Hi,
I'm trying to figure out how to get a short burst of air to be controlled with arduino. I want it to be small and otherwise quiet as possible mechanism, and able to repeat fairly quickly if required. It doesn't need to be super powerful, just enough to make a quick hiss noise. Any ideas? I was thinking maybe some sort of solenoid in a tube with a one-way valve type setup, but not sure if that is the best method or if someone has done something more appropriate?
These run on two AA cells and make a short hiss when they operate, releasing the scent. Maybe the mechanism could be adapted to one of those canned air things that are used to clean dust out of keyboards, etc.
http://www.glade.com/en/products/sprays/sense-and-spray-automatic-freshener
I can think of:
-- a recording of a hiss noise that you play back with one of the mp3 type modules
-- a circuit to generate a white-noise hiss that you can switch on
-- a bottle of compressed air and a solenoid valve to let some air out on command
adferns:
Hi,I'm trying to figure out how to get a short burst of air to be controlled with arduino. I want it to be small and otherwise quiet as possible mechanism, and able to repeat fairly quickly if required. It doesn't need to be super powerful, just enough to make a quick hiss noise. Any ideas? I was thinking maybe some sort of solenoid in a tube with a one-way valve type setup, but not sure if that is the best method or if someone has done something more appropriate?
It's not clear if you need the air or just the sound. If just the sound, you can record it and have the Arduino play it back when needed. If you need the air to blow something you'll also need a compressor or pump of some type and these are not usually very quiet.
I have a 7 gallon compressed air tank that I got for about 25 bucks. A decent air valve runs about 15 to 30 dollars. A 7 gallon tank will give you quite a few short bursts, but then you have to go and refill them with a compressor.
You can also just get a compressor with a large tank, it won't cycle very often if there isn't much air being used.
With air systems you really have to drain the tanks quite often or the rust will make a serious safety hazard though, and cheap tanks can only be drained by physically holding them upside down which is annoying because they weigh 15+ pounds and are bulky.
Haunters (of which I am one) do this all the time with compressed air from an air compressor. You need a 2-way pneumatic solenoid valve (12V DC ones are usually about $15) and a relay with protection diodes or an optoisolator, and a Dc power supply for the solenoid valve. The relay or optoisolator would be connected to a digital I/O pin on the Arduino. With compressed air connected to the solenoid, and a regulator, you can control how much and for how long the air flows very easily.
I make an Arduino shield called the MonsterShield that runs 4 relays, but this is overkill if you only need 1 output and want to do it yourself.
One of these
http://www.mdfly.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&zenid=3cbf332fc8ab269b0cdacecb76e23db0&keyword=mp3
and a self powered PC speaker will play back a hiss sound pretty inexpensively.