SpudFiles

OK, my newest Idea (Christmas holidays causing my spud gun making to be in overdrive)

I am planning to mount a small copper dart gun on a remote controlled car that I have - definitely powerful enough to carry it - and shoot it via remote control which used to be wired to a Nerf gun to it, so I know that it works. anyway I built the gun and hit a dead end, how to remotely activate the valve, I can't use an unmodded sprinkler valve due to low performance and it requiring to much power so My idea is to use a servo powered ball valve. I don't know whether this has been done before, so before I buy the valve and the servo
(the servo will definitely be faster than by hand or a spring loaded one) I was wondering whether the servo will give the valve comparable opening speed to a modded sprinkler valve? And whether my project is worth doing?

sorry for the bad grammar it's late here

It wont be as fast as a sprinkler valve, but if it's a higher speed mg then the performance should be above satisfactory. If you don't mind risking it you could try modifying the speed of the servo, as most servo's geared for rc cars have a lot of torque. Good luck

Having a spring loaded ball valve and using the servo to unlock the mechanism is a much better idea. Alternatively, have the servo power the ball valve directly, but with the ball valve being the pilot of a QEV

Use the servo to trigger a modded sprinkler valve.

hmmm... why don't you pack several 9V batteries to power a normal sprinkler valve with them??

Not knowing how large your gun and vehicle are there, you could pilot the gun's modded sprinkler valve with another sprinkler valve that still solenoid controlled. You have lots of advantages to staying electrical on your pilot mechanism if you can.

I'd spend the money on a tank with a air soft cannon all ready made on there then make darts for it.

thanks for the replies guys, my eyes turned to the ball valve because all I needed to do was attach a servo to the "trigger" part of it, unmodded sprinkler valves are out of the question because the RC monster trunk is nitrous powered so It only has 3.6v to run the receiver and the steering and throttle servos so the 24v required by the sprinkler valve is impossible to achieve without heaps of weight and space being used up by the battery packs, so I'm going to use the servo-ball valve to pilot a QEV which if your Australian and don't know can be bought cheaply from here:

http://www.bellpro.net/xcart_program/home.php?cat=268
sadly their biggest size is only 1/2"

I'd spend the money on a tank with a air soft cannon all ready made on there then make darts for it.

well the funny thing is in Australia you can buy the tanks, but not stand alone airsoft guns.

I am also thinking of using another servo-ball valve and have primary and secondary chambers so after stealing the clip system from my Nerf long shot semi auto function will hopefully be possible . but thats for another day

How do you guys get your posts so high anyway? i only just got up to ten!

How do you guys get your posts so high anyway? i only just got up to ten

Look at the join dates below the avatars, I've been here 3 years, and talk alot I guess.

Unmodded sprinkler valves are fine. I'm gonna use a servo in an aircraft I'm designing to provide air support in airsoft scenarios, and it uses 18v to power the MG's. The guns are completely out of the electronics circuit. Use the servo to either press a button or press two wires together.

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I suggest simple Transister basising with an unmodded solenoid.

i have many rc cars and i dont think the servos will be able to handle that very well. the ball valve would be to hard to turn. why not use the servo to pull the trigger of a modded sprinkler that would be much easier on the servo and servos arent really hard to break or cheap enough to just replace them

cheeseboy wrote:thanks for the replies guys, my eyes turned to the ball valve because all I needed to do was attach a servo to the "trigger" part of it, unmodded sprinkler valves are out of the question because the RC monster trunk is nitrous powered so It only has 3.6v to run the receiver and the steering and throttle servos so the 24v required by the sprinkler valve is impossible to achieve without heaps of weight and space being used up by the battery packs,...

All you need is a single (or perhaps 2) 9V battery(ies) to operate a typical sprinkler valve. That really shouldn't add much weight to the setup. 24V solenoids work fine at 18V and OK at 9V. All you need to do is have a 3.6V signal from the main battery pack that you can control. The 3.6V is then used to operate a relay or power transistor that controls the 9V (or 18V) to the valve's solenoid.

If you use a relay that's all you need. If you use a power transistor you'll need a snubber diode across the solenoid to keep the solenoid's back EMF from cooking the tansistor.

The difference in performance between a mod'd and unmod'd sprinkler valve really isn't all that great. If you want better performance you can either boost the pressure or the barrel length used with the unmoded valve. With a high friction or mass ammo the difference between a moded and unmoded valve is even less.

Exactly how big is the gun? If the barrel is an inch or less in diameter than a 1" unmodded valve should perform OK. If the barrel is even smaller, say for 1/2" marbles, then the unmoded 1" valve should be pretty darn close to a moded valve.