camera flash?

[jon_89]

has anybody used a camera flash on a sprinkler?

[Modderxtrordanare]

has anybody used a camera flash on a sprinkler?

I learn something new everyday, sorry for being some-what rude.

I haven't seen anyone hook up a camera ignition to the solenoid on their sprinkler, I see no need for that though. (I prefer modded sprinklers. (well, I prefer pistons, but you know what I meant.))

[jon_89]

the wiki said it could be done and i was wondering if anyone had tried it.

[clide]

Yeah, I've seen it done, but it doesn't really accomplish much since a sprinkler valve opens slow because of the flow of the solenoid, not the opening time of the solenoid.

It may allow you to modify the solenoid outlet for more flow, but on the valves I have seen it would require a lot of work to enlarge the solenoid outlet by any significant amount.

[Panzerfaust]

Ive hooked up some camera circuits for some stuff, and id agree that you probably get no gain from using one to trigger a sprinkler valve. in fact those camera flashes put out some very high power (i learned this when i shocked myself, it had the taser affect of making me loose muscle control). I would also say that those solonoids probably arent designed to handle that large of a power pulse. However, you could probably use a camera flash capacitor to make a good spark mechanism on a combustion cannon, or as my personal favorite, hook it up to some nichrome wire and make remote fireworks ignition. Or if you really want something different, you can use them to make electromagentic coilguns.

[jon_89]

no power gains than?

[Hotwired]

No power gain worth noticing from using a photo flash cap to trigger the solenoid.

It's all about how fast the pilot volume can be vented and a pneumatic trigger will do that a lot faster. Just triggering the solenoid with an overdose of voltage won't do anything.

[jon_89]

is there anyway to modify the solinoid itself?

[Jumpin Jehosaphat]

What do you want the solenoid to do that it doesn't already do?

[koolaidman]

Camera flashes use transformers to boost their voltage up to 4000v (using a 1.5v battery ) so... um.... 4000v intsead of 24v may not be good for the solenoid, but i dunno the electromagnetic wire would probably hold it for that short burst.