Thread: Question on Solenoid Valve and Air Cannon

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I made one of the cheap Air Cannons I have seen around the forum. I used a Sprinkler Valve like most eveybody else. I have it hooked up to a 5 gallon portable storage air tank which is fed by my 10 gallon compressor. Everytime I activate the air cannon quickly, it turns on and depletes the whole storage tank and kicks on my 10 gallon air compressor to replenish the 5 gallon storage tank. Obviously this wont work for the big night. I have seen the $300 air cannons that shoot out a quick shot of air and turns right off. Is that because of the Solenoid they are using? Would it work better if I were to buy one of the better Solenoid Valves? First pneumatic prop Ive built so Im not to familiar if certain Solenoid valves maybe actuate ( ie: open and close,) faster then others. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Im going for just a quick shot of air. Not a long drawn out depletion of my whole tank each time it actuates

Buy a cheap prop timer like this one:

FrightProps - Halloween Props, Pneumatic Props, Animated Props, Halloween Accessories

PS, if you can solve the 'goose honk' problem without much effort, let us all know.

The noise adds to the scare, but for some reason it's just annoying to me.

You can try this kind of cannon. Pretty easy to build and the sound is about as good as it gets.
there is some video and audio clips on this page...
Air Cannon Pneumatic

You can buy one prebuilt and better built than this from corey minions Minions Web - Index Page - CobWeb Maker, Air Cannon, Effects - Halloween Portal, Haunt Products, Hallow-links.com, Projects, How To pages, cemetery photos, concepts, epitaths, recipes, sound effects/video/games FTP servers

Originally Posted by wilbret

PS, if you can solve the 'goose honk' problem without much effort, let us all know.

The noise adds to the scare, but for some reason it's just annoying to me.

to get rid of the "goose honk" you have to take the sprinkler valve apart and use a dremel and make the air passages bigger !

Exactly, which is why I said if he found a 'simple' way to resolve the goose honk. ;-)

Originally Posted by floridaspook

to get rid of the "goose honk" you have to take the sprinkler valve apart and use a dremel and make the air passages bigger !

It took me all of 15 min to do I'd call that pretty simple!

I built one of the cheapies a couple years ago -

I have had problems with the sprinkler valve shutting all the way off when it is deactivated.

Has anybody solved this problem?

I was thinking about buying a better valve - but 1" valves are expensive!

Use a solenoid valve designed for the purpose of compressed air, and you should eliminate all your problems. Here is the valve we use with all our cannons.

Evilusions

Originally Posted by gadget-evilusions

Use a solenoid valve designed for the purpose of compressed air, and you should eliminate all your problems. Here is the valve we use with all our cannons.

Evilusions

What is the difference in direct acting and pilot?