Hi, I've been planning to build a cannon for a while now but I still haven't decided on how to make smoke come out of it.
I want this cannon to look like it's firing so I need a quick blast of smoke coming out of the end which is synchronised with audio and pneumatics. I'm also planning to shine a bright LED through the bore.
Now the main problem I have is that most smoke machines can take a few seconds to actually output smoke after the button is pressed and the delay is never consistent. There's also a space issue, the smoke machine needs to be separate and have the smoke go through a tube to the actual cannon.
I've got some Geyser P6s which are as close to instant as you can get but I'm not sure about piping the smoke from them. I don't think it would come out of the bore with enough speed either.
Another idea I've been considering is using a regular cheap smoke machine which blasts a bit of smoke into a box a few seconds before the prop activates. Then use an air-bed pump to accurately deliver the smoke to the cannon with plenty of momentum. The same pump could then run at a lower speed to empty the box slowly and keep a bit of smoke coming out of the cannon for a few seconds after the initial blast.
Has anyone got any thoughts/suggestions? Maybe I'm over complicating it and there's a much better way of doing it.
I want this cannon to look like it's firing so I need a quick blast of smoke coming out of the end which is synchronised with audio and pneumatics. I'm also planning to shine a bright LED through the bore.
Now the main problem I have is that most smoke machines can take a few seconds to actually output smoke after the button is pressed and the delay is never consistent. There's also a space issue, the smoke machine needs to be separate and have the smoke go through a tube to the actual cannon.
I've got some Geyser P6s which are as close to instant as you can get but I'm not sure about piping the smoke from them. I don't think it would come out of the bore with enough speed either.
Another idea I've been considering is using a regular cheap smoke machine which blasts a bit of smoke into a box a few seconds before the prop activates. Then use an air-bed pump to accurately deliver the smoke to the cannon with plenty of momentum. The same pump could then run at a lower speed to empty the box slowly and keep a bit of smoke coming out of the cannon for a few seconds after the initial blast.
Has anyone got any thoughts/suggestions? Maybe I'm over complicating it and there's a much better way of doing it.
