exhausting my efforts to smoke

John Pissey · Post by **John Pissey** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 11:02 pm

Hi All

I've made puffer caps on my exhausts to make the exhausts look as realistic as I can. They look so good fitting perfectly flush on the exhaust ports and I was going to weather and camouflage the exhausts when I decided to give the smoker fan a try. I have not set up my electrics yet but wanted to see the caps function with the smoker fan. From the copper piping system of the smoker assembly I have connected a flex hose which flows directly in and through the exhausts to the top exit ports as was advised to achieve the best smoke effect. I have also plugged all air cavities from the smoker unit other than through the exhaust ports only to find that their is not enough wind from the smoker fan to make the puffer caps function! It will not even work one of them! Has anyone put puffer caps on their tanks exhaust and how did you remedy this if you did? Can I install a stronger fan or am I just wasting my time trying to make these work? I can with very little effort work them with my breath which is how I benched tested them. Wife thinks I'm just full of hot air so it was not a proper test. So I'm at a loss as to what to do now! Shall I divorce her or is their a fix for making these puffer caps work?

John

Dave Nadin · Post by **Dave Nadin** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 11:52 pm

Hi john
I have been doing some expremantel work using the smoke system as supplyed by Armortex. Trying to get a smoke projection from mussel of the centruion gun. sound like we have the same issue. With the fan working at full speed, the posative pressure is not suffecant to lift your puffer caps. The best way forwared would be to ether counter balance the caps or reduce the caps weight, to a couple of grams.
It will mean a bit of a rethink on the material for the puffer caps, & the smokerpipe route to reduce the overall length and bends, to give the maxamum amount of air flow at the puffer caps, the fan produces approx 0.25 bar air pressure at full speed.
You wont be able to fit a stronger fan at the smoke generator, as this will kill off the smoke volume generated. As a ramdon thought ! how about trying to fit a secouned fan just before the exhaust puffer caps..

Back to the drawing board & good luck Dave n

John Fitzsimons · Post by **John Fitzsimons** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 2:17 pm

What are the caps made from. Resin would be lighter but I stil do not thing the fan would lift them.

Paul Morris · Post by **Paul Morris** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 3:25 pm

Hi John.

Made the puffer caps a few years back I never imagined they were going to function just did it for the look ....obviously the problem is you have no pressure build up like on a real engine and exhaust so no puff to work the puffer

I actually had one CLOWN (no names Gill lol) suggest I make them from balsa wood so they would be lighter

My only other thought was to have a wire rod going down the exhaust to pull on the puffer via servo control linked to the revs on the sound but never bothered.
Good look cheers Paul.

Adrian Harris · Post by **Adrian Harris** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 6:31 pm

I would have though plastic card would be needed to make them light enough for the fan to raise them.

> have a wire rod going down the exhaust to pull on the puffer via servo control

Hmmmmmm

Adrian.

Paul Morris · Post by **Paul Morris** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 9:13 pm

Hi Adrian.

Surely our resident electronic wizard doesn't think this could not be done? whats the difference between a rod pulling down on an exhaust puffer and a servo opening say perhaps a door????

Cheers Paul.

Adrian Harris · Post by **Adrian Harris** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 9:39 pm

I would think it should be possible to hide a small servo in the base of the silencer, with a pull rod running up to the top.

Adrian.

Paul Morris · Post by **Paul Morris** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 11:24 pm

That was what I thought also

John Pissey · Post by **John Pissey** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:15 pm

Thanks Guys

These puffer caps are very thin plastic with a plastic arm attached to an aluminium flange and weigh next to nothing. I'm not sure what they actually weigh for I have nothing available to weigh such a minute amount.

However I was afraid, if I asked, that there would not be an easy fix! I already thought if you modified the smoker fan system it wood spoil the smoke effect. So..... I guess I will scrap them or run a cable up through the silencers via a servo to operate them. I will ponder this for awhile.

Mmmmm, hay, Adrian can the servos be operated by your sound card so that they operate when the engine sound revs.

Just Thinking

Adrian Harris · Post by **Adrian Harris** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 7:00 pm

> Mmmmm, hay, Adrian can the servos be operated by your sound card so that they operate
> when the engine sound revs.

No, I'm afraid not. You would need something which listened to the sound control channel and the two motor control channels and then moved the flap servos so that they operated in the same direction whether the tank was moving backwards or forwards.

Not actually too tricky to do with a processor board such as a PICAXE or Arduino but not something which is available at the moment.

Adrian.

peterbarclay · Post by **peterbarclay** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 1:08 pm

Hi i too wanted to use flappers but gave up. I was using resin ones from FOA. I have added a much larger fan to my smoker. I am still not happy. I am going to put small 24v radial fans in the base of each exhaust. You can see my fan upgrade in 'LATE TIGER SMOKER UPGRADE' Cheers Peter

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