Battery powered homemade soakers

Build a homemade water gun or water balloon launcher and tell us about it.
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ocusa
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Battery powered homemade soakers

Post by ocusa » Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:25 pm

I recently saw a picture of the scorpion on isoaker.com. (http://www.isoaker.com/cgi-bin/Ikonboar ... l=scorpion)

The idea of a powered soaker is one that really appeals to me. It mainly appeals to me as in my most recent water fight (April 2005(a long time i know!)) was with a bunch of little kids. Anyway, one of these little kids had a generic brand backpack soaker, with a piston pressure gun attached. He just didn't have the upper body strength to fire this thing far, and it was quickly removed from him by one of the older kids. I then gave him one of my generic air pressure soakers which he used for awhile with mild sucess before being stolen by one of the older kids again. A battery powered soaker would put him on more even terms with the rest of the kids, and generally I think he would have had more fun.

I was wondering if anyone had attempted a battery powered homemade soaker at some point. If so, I'd like to hear about it. Detailed specs and pictures would be an added bonus.

I searched the forums for "battery", "powered" and "electric" so if i missed it, let me know.

Also, I should post that full story as it happened during "Songkran". Anyone heard of it...? you hardcore water fight fans should know...
Doooooooooooooommmmmmooookkkkuuuuunnnnnnnnn!

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joannaardway
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Post by joannaardway » Mon Mar 13, 2006 4:56 pm

Battery powered soakers are generally very ineffective (maybe 20 ft range)

However the one on the isoaker thread will work differently - and will likely be hard to replicate.

Possibly someone might succeed with a Pressuized reservior soaker which used a battery powered tyre compressor, but that sort of thing would eat batteries.
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SSCBen
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Post by SSCBen » Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:24 pm

You can easily "make" a battery-powered homemade water gun with a portable air pump. I've seen small ones that are powered by the car electrical outputs or batteries that can get over 100 PSI of pressure.

The problem would definitely be time to compress however. These water guns will take a long time to fully compress. It would be easy and far more worthwhile to simply use a pump or normal air compressor.

Even still, you could have a separate air tank in the style of constant air pressure. Yes, you will eventually have to refill it, but that would be after many many shots. ;)

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m15399
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Post by m15399 » Mon Mar 13, 2006 11:49 pm

You could also get a high torque motor and make it pump the soaker. Just put a big wheel on the shaft (of the motor) that has a rod attached near the edge (other end to the pump), so that when the wheel turns, the rod pushes/pulls the pump in and out. I'm looking for a pic of something like this on google...

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kevinthenerd
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Post by kevinthenerd » Wed Apr 05, 2006 4:25 am

If you can figure out some way to rig a deep-cycle marine battery in a backpack, you'd have a very high power, long-lasting source of energy. Get the electric motor out of an old trolling boat motor or something. (Car air compressors would be very slow, but for under $20 that'd be the cheapest way to do such a thing.)

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SSCBen
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Post by SSCBen » Wed Apr 05, 2006 9:23 pm

I think that would be heavy as well, ruining any advantage created through the use of an electric pump in my mind. Might be good as a powerized-QFD system though! Someone needs to make a powerized-QFD system to support quick-filling of homemade water guns. :)

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Mon Apr 10, 2006 3:04 am

It's also probably a poor idea to use electricity as a supplement to arm pumping power, if that's what you were thinking of--once again, it's weak and complicated, introducing more weight (and removing space). Electric "soakers" were outclassed by Super Soakers' efficiency for a reason.

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SSCBen
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Post by SSCBen » Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:07 am

My "powerized-QFD" idea was a stationary filling station similar to the normal QFDs used by Super Soaker, except that the powerized version would be designed to get more power than just the hose allows. It's not to supplement hand pumping at all, in fact, it exists to eliminate it on a select few homemade water gun.

WaTer FigHt NoOb
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Post by WaTer FigHt NoOb » Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:25 pm

Wow, electric water guns... just pump it... <sighs>

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:35 pm

WaTer FigHt NoOb, were you supporting, opposing, or acting neutral with electric water guns? I hope you were opposing them :D .

WaTer FigHt NoOb
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Post by WaTer FigHt NoOb » Sat Apr 22, 2006 2:33 pm

When i say "just pump it" i mean why get a weak sause battery powered gun?

just get a normal gun and pump it! So yes i was opposing it.

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Sat Apr 22, 2006 3:11 pm

Good, I hope so.

But I have been taunted by a few ideas of automatic pumping--air compressors, electric motors, and the like. The only reasonable alternative, because of its speed, is one that I came up with: at a station, a compressor or motor pressurizes a tank. When you hook up your reservoir (QFD) or PC gun (SC) and open the ball valve on your gun, the pressure equalizes instantly.

Of course, this works best if your station uses a tank, large or small (or CPS ;) ) that can take high pressure; if the tank is too big, it will have low pressure, and your PC won't be pressurized enough. On the other hand, the tank will not lose too much of its own pressure. Solution: either the station or your homemade should use a CPS bladder, enabling maximum pressure :cool: .

Somebody, please tell me where I should move this post; I don't think this is the best thread for it.

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SSCBen
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Post by SSCBen » Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:18 pm

Create a new thread quoting the important posts initially if you'd like to start a thread on the concept of a QFD station. That's the easiest thing to do without shuffling around posts. ;)

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:05 am

Okay, I'll create a new thread--I just don't want to clutter up the forums with excessive threads (but I can be paranoid about that).

@ everybody:
As far as my QFD idea is concerned, I would prefer you to post your comments about it in the new thread. Thanks!

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