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• Moving onto the actual cannon portion

  I_void(warranties) • 03/31/2026 at 22:32 • 0 comments

  The gear train and motor are working great. There is a few tweaks here or there that could be done, but nothing major that I can see.  I went ahead and started adding a feed mechanism for the barrel.  It took a couple of attempts before I got something that let the bb's flowing how I wanted them.  I did add a moveble inner barrel to keep the air in the barrel from blowing back into the feedtube.  I added a tappet plate driven by the sector gear to move the inner air seal and loading pin by the hopper in one motion.  That was the magazine tube is constantly filled with bb's.  However, the tube between a makeshift hopper,  loading pin and the barrel was blocked by a screw in my mock up so I decided to just move ahead and start incorporating it all into the housing.  Its been a larger process than I thought it would be, just alot of parts and holes to make, plus, the existing cannon is split into four parts for printing, so its a little redundant and a need to make it precise so it all fits together.  Im nearly ready to do a test print on the first quadrant, seeing how its where 60 percent of the most complicated parts will go.  I also started working on the pan and tilt system.  The tilt seems to work ok, a little slow and laggy but enough to give me something to go on. The pan system isn't working as well as i hoped, I think the servo is misaligned so i need to reprint that as well.  I am planning on doing a quick test at somepoint, mostly just taping or gluing my mockup to the pan and tilt system and see how it responds before I make any adjustments there.  Over all, its moving along to something a bit more complete that I can post up above before I start to get into the fun stuff.

• Another iteration

  I_void(warranties) • 03/07/2026 at 06:10 • 0 comments

  Im sure the gear train works, and the motor voltage at my last test was around 7 or 8 volts, which ideal.  The biggest issue I'm seeing is gears binding, which I believe is more aligned with mechanical issues.  Im doing another interation of my gear box from the ground up to fix some of the binding issues.  Primarily I'm adding a plate to keep the axles aligned and to keep the gears from wanting to rise too much. I dont think I can shrink the gears much more either, or rearrange them any more, so Im going against my own oringinal parameters and modifying the original housing just a bit, but i dont think it'll change the final look that much and will be negligible.  Im also working on incorporating an feed mechanism as well.  My first idea was to use the existing gears to feed fresh bb's into a magazine tube but the timing would require a large gear and space is limited.  But, if i use the rack to feed bb's with either a solid latch or separate latch(to prevent an over full tube from blocking the firing action) it would both save space and be a bit more accurate in ensuring the magazine tube never gets too full.  My next gear train test will probably not include this feature but loading new bbs from a hopper is next on my list.  I also started started working on the code for both fire control and pan and tilt action.  I had the pan and tilt action at one point but it appears I have lost it, so I need to start from scratch.  I have the gyro readings, i just need to translate those to the servos.  If i can keep the voltage and current needs low enough as well, I have a some darlington pair transistors ready to go for the firing action as well.  The motor only needs to turn in one direction so Im skipping a whole h-bridge and just using a transistor to activate firing. I may be skipping ahead a bit but I feel the majority of my problems are related to the fact I'm dealing with 3d printed parts and alignment issues rather than actual power restraints.  I'll complete this next iteration and keep you updated.  Im hoping I can move on to the feed mechanics and get something finalized soon.  But time will tell. We are all seconds away from a 20 minute project turning into a whole weekend ordeal. 

• Short update

  I_void(warranties) • 03/03/2026 at 00:00 • 0 comments

  Below is a short video of my original gear setup working.  However the set up was too big and bulky to fit into the housing.  I reduced the size of gears, added an idle gear and was able to flip some gears around.  It now fits inside the housing (pics to follow in a follow up log) but still has a few problems.  Most notably, is the lack of air pressure to push the bb out of the barrel.  Im working on that issue as well as running my current gear train at various speeds until they break to look for weak points.  

• Long overdue start

  I_void(warranties) • 02/26/2026 at 04:58 • 0 comments

       I actually started this project a few years ago.  I wanted to make something complex, from scratch and something that would push my skills.  At the beginning I had just gotten a 3d printer and was playing with different things I could do with it.  I printed the mask and shoulder canon but wanted to add some movement to it. I attached a pan and tilt system with some servos, added a IMU to the helmet and was able to move the servos to a close approximation of the head movement. Not perfect in any sense.  I then shelved it for a while.  I knew eventually I wanted to make it shoot actual nerf darts as well as improve the tracking along with a few other details.  About a month or two ago, I decided to dust off the project bin and see if I could finish it.  My CAD and printing skills had improved and felt I could make something alot more from scratch than when I first got into 3d printing.  

        So first, the nerf dart system.  I had an old small single shot nerf gun and i took it apart.  I was honestly hoping it would be as simple as attaching a solenoid to the plunger and voila, it would work.  I was immediately saddened.  My largest solenoids wouldnt budge it at all.  I had to go to a motor and gear system.  After dissecting the nerf gun more, I realized another problem, a hacksaw and hot glue was not going to allow me just cut the pieces I wanted to use, out.  I would have to print or custom fit pieces.

        The first part was the plunger, tube and spring system.  I made the first tube out of pvc pipe and printed a plunger and then scavenged a spring from my parts bin. It seems to work.  I could feel air blow out of the tube so i moved on.  I added a rack to the plunger and a set of gears and a sector gear to drive it.  

       I worte that last paragraph very short, but it took ALOT of effort.  Finding the right gear ratios, proper motor size, making mulitple mounts to test each version until I got something right.  And then, i went to test an actual dart.  Now I could have just waited a day and wen to the store to get darts but I honestly thought i would have atleast one in a couch cushion or somehere.  But I couldnt find anything.  It tore at me that it seemed to be working but had no way to test it.  Until I found a bag of airsoft bb's.  bb's that fit my dart tube perfectly.  So I loaded one up and it shot.  Not far, about a foot, but far enough to show that I did in fact have a working model.  It also changed my trajectory.  With a dart, I would have to load a new dart each time.  But an airsoft shoulder canon, I would be able to load a whole magazine worth at a time and with the gearing, i could even make a feed mechanism.  So I started down the path of making a airsoft shoulder canon with a head tracking system.

        That brings us up to today.  So I had a working prototype,  bbs shot, but not well.  The gears and their configuration dont fit inside the canon as is.  So i've been messing with the gearing, flipping compound gears around, making the whole thing skinnier, and now its too tall.  So I adjust the gears once more, making the whole setup shorter and now I have something that fits inside the housing. Currently I'm printing what I hope will be the final design and can start to move on to making a hopper and feed mechanism as well as moving on to the process of mounting it all to the pan and tilt section. I'll update when I move on to the next part.

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