Semi-short linear travel with some force.

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1

Alright, so I’ve been chipping away at a little pet project of mine for a bit - Arduinoifying a Nerf gun. Most of the things I’m doing are going to be very straightforward, but I’m having an issue with the actual firing of the gun.

The first thing I tried was [this solenoid - It has the force I need, but nowhere near the travel distance. I need something like 35-40mm travel, maybe even up to 50mm, to get the dart out of the clip and into the flywheels so it’ll actually fire.

The second thing I tried was the [motorized slide pot, but at the lower voltages it doesn’t have enough force to push the dart out of the clip. I’m not certain if it would have the force if I increased the voltage a bit, but I’d like to avoid any excess circuitry that I don’t need. I’d like to run the flywheels and the firing mechanism off of 6-12v, and would likely just plug that into the Raw input of a Pro Mini to power all the arduino stuff.

What solutions are there with the appropriate travel length (Min of 35-40mm), and also the force to push the dart out of the clip?](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10976)](Solenoid - 36v - ROB-10391 - SparkFun Electronics)

2

You probably want something that can store a lot of energy and release it all at once. Like a spring. The question is if you have the room for that kind of mechanism.

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Well, both the solenoid and pot would have required a significant amount of modifications to fit in properly.

I also want it to be repeatable without having to do things manually - IE, press a button, it fires. I’ve looked into using Co2 cartridges like you’d find in a paintball gun and using a solenoid valve but I’m pretty sure that’s overkill.

As far as energy goes - It’s not the actual firing mechanism, it’s just pushing the dart from the clip into the flywheels, which then accelerate it to its actual firing speed. I am, however, not against designing/implementing my own firing mechanism although that would require significantly more work, I think

4

An R/C servo and a push rod should give enough travel for that.