SpudFiles

Hi Spudfiles,
Today I decided to show you the awesome-but-unnecessary trigger I made for an old air gun. Basically, it uses the accelerometer from a Wii Nunchuck to turn a servo, which in turn presses the blowgun valve. This is done using an Arduino and a high torque servo.The airgun is just your average, simple sprinkler valve setup. I designed it to shoot 1" bouncy balls, which make great ammo if you are not shooting for "damage shots". It can shoot other things, but bouncy balls are the most fun, especially if you get a surplus of them off Ebay. Anyway, I don't do a very good job of describing it, so here's a video:
[youtube] [/youtube] actual shots taken in the video were at a very low pressure (3psi) because I was in my garage. Maybe I will make an outside video in the future.

While clever... perhaps a bit risky? It's not the best of ideas to design something which has quite such a high chance of going off if dropped.

What would be awesome though would be if you could apply the same principles to a servo turret assembly - so you could remotely aim it with the Nunchuk - then use a triggering method which was slightly less risky (the trigger button on the Nunchuk perhaps?)

not the safest trigger in the world but interesting project

If you want to combine electronics and spudguns though, why not make a turret?

edit: beaten to it.

You win a T-shirt

Yes, while making it I realized it was probably not the safest firing mechanism as dropping the nunchuck would most likely fire the gun...

However, I can also easily make it remote controlled by simply attaching the servo to a R/C receiver, which I have done with success. The R/C also may actually be useful if bigger, more dangerous cannons were used (I could fire the gun from 30-40ft away). As for the turret idea, I had the same thoughts. I just don't think my skills in elecctronics/Arduino are able to do the wireless thing just yet. Though with some more research/projects about Arduino wireless I may be able to do it (I was thinking about bluetooth). I was also thinking about making it all R/C and putting some big motors with wheels on it. Big R/C car with an air cannon would be cool.

Haha pretty cool. Also don't go high pressure. Your chamber isn't rated...

Now go make a turret!!!

Dang, I was hoping nobody would notice. I made the actual cannon when I knew about nothing about PVC. I have brought it up to 50-60 psi though. Is this too high/dangerous?

How about using a pull cord?

the vid is no longer evailable or just here in germany i often get the message "not available in your country cause of sony...."
but now it just says vid is gone

I think the chuck would make an excellent turret control. With a Motion Plus installed on the cannon for feedback, the chuck could be used for real time motion control. Using the trigger on the chuck to fire, the turret would mimic the chuck motion for a true remote point and shoot. You do not need an analog input for servo control. With the Arduino, a simple contact closure would work fine for a programmed servo fire command.

I can still see the video.

Awesome little project, I wish I knew enough or had the time to learn enough about electronics to do something like this. If it were me though I would have done something like suggested above; why not use the button on the nunchuck to fire the cannon? It would give it a feel much more like a trigger and be a more predictable/stable way to launch the cannon. Plus if you could couple it with some R/C to make a remote trigger that would be super bad arse. I don't know though, maybe you were just trying to experiment with the accelerometer. I've read and heard a lot about how easy it is to use and program the Arduino, even for beginners. I wish I could play around with one, I just don't have the extra money to throw down on a board along with some fun add-ons.

cool

haha thats great. a bit un practical but still awesome.