multi barrel tennis ball launcher

[funkymonkey]

Hi all.

Am working on a little project which a have a few questions about. Hope you don't mind me asking.
So its using very much the same theory as the compressed air spud guns that you guys make, other than I want mine to have multiple barrels and somehow recharge automatically.

So the design so far is roughly this.

3 inch ×10 inch chamber that will be filled to 90psi.
Into the side of that chamber is threaded 3 12v solenoid valves. The barrels via reducers etc will screw into those valves and they will need to be pretty short, 10 inches if at all possible.

Projectile will either be custom made something or other but yo keep it simple for now let's assume tennis balls create a tight enough fit.

So first launch is easy. A remote will select the solenoid I want to fire and away she goes, but eithout any manual intervention I want to pretty quickly (less than 5 seconds ish) fire the 2nd ball and again within 5 ish seconds of that fire the 3rd.

If my times were allowed longer to refill I could go with a 12v compressor but I can't imagine that will be anywhere close to the short time I need.

Any suggestions ???

Thanks

Andy

[Zeus]

Three chambers. Hook them up with a few check valves for a single fill point

[jimmy101]

The standard approach is the way multi-barrel t-shirt launchers are built. A high pressure source and multiple barrels each fitted with a valve that can be opened (well duh) but also closed while there is still pressure. Many fast acting high flow valves can't be closed while there is still upstream pressure. Alternatively, you it could use a single main air-controlling valve and slower routing valves. I believe multi-barrel t-shirts launchers use a single main valve and then rotate the multiple barrels to couple one barrel at a time to the main valve, the rotation mechanism is basically the "routing valves".

For the posted setup of using a smallish single chamber pressurized to 90 PSIG, you'll only be able to launch fairly small ammo since there just isn't enough energy in the air supply for multiple shots with large diameter/mass ammo.

EDIT: And a small 12V compressor can't move anywhere near enough air fast enough to recharge the proposed chamber fast enough to be of use.

[funkymonkey]

Cheers Jimmy. The tennis ball will only need to travel in a nice 40 or 50 yard arc so doesn't need to be a distance machine like I know others aim for.

I'll have a look into the t shirt launchers but I think the rotating side if those will be bit too complex for me and start adding weight where I need this launcher to be pretty portable.

Could I go for a much higher pressure master tank with greater volume that then fills the smaller launcher tanks ??
I can sort of see that I need 3 one way valves but how do these fill only to the desired psi before shutting.