We have both systems running.
The driver holds the bumper (button above the trigger on an Xbox controller) during collection. If he lets go collection stops, collection also stops when the IR range finder senses the ball. Most of the time the driver is able to get it before the ball reaches the sensor but when they are blind to the ball and 54 ft away hopefully the sensor will take over.
Our code is on github, it’s by no means competition ready, we still have 3 weeks till our first competition.