asilentbob Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 A friend (who I have never met in person) is trying to fire 10-30+ pneumatic cannons simultaneously for various events. They would be filled with confetti or colored water based paint. Neither one of us is particularly good with electronics and so I figured I'd ask here for him. Can you wire solenoids in series? Do you assume a voltage drop of 24v across each one? His original idea was to use 3 9V batteries at each individual cannon and use some other means to trigger them all at once (have relays with the triggering voltage side in series?). Obviously this could be pretty annoying with so many 9V batteries, so he is trying to find other possible ways of doing it. You could have 2 small 12v SLA batts in series at each cannon as well, which would add some cost, give some longer life, but also require the hauling around of a lot more weight. If you can wire the solenoids in series and the voltages add, then damn, you would need a pretty high voltage source. I suppose this could be done by rewiring the secondary on a microwave oven transformer for the required voltage and putting it through a bridge diode rectifier to get DC out. Yes? No? Or many batteries in series which gets pretty dangerous as well... Any other possible ideas?He was telling me that one of his more electronic circuit savvy guys was saying something about capacitors. I personally don't understand much about capacitors. I have been reading on the side every once and a while about ultra-capacitors, but for completely different project ideas. If he does a batteries at the guns sort of approach I imagine he would fire them all with something like relays where the relay for each cannon has its triggering side linked with all the others in a long series circuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pechovski Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 (edited) Maybe you could activate the solenoids with a modified 32-cue firing system, they basically just need a zap to operate but i guess it all depends on how much that type of solenoid needs to work. But 10-30 cannons with individual solenoids is nothing cheap.... EDIT: Guess what im trying to say is, it should be able to still parallel connect them and get them all activated at once with the help of capacitors and relays. Edited May 21, 2011 by Pechovski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 Please remember that lower voltages are preferred for safety reasons NOT MOT level voltages. ( A MOT delivers about 2KV DC the voltage is lethal!) Low voltage is usually considered to be below 50vDC so unless yo can prove that your system is fully UL and Code compliant, stick below 50v! 4 x 12v SLA giving 48v is a good high level to use. However if each cannon has a power supply then several digital systems can send a fire signal down a digital link or some wireless units can be used Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeus Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Parallel is definitly the way to go, they should all be able to fire from two car batteries in series. If voltage drop is a problem, use three. That's the easiest way to do it, low voltage, simplicity and fewer parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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