2 replies to this topic

[Ze Baron]

Greetings all; thusfar I've been kicking the idea of the titular gun around in my head for a few weeks now, and after looking into some resources have reached the following conclusions/requirements:
The structure would be based roughly on Boltsniper's Fast Action Rifle, with the mechanical fire group and piston assembly replaced by a programmable electronic trigger linked to a sprinkler solenoid valve at the very back of the barrel assembly. The front of the valve would be screwed into he rear of the barrel assembly.

The solenoid would be linked to a compressed-air tank either carried externally, or maybe integrated into the front of the lower receiver, the rear half of which would contain the trigger assembly.

There would need to be a way (chop it out of an existing gun?) for the magwell to accept standard N-strike mags, which presents the problem of how to seal the solenoid end and the barrel end around the top of the magazine for when the solenoid is fired.

A battery housing integrated into the side of the gun for the solenoid and the trigger.

The barrel would need to be able to be detached from the magwell/solenoid assembly.

Does it sound feasible? Is there any way to make the solenoid/magwell unit sealed for each dart? Is it possible to program the trigger to pop the valve at the exact amount of time to shove one dart out of an imperfectly sealed mag, based on tank psi? Or is this all just a PVC pipe dream?

[roboman]

Not to be a backseat mod, but these kinds of threads are generally extremely erotic here.

In any case, it sounds like you have some sort of an idea of what you need to do, so I'll see if I can help you out.
From what I can tell, you're basically making a version of what I did last spring, except for Nerf darts instead of ping-pong balls:

(It's fully automatic)

That uses a set of arduino-controlled solenoid valves (one for the cylinder, one for actually shooting the balls). It has a 3" pneumatic cylinder actuating the breech cover, which seals off the "feed hole" fairly well. You could implement something similar in your design - possibly an angel-style breech, so that it can accept standard N-Strike mags without too much air loss.

I wouldn't suggest a sprinkler valve. They're a bit TOO "good" for a Nerf gun - you'll be seriously hurting people. I'd suggest something along the lines of a QEV with a much smaller solenoid valve to pilot it.

Other than that, what you're trying to do is definitely feasible, but probably not practical for nerfing. Most wars would not allow this, since it's a homemade airgun, and, according to your plans, uses a sprinkler valve to fire the dart.

Oh, and you can get a free 5-port, 4-way solenoid valve here. You'll need one if you want to use a pneumatic cylinder in a controlled manner.

[VACC]

The word "would" shows up a whole lotta times in the op. That's a pretty good indicator that this is a concept thread, and not permitted on these forums. No one really wants to test another guy's theories for them. Build something, than feel free to come back with questions or conclusions. Until you've done that, we don't want to hear about it.