Continue to Site

Welcome to our site!

Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

  • Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

Recoil generator for toy gun?

Status
Not open for further replies.
I mean more along the lines of whether or not you have found out how the light gun trigger works to make it activate the recoil mechanism (relay, solenoid, and all)
 
Yeah, I know everything I have to do except for which solenoid I need and how I should set it up.
 
Which solenoid... Well, basicall you needone that will fit into the space availiable inside the gun. A longer stroke would be better. Something to do with physics and a mass in motion... And, it also needs to be able to pull some weight. A heavier weight would give a better effect. Lastly, power. Is this to be completely in closed inside the gun, or will the power come from an external source? A gun on a leash isn't pretty, but more practical. Solenoids can use some power, wouldn't get many shots of batterys stuffed inside the gun.
 
HarveyH42 said:
GUN CONTROL! How's that working out for you Brits? Sorry, couldn't resist. I really can't imagine how anyone could believe banning handguns would really have much impact on reducing crime.

It has a large impact on gun crime, the USA has huge numbers of people shot every year, the number in Britain is vastly smaller - and we don't have kids going to school machine gunning their class mates!.

The USA isn't so much criminals shooting people, but ordinary citizens, slight disagreement - pull gun out of bag and shoot them!.

Anyway, back to the plot - as suggested, a solenoid is probably the way to go, but (here's my 'hopefully' clever bit!) have the plunger in the solenoid hit a stell plate in the gun - this will make a nice noise, and will give a 'kick' when you fire. This should allow you to use a far smaller solenoid than would be the case otherwise, a spring should be used to pull the plunger back.
 
Lemme think... solenoid... steal plate... :eek: Holy crap you really are a genious! Wow... I never would have thought of that... it's friggin' BRILLIANT! My goodness I wish I was related to you... Thanks man. That should work GREAT.:D
 
Electric Rain said:
Lemme think... solenoid... steal plate... :eek: Holy crap you really are a genious! Wow... I never would have thought of that... it's friggin' BRILLIANT! My goodness I wish I was related to you... Thanks man. That should work GREAT.:D

When you patent the gun and sell it, send me a percentage! :D
 
Nigel Goodwin said:
When you patent the gun and sell it, send me a percentage! :D

Heheh... yeah, I'll um, get back to you on that. :p

My only problem now is finding a decent 12-24 volt DC PUSH solenoid. All the ones I'm finding are pull-type. :confused:
 
Last edited:
Electric Rain said:
Heheh... yeah, I'll um, get back to you on that. :p

My only problem now is finding a decent 12-24 volt dc PUSH solenoid. All the ones I'm finding are pull-type. :confused:

Normally a solenoid is open ended, let the solenoid PULL the plunger in and hit a plate close to the far end of the coil. To 'PUSH', the plunger would need to be a magnet.

BTW, as for my metal plate idea, it all came from YOUR original question, unlike most requests yours was specific and told us all EXACTLY what you were wanting to do, and WHY! - this allows sensible and helpful replies.
 
Nigel Goodwin said:
BTW, as for my metal plate idea, it all came from YOUR original question, unlike most requests yours was specific and told us all EXACTLY what you were wanting to do, and WHY! - this allows sensible and helpful replies.

Thank you. :) I've always tried to be thorough with my questions, but it usually ends up making my post WAY too long. I'm glad to see someone actually appreciates it. Thanks again, Nigel.

Edit: Hmm... what do you think of this one? https://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/SOL-96/575/SOLENOID,_PUSH-PULL_.html
 
Last edited:
Honestly, for an impressive kick, I might take apart an Airsoft gun. Those things pull back an air plunger against a stiff compression spring. There are electric ones that retract the plunger automatically.

So we take out the air chamber and weigh the plunger down with a couple ounces of lead. That should give an impressive kick!

All these solutions are going to be unlike a gun in that although they kick back initially, they will then jump forward as the mass is stopped. A gun only kicks back. But unless your device actually ejects mass out the front, it's basically impossible to avoid because the law of Conservation Of Momentum dictates it. The best you could do is try to make an abrupt kickback as it accelerates the mass forward, and create a less noticible kick forward by stopping the mass gently with some sort of soft buffer.
 
I love Jameco. BAM! Check this baby out. (I never use the word "baby" like that... it's THAT awesome.) A low current, low voltage, small size, big power, PUSH solenoid at a decent price. Can it get better? With 7 Li-Ion cells in series, this thing can be completely wireless. :cool: What do you guys think of this one?
 
Pretty good, but it's my understanding that Li-Ion cells are not suited for high current draws. Not sure how the solenoid ranks, but it could be up there.
 
Says it's only 333ma, but then that's probably continuous. You're saying the initial shock of when it's first powered might take like... 2 amps or so, right?
 
Electric Rain said:
Says it's only 333ma, but then that's probably continuous. You're saying the initial shock of when it's first powered might take like... 2 amps or so, right?

Just have an electrolytic across the supply feeding it, the electrolytic will supply the surge it takes!.

To be honest this looks a pretty damn big solenoid, I would expect a far smaller one would probably do what you want?, as it's hitting a steel plate.

If you've got any old scrap VCR's knocking about, some of those used to have a solenoid for moving the mechanism - could be worth trying one if you've got one?.
 
I can't say anything for sure. All I know is that Li-Ions are better for low current draws (electronics) and terrible for high current draws (usually mechanical widgets).

Nigel Goodwin said:
To be honest this looks a pretty damn big solenoid, I would expect a far smaller one would probably do what you want?, as it's hitting a steel plate.

Stick the light fun into a larger setup and make it a light rifle. More room inside for batteries if you really want to go that way (I still think you should use cord).
 
Last edited:
An electrolitic... wow. I can't believe you just think of things like this. :confused: Also, I intend on making this thing a shotgun. So I have some room to spare. The solenoid is actually quite small, it just packs a HUGE punch. :p
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest threads

New Articles From Microcontroller Tips

Back
Top