Detatchable PC for Homemades

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 8:21 am

Hi Guys, obviously I'm new to the forum but I've been experimenting with various types of high pressure gadgetry so I'm not new to the types of things discussed here.

I was wondering has anyone considered the possibility of using detatchable PCs?
I noticed that a while back there was some discussion re: clips for water blasters, but what si the point in a clip if you have to still pump up the gun? The whole concept of a clip is that you can stick it into the weapon and your ready to go.

The problem lies in the fact that you need to have some sort of valve on each of the PCs so that after you pressurize them they will stay pressurized and you could carry them around before using them in a gun.

Your check valve needs several characteristics to make it feasible:

1) It needs to have good flow.
2) It needs to have a good seal.
3) There must be a good way to connect the PC with the valve still sealed so that you Don't lose all the pressure.

So here is my explination of the diagram Below (which is a terrible drawing done entirely in paint)

Black - A pipe which runs to the Trigger valve.

Blue - A female fitting which actually can slide along the pipe but which is extremely tight, so as not to leak any water.

Red Square - IGNORE!
Green - Male adapter on the PC. Black pipe will slide inside it when screwed in and pushed back (thus shoving black pipe forwards).

Grey - Flap used to seal pressure inside PC.

Maron Square - Hinge on which flap pivots.

Order of operation:
1) Screw fitting together, ensuring that blue fitting is pulled well back on the end of the black pipe so that the pipe does not push against the check valve.
2) Push PC forward, thus pushing blue and green fitting (now connected) up the black pipe and forcing the black pipe to open the flap on the PC check valve.
3) PC should lock into place in the gun to prevent undue stress on Redsquare.

Ok I didn't explain this very well, but hopefully enough of you will understand to give me some feedback before I go and make something that is guaranteed to fail

So please tell me what you think. (I've tried to attatch an image, I'm not sure if it will work)

EDIT - Ignore the red square in the diagram it will get in the way when the tube is inserted into the PC! (Stupid Daedalus&#33

Spinner · Post by **Spinner** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 8:26 am

Hi there and welcome to SSC! Make sure you've read all the board guidelines and follow them.

As for your idea, I'm not the greatest tech person, so you'll probably need Doom's advice, but I can say I've been thinking about this idea for some time now with detachable CPS chambers. Perhaps a hose connection as used on homemade QFD conversions would do the trick?

Nice first post BTW!

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 8:34 am

Thanks. I'll have to make sure I check up on the forum rules

From what I've seen the garden hose fittings tend to leak, but I havnt tried the brass fittings only the plastic ones. I mean these chambers would problem be pretty heavily pressurised so you'd want the connection to be good.

Maybe if you wanted really High Pressure you could construct some sort of mobile filling station that was essentially a small battery powered compressor with a water resevoir and a connector for filling the CPS tanks. Then you would attatch your empty tank to the filling station and leave it to pressurize while you take your full one off into the field. That or just prepump them before hand so you have 2 or 3 clips before you actually have to do any pumping. I guess you've have a pump and resevoir on the gun anyway just in case your in a tight spot.

RacerSoaker445 · Post by **RacerSoaker445** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 12:21 pm

Very nice ideas, I think we might have another tech guy on our hands!

I have been making a gun that basicly duplicates the Splashzooka SS gun, it's not working right though, plans are attached.

Ok, I'm going to leave now, the fire alarms went off for no reason at 7:30, I need some sleep.

EDIT:

Yellow - Ball Valve
Purple - Check Valve
Red - Barb
Blue - CPS PC
Black - Tee
Green - Female Threaded Pipe

Soaker Leader · Post by **Soaker Leader** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 12:44 pm

Racer, I rember looking at an artical(sp) that had a design exactly like that here it is.

The artical

Btw nice idea, my cousin thought of something pretty simmalir.

SSCBen · Post by **SSCBen** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 7:03 pm

Welcome to SSCentral Daedalus! Your idea is very welcome, and it's good to see some new stuff coming. There has been ideas like this in the past. It's a good idea, however it wasn't exactly done correctly in the SS Triple Shot (or whatever it was, slips my mind). Also, that was the best first post I've seen for months. You are very welcome here.

The problems involved with having something that opens a flap that I see are 1) the pressure may be too high to lift the flap easily and 2) it might leak if it opens the flap too early.

For that reason, and for that of turbulance (remember, straight paths are good), I would recommend a threaded ball valve with the PC on one end. The ball valve being threaded also makes this ideal for CPS chambers made from LRT (threaded barbed fittings screw in), and also PVC air pressure chambers. To use it, just screw it on tightly and turn the ball valve. The design also doubles as a small homemade, you can get a riot blast by default and if you make a converter, homemade nozzles will also work.

I'm not very good at making little drawings, but I believe my idea is simple enough to be understood without one.

