SpudFiles

Cant wait. In your right up you mentioned the piston mod may have the power of a regular piston of the same size are you going to test this also?

No. There is no way that this piston will equal the performance of a regular piston launcher (that's built right, that is). You see, the airflow has to go around more bends and stuff, which cuts down on the flow rate.

I just put that there for dramatic effect.

perhaps you can add more information about electricity wise.. min voltage, max voltage, min amp, max amp, etc.

i read somwhere i guy used a camera flash to trigger a solinoid.

Davidvaini wrote:perhaps you can add more information about electricity wise.. min voltage, max voltage, min amp, max amp, etc.

Well, to be honest, I haven't really worked too much using the electrical portion of it. What's in there is all that I know. BUT, if anyone can provide me with some good data on such a thing, I would be glad to update the book. That, in fact, is one of the sections I would like to update.

jon_89 wrote:i read somwhere i guy used a camera flash to trigger a solinoid.

I'm sure triggering a solenoid with a camera flash circuit would not work as intended. You see, the solenoid needs to stay open for a bit longer than the camera circuit provides voltage.

A camera flash would also be an unnecessary amount of power, and might harm the solenoid

Biopyro wrote:A camera flash would also be an unnecessary amount of power, and might harm the solenoid

Fuel injection systems on cars use s system similar to this. They use a high pulse to initiate the motion opening at high speed followed by a lower voltage to hold it open for the dwell time. The solenoid has to be built for this. AC solenoids have a "shaded Pole" shorted turn in them to provide a phase shift (delayed) current section so the core doesn't try to drop closed as the AC waveform passes through 0 current. This is provided to eliminate buzzing. Unfortunately this design for AC power makes them unsuited for fast DC pulse operation. For more info search out detailed info on dual step voltage solenoid operation and detailed (beyond elementary) info on how automobile fuel injectors work. An electronics background is useful here to grasp the concepts if inductance, current, voltage, etc on a solenoid. Do some research, the info is out there.

PM me, but don't expect a fast response. I'm heading out to a men's retreat to shoot the big boy for the weekend.

Thanks, very usefull. I never knew you could mod a blowgun valve, that info will come in handy. Nice TUT!

Not that it was needed, but I was bored and put together a simple animation of how a sprinkler valve works. It has been edited into the original post in a youtube vid.

very nice animation.

only suggestions would be to show firing a little slowe and also a "chamber" sealing valve too

jon_89 wrote:Wow two inch. What was the performance like?

I used one on a two inch barrel. Dual 36 inch 3 inch chambers charged to 115 psi split 3/4 inch tounge and groove oak flooring using a 1 inch stack of 2 inch washers

The Sprinkler Valve has been updated. Ever since I've written the book, I've been studying and learning as much as possible on this valve type. Although the previous version is good, the current one has even more information.

I've also slightly changed the format and made it a little easier to read. As always, please report any problems.

Oh, and it's been updated in the Hubb Library as well.

It looks great. The simplification of the AC vs DC is great. It is not too technical and shows what works and why.

As a minor point to reduce confusion, it may be a good idea to show the series batteries and switches to show 2 9 volt instead of three. Great resource.

To fully contain the book on SF, is it possible to have the PDF as a down-loadable file in the WIKI or is it too big for even the wiki to host?

I'm not quite sure how to do it in the wiki, but the zipped file is too large to upload to a thread.

A good friend of mine in the irrigation industry says the Orbit valves are dangerous above 80 psi. Says to go with a rainbird valve in lieu of the orbit... Anyone else here this?