[MJKZZ] sends in this entertaining little tutorial on building a small automated cannon out of a syringe.
He starts the build off by modifying an arc lighter, the fancy kind one might use to light a fire on a windy day, so that it can be controlled by a micro-controller. The arc is moved to the needle end of the syringe with a careful application of wires and hot glue. When the syringe is filled with a bit of alcohol and the original plunger is pressed back in a small spark will send it flying back out in a very satisfying fashion.
Of course it wouldn’t be a proper hack without an Arduino added on for no reason other than the joy of doing so. [MKJZZ] adds an ultrasonic sensor into the mix which, when triggered appropriately by an invading object fires the arc lighter using a reed relay.
He demonstrates the build by eliminating an intruding coke can on his work bench. You can see it in the video after the break. All in all a very fun hack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21PT2IwS2eY&feature=youtu.be
The coolest soda can launcher I was a theta pinch coil/PSU. Just on that alone I wanted to work in Plasma Physics here at the UW.
University of?
Wisconsin?
Wyoming?
Washington?
Walloongong?
Arcs, explosions, projectiles, ultrasonics.
Hacking at its finest.
Transistor would have been fine. 2N3055(D880) is power horse already. Points subtracted for no ne 555 or raspberry PI and complete lack of wifi/BT connectivity.
Wheres the : x/y or polar tracking system, auto loader magazine or at least single shot six rotary, metered alcohol and air injection, thermal monitoring so as not to melt syringe, and flashing armed signal? It does have an ultrasonic ranging so use of Arduino ok. Not great due to lack of utilization. Get some servos in there damnit.
2N3055s are a minefield these days, even through the 90s and early 00s there were second source versions using less silicon that were not “fakes” per se but not near as robust as the Motorola originals. Since then faked motorolas and fakes of the second source versions that you could at least look out the specs for and see where the spec varied slightly, are endemic. Be particularly wary of old designs that might have pushed 20A though them on a big sink at low duty cycle because unless you can get a very original produced in 60s or early 70s Moto one, all others will die.
True but is a 3Amp circuit. The M did mean something quite often. Sister 2955 too to that effect. Nothing better than good design and pushing 20A through a 15A device especially in linear mode NOT good. Do miss TO-3 and big Heatsinks a bit. Not really necessary with PowerFETs nearly as much. Being what appears to be a fairly new design would expect something along FET line but for a couple of bucks cost in one -offs probably not.
That’s illegal to build in Poland because it fits the definition of a firearm (as in “Ustawa o broni i amunicji”).
For something that small police probably won’t care but there have been numerous cases of people serving jail time because they built spud guns out of PVC pipes.
At least use propane. And where are the lasers??? I want lasers…