BlueSmudge · Post by **BlueSmudge** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 10:31 pm

My homemade had something similar to what Doom was discribing. Instead of having multiple screw on PC's I had an extra PC that could be closed for less pumping in firefights, or open for longer shot times if you have extra time to pump.

Here is a picture:

Look for an article soon at:

BlueSoak

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 2:21 am

Thanks for all the great feedback guys.

Doom's right there are a lot of problems with the design, the thing I was trying to avoid was having to put expensive valves on each PC. I think I saw a thread earlier which was discussing the same sort of thing but the consensus was that the valve cost was too high.

In a perfect design I would have the chamber pressed into the gun without the need for screwing (like a hose fitting) however it would be incredibly hard to stop such a design from leaking, So I might stick to the screwing.

Turbulence should be reduced in my design, however Doom is right about the other 2 problems; it would take a fair bit of force to open the flap and also the device would leak if the flap opens prematurely.

Its hard to explain the way the mechanism works its a bit weird (plus I'm not totally convinced it will work). I'll probably just build one and see what happens.

Getting back to the turbulence problem, if you have another look at the diagram the black pipe which is connected to the trigger valve (and pumping mechanism) will actually slide partway inside the PC thus providing a smooth path for the water. (at least in theory) The problem is that the whole blue section of the mechanism must slide backwards allowing the black pipe to push through the check valve flap. (BTW: Ignore the red block on the diagram I've realised that it is a bad idea&#33

I'll post a few diagrams of the whole homemade I've designed in a bit, I just have to actually finished some nice diagrams and scan them in (or paint them again :blink: )

SSCBen · Post by **SSCBen** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 9:31 pm

Yeah, try to make it. If it works good, then maybe I just underestimated the design. I have to go work, not too much time for a reply. Good luck.

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 7:53 am

Change of plan.

Actually I think this design will be XPBackfire-esque, well maybe not XPBackfire-esque, but not the best design. First It will take ages to switch PCs in the field because you'll have to screw the old one off nad screw the new one in. Second there is a too greta a change of it leaking all over the place.

So I'm doing a bit of a redesign. The new system will be a press-in type like those found on the PCs made by Larami (sort of) I'll draw up another diagram and post it in a bit. The problem with such a design is that when you have pressure in the chamber it tends to push the chamber off the rest of the gun (much like a bottle rocket). To avoid this I've designed a sort of lever/clamping mechanism that will allow you to lock the PC into place in seconds with much more force and accuracy than you could by just pushing it in with your hand. The downside of this is that the actual chassis of the blaster will have to be a bit more complex than the other homemades that have been around (ie: more than just PVC pipe). But It won't be anything impossible to build.

I'll post some pics when I have a decent diagram to show you what I'm talking about.

trekkie00 · Post by **trekkie00** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 12:26 am

Couldn't you just have multipe PCs permanently attached to a splitter, and just turn on the one you needed? It would save the hassle of switching them or carrying them.

Just an idea.

BlueSmudge · Post by **BlueSmudge** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 12:36 am

There is one problem with all of this, and why I decided to go with my idea (see above).
When you attach/open the clip, its pressurizing everythign it can. From the check valve, to the nozzle, whatever size clip you have, its pressurizing that. You loose a lot of pressure this way. So instead of having the option to use it. The option shoul be like mine: to not use it.

Master Yogurt · Post by **Master Yogurt** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 9:28 pm

There's a couple solutions to this that I can see, since I've been thinking about kind of the same thing.

One is to have a various amount of PCs, like, say, five. All are attached with ball valves directly to the gun. By turning them off, you can pressurize each PC individually, then switch between them if you need to. Or, just leave them all on. It would take forever to pump, but your shot time would be absolutely HUGE.

Alternatively, which has been suggested, I think, is to have a myriad of PCs, but only one slot for them. Just pressurize, remove, pressurize, remove, etc. If you had a ball valve very close to the PC (between the PC and check valve, etc.) you'd lose very little water when removing the PC. Of course, you'd have about a billion ball valves on this thing. The other issue is leaking, since they'd probably be screw-on.

If you wanted to make them press-in... I'd say your chances are extremely low. Not so much leaking, but they'd blow off. There's a reason that just about every SS PC has some sort of plastic surrounding it, and that's because, without it, the tanks tend to shoot off at high speeds.

Yeah, I realize that this is one long-dead topic, but, since I've been contemplating something similar recently, I thought I'd add my two cents. It's still a good reference for the future.

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:23 pm

Hehe yeah this topic is pretty dead but coincidentally I was thinking about it again the other day too

I never got around to posting a pic of the full system, but I accounted for the flying off problem by using a sort of lever mechanism to push the resevoirs in and lock them in place. I'll have to try and find a drawing....