some sort of enclosure - we found the little black hobbie boxs from radio shack work well. put the sensor in the box at one end, then drill a hole in the other, like a pinhole camera - the sensor will only detect when light enters directly through the hole and hits the sensor

depending on how big of a hole you put in the box, the sensor will act like a telephoto or wide angle lens - so start with a small hole and work your way up.

If you dont want the sensor to be too angle sensitive in the up/down direction then instead of a hole, cut a slit in the one end

BTW - we tried playing around with metal and PCV pipe to do this. The metal reflects the light too well inside the pipe, so its not directional, and the PCV has the same problem.