Controller Developer

@OldSurferDude The website should be back again.

@Greg-Bowers

MyController version 2.0.0.Final

There is no version in MyController 2.0.0.Final I think it should be 1.6.x or 2.0.0-devel?

@Greg-Bowers can you elaborate the issue you are facing with MyController? also please provide the MyController version details

I thought I'd give an update.

I added four .470 capacitors in paralel, but the gun was still turning itself off. Then I added the diode, and.. it worked! The gun remains stable.

...at least.. while it was on a beefy lab power supply. It indicates that when firing the gun uses about .6 amps, and it prefers to be around 8.5 volts (6 AA batteries). 9 volts seems to be too much.

I tried to switch it to the intended portable design, with a USB PD decoy feeding into a 4A up-down adjustable buck converter.

But then it crashes again.

For example, I tried this:

• 55W steam deck USB-C PD power supply ->
• adjustable decoy set to 15 or 20 volt.
• down-converting that to 8.5v with the buck converter.

Maybe all this power converting means that it can't provide the sudden increases in power when the motor spins up?

Perhaps using a linear DC-DC converter work better? Or maybe the USB-PD decoy just can't handle it? It's a mystery.

Thanks. I'll look into it.

@ejlane Could a resistor be used for that?

I think capacitors with a blocking diode would be the right call..

Cool!

That calculation clears up so much. Really great explanation, thank you!

It seems a diode is needed either way.

The power supply runs both the Arduino the blaster itself, which means the two motors it uses. One motor spins the barrel (purely as an optical effect), and other one actually shoot out the darts.

for a hobby level project maybe simply going 10x for a few pennies more would be a good idea

Glad to hear that (other than cost) there is no problem with using a way too big capacitor. That also simplifies building up a stock

So I have this huge NERF gatttling gun that I was trying to have some fun with. I wanted to be able to lock or unlock the trigger remotely based on face recognition, which is handled by a mobile phone at the front of the gun.

The problem I ran into is that whenever the gun's motors spin up then cause a power loss to the arduino. Now I could add a separate power supply for the Arduino, but it would obviously be much cleaner if it looks like a normal gun from the outside.

So I figured I needed some kind of "electrcity buffer" that would continue to provide the Arduino with stable power whenever the motors spin up.

I realised I know very little about capacitors.

• Which type do I need? Some are "aluminium high frequency". Are motors high frequency? Should I get those? Do they charge up faster?
• Is there any risk that a capacitor makes the situation worse? E.g. if it's empty and it sucks up electricity that should be going to the Arduino?
• Some go up to 400 volts. Some seem a perfect match at 5.5 volts. How do you choose what voltage rating to get? Is there a trade-off? Is it wise to go a few volts above the voltage in your system?
• I figured I wanted as many Farads as possible? So I found these capacitors with 4F. But I realised I have no idea if that's a lot. How can I compare it to, say, batteries? How long can a 4F 5.5v capacitor run an Arduino nano + radio?
• Is there a downside to having a lot of Farads, other than the cost?
• How do I make sure the energy in the capacitor is "reserved" for the Arduino? After all, the motors are on the same circuit, and could perhaps suck it dry instead?

Incredible. The "yeah it's a hobby" terrain has been left far behind.

If you want the latest developments if this addon, please use the Candle Controller instead of the Webthings Gateway. Candle is a fork of Webthings that I also work on. Going forward it's your best bet for updates.

https://www.candlesmarthome.com