Pegasus Launcher

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joannaardway
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Pegasus Launcher

Post by joannaardway » Tue May 23, 2006 10:03 pm

I'm sorry, but I haven't got a picture to accompany this yet.

However, I believe that it could well be the next "big thing".

The Pegasus design is a co-axial piston water balloon launcher.

In other words, it has a chamber made of 4" pipe, around the 3" barrel. As for a piston valve explanation:

http://forums.spudtech.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13265

The top flash animation shows roughly what I mean.

I checked the above, and the filter didn't change it - but if it goes wrong, go to the spudtech forums, select any topic and replace the topic ID with 13265.

For a launcher with a 1 m barrel, a co-axial chamber about 90cm along the barrel, 75 psi operation and a 1" ball valve trigger I get the following results back:

This is assuming a balloon the same size and mass as one used in a Douche.

About 175 mph muzzle velocity.
Roughly 700 ft range.

Versus the Douchenator, it will have:

25% more muzzle velocity.
40% more range
Be more efficent (A Douche is around 35% efficent - The Pegasus will be around 67% efficent)
Be around 60-70% of the length (The whole launcher should be less than 4' length)
Only need one reducer (to seal the chamber end against the barrel)

Given the chamber sizes the 75 psi will take about the same effort to achieve as 70 psi in the Douche.

And a final note: 55 psi should yield the same results as a 70 psi Douche charge.

Given better results from a smaller package, the Pegasus design must at least be worth considering.

I don't imagine that it will replace the Douche, but I'm certainly going to build this instead...
Last edited by SSCBen on Tue May 23, 2006 10:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Link fixed.
"Over the hills and far away, she prays he will return one day. As sure as the rivers reach the seas, back in his arms again she'll be." - Over the Hills and far away, Gary Moore

"So many people have come and gone, their faces fade as the years go by. Yet I still recall as I wander on, as clear as the sun in the summer sky" - More than a feeling, Boston

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Scavenger
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Post by Scavenger » Tue May 23, 2006 10:17 pm

The link is messed up, and if you type it in correctly, you still need to register to see the forum (which I did). For those of you who are too lazy to register, a this design is similar to XInvention's PAC 5 (http://www.xinventions.com/main/spud/pac5.htm) except that the diaphragm is replaced with a piston.

Nice idea, though I think the 'equalization hole' might be hard to make, though everything else seems possible. But the Douche still beats this on simplicity. :D

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m15399
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Post by m15399 » Tue May 23, 2006 11:58 pm

Drenchenator has made a water balloon launcher with a piston valve, however it was much simpler and I would prefer it over a spud coaxial valve.

The link wasn't messed up for me...

CRAZY Homemade
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Post by CRAZY Homemade » Wed May 24, 2006 2:15 am

The best thing with this is the valve, is that it opens a whole lot faster then any other valve due to its design.
@joannaardway- I don't think you need a 1" diameter valve, I have seen something similar in real life and it had a 1/2" metal ball ball valve.
You wonder why I am called Crazy Homemade...

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joannaardway
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Post by joannaardway » Thu May 25, 2006 12:29 pm

It could be vented via blowgun. I know a 1" diameter valve wasn't needed.

Part of the point is that a lesser/cheaper ball valve could be used.

Hmm, I'm using the basic Vbulletin interface - it appears that none of the word filters are working with this interface.

I've typed in several words I know were word filtered and none of them were changed.

Ben - can we remove this particular filter? - it prevents the posting of asp links...

The valve will open in only a few milliseconds.

The best the Douchenator could hope for is 1/4 sec - perhaps less with a trigger open assist.

Given that this is a 3" valve rather than a 1 1/2 " valve, there will be a considerable power increase.
"Over the hills and far away, she prays he will return one day. As sure as the rivers reach the seas, back in his arms again she'll be." - Over the Hills and far away, Gary Moore

"So many people have come and gone, their faces fade as the years go by. Yet I still recall as I wander on, as clear as the sun in the summer sky" - More than a feeling, Boston

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wetmonkey442
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Post by wetmonkey442 » Sun May 28, 2006 2:44 pm

I'd go with a 2" barrel and 3" chamber. If you want, you can expand the barrel to 3" once it is past the end of the chamber. My reasoning for this is: Pistons are hard to make anyway, and a 4" piston will be pretty hard to accurately seal. If you use a 3" chamber, I've heard hockey pucks fit perfectly. Also, make the equalization hole small to start off with, and then gradually increase it's size to find the optimal ratio.

Good luck and as always, pics are appreciated!

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SSCBen
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Post by SSCBen » Sun May 28, 2006 2:53 pm

Ben - can we remove this particular filter? - it prevents the posting of asp links...
I thought I had removed it, so post the link and I'll fix it afterwards. The previous error was due to a filter I made which changed "sp?" to something a little more humorous.

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joannaardway
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Post by joannaardway » Sun May 28, 2006 9:18 pm

I don't know if it has been removed... I was told it hadn't been by others...

I'll give pictures when I begin construction. Yeah, perhaps 2" is better. I'll experiement.
"Over the hills and far away, she prays he will return one day. As sure as the rivers reach the seas, back in his arms again she'll be." - Over the Hills and far away, Gary Moore

"So many people have come and gone, their faces fade as the years go by. Yet I still recall as I wander on, as clear as the sun in the summer sky" - More than a feeling, Boston

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WaterWolf
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Post by WaterWolf » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:23 pm

Here I am reviving an old topic again. (Sorry about that).
But what happened to the Pegasus? I liked the concept and had actually been considering designing something similar to this after having seen the XInventions web-site several years ago.

With the valves ability to dump the air so fast, it would seem that the system would be more effecient and allow you to get the same amound of range with less volume of air. Which makes a miniature version of his design sound appealing for a rifle, since for a rifle you don't need much range as it is and using a desighn like this would make it more compact and require even less air to recharge.

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joannaardway
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Post by joannaardway » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:27 pm

The idea is still on the drawing board - it may get created, but I've got much more wacked out ideas to try, and those normally get priority.

However, if I ever order an excess of pipe in the right sizes, then I'm certain that I could spare some of it.

It might need careful work, because a good piston valve could smash apart water balloons that didn't have a reasonable sabot.
"Over the hills and far away, she prays he will return one day. As sure as the rivers reach the seas, back in his arms again she'll be." - Over the Hills and far away, Gary Moore

"So many people have come and gone, their faces fade as the years go by. Yet I still recall as I wander on, as clear as the sun in the summer sky" - More than a feeling, Boston

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