Thread: Air cannon's?

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I am looking to rig a small air cannon effect in my haunted house triggered by a foot pad. How hard is this to hook up and how expensive? I already have one small pneumatic prop so I would just run a split house to the air cannon and trigger it with a foot pad?

The footpedal idea is a great and not hard to setup. It's similar to light switch wiring. Just make sure you match the correct volts to your cannon. If your cannon is wired for 12v then use a 12v footpedal/pressure mat.

Split the air line via manifold or just a 1/4 tee connection and put a regulator on each prop. Unless of course you are going to run both at say 60psi. Then you don't need a regulator.

As a bonus if you don't have a check valve on the cannon your other prop will use the air cannon's supply. This makes a reserve tank for you.

The foot pad would have to energize a relay that would energize the solenoid. I don't believe the contacts in the foot pad would handle the load. You would take the normal open foot pad contacts and connect one side to a DC power supply (for whatever voltage coil your relay will have) connect the other side to one side of the relay coil. Connect the other side of the coil to the ground on the power supply. When someone steps on the pad it will energize the coil and close the relay. Connect one side of the solenoid to the Normal open contact on the relay, Connect the Common contact to the source voltage for your solenoid (it will depend on your solenoids voltage) connect the other leg of your solenoid to neutral (if it is running on AC) or ground (if it is running on DC) I can explain further if you are interested.

First thanks for helping guys. Industen, I am actually having that problem with my other prop right now. I tried running the solenoid into a standard motion detector and the solenoid is making this wierd buzzing noise and faulting out. I ordered a foot pad hoping this would remedy my problem. Last year I didn't have time to get a footpad so I bought a handheld trigger system which worked but sucked because from the outside of my haunted house I had to guess where the people were making for some off cue scares and making it so I had to be around there instead of enjoying my party with 70 or so guests.

Soundman, you think the footpad for the air cannon would be insufficient even though the remote prop worked with the trigger?

thanks again guys

It will depend on the current handling capability of the foot switch and the energizing current needed for the coil. The foot switch should have a maximum current rating on it somewhere, usually an the sticker with the model number etc. The coil voltage and current should be written on the solenoid side. If the current draw from the coil is too much for the foot switch, at best the coil will hum and not work, worst case it will burn up your foot switch. Surprisingly, not when you press it but when you release it as it will pull a small arc and eventually fry the switch. Let me know some specs and I can help further.