This instructable was created in fulfillment

of the project requirement of the Makecourse at the University of South Florida (www.makecourse.com).

Following these steps you will be able to make your very own remote controlled high pressure water gun!

Supplies

For this project you will need:

· Arduino Uno

· IR sensor

· IR remote

· 2 9V batteries

· 9V to arduino power cable

· Relay switch

· Electric valve/Solenoid valve

· Servo motor(min torque 6kg/cm)

· Wires

· Housing box(it can be made of anything as long at is strudy enough to hold the servo)

· 3D printed parts (for the body and connection of the vinyl tubes)

· Vinyl tubing

· PVC pipe and end caps (3in diameter by 2 feet)

· Plumber's putty

· Male pipe thread adapter

· Tire stem valve

· Bike pump

· 5min epoxy

· Drill with different sized bits, up to 1 in.

· Sand paper

· Screwdriver

· Optional: Solder Iron

Step 1: Your Pressurized Container

Step 1: Create an air tight water container

First you will need to drill holes in each PVC end cap. One for the bike stem valve and the other for the male pipe thread adapter. Then we will epoxy them in place and put plumbers putty around their seams to make an air tight seal. Once they are dry we will sand the inner face of the PVC end caps and the outer face of the PVC pipe so the epoxy has a rougher surface on which to stick on. We will liberally apply epoxy and put both end caps on. After it dries we will repeat the plumber's putty procedure we have done on the end caps and put it all around the edge, where the end caps meet the pipe.Then once this is dry we have an air tight container, capable of of withstanding high pressures.

Step 2: Housing

Step 2: The housing

We will need to cut a hole big enough for the servo to sit in and one for the IR sensor to come through, and lastly one for the valve's wires to come through. Once all the holes are drilled everything can be either screwed or epoxied in place. Optional, would be an extra couple of holes to pass the battery wiring. This can be very helpful if you are using regular 9V batteries to power your Arduino and/or the vale relay, as they get spent relatively fast.

Step 3: Wiring and Electronics

Step 3: Wiring

Here you can see a schematic of how to wire everything through the Arduino. The only thing to be careful with is when setting up your relay make sure you connect the 9V and motor to the COM and ON ports and then the ground, voltage and signal to the Arduino. The motor displayed here is in place of the valve as they are wired in the same way except that positive and negative are interchangeable for the valve and not for the motor. And the relay displayed here is not the one I used but it helps demonstrate the wiring easier. And if possible, use the bread board as little as possible, if you can solder wires together there is a smaller chance your connections will come apart.

Step 4: 3D Printed Parts

Step 4: 3D part assembly

For your water gun you can go super simple and just print a hollow tube with a hole perpendicular to it, big enough for the vinyl pipes to go through and epoxy everything else in place. If you would like to be more advanced you can make a nozzle for your water gun to shoot a smaller stream of water making it go further with the option of putting a small payload and shooting it. The inventor diagram above shows what a nozzle looks like for the vinyl tubing I had. I used the simplest design which is a rectangular box outer with a circular opening just big enough for the tubing to fit. And the inner diameter gets smaller as it goes through to shrink the passage of water.

Step 5: The Code

Here is a copy of my code, if you want to use this for your own project the only thing you will have to change will be the code for each button. Different remotes have different alphanumeric codes for each button. I set it up using 1,2,3, and EQ, but you are free to program your IR sensor with whichever buttons you'd like. To find what each buttons' alphanumeric code is you have to set up the IR sensor and while connected to the computer open the Serial monitor to view what code shows up for each button pressed.

Step 6: Ready to Set Up and Use!

Step 5: Assembly and Use

First you will have to fill up you water tank (around halfway is enough). Then using the vinyl tubes connect the nozzle to the valve and the valve to the pieces you made for the water gun head and body( they are in black and red in the picture above). Once everything is properly in place and connected you can pump air into the container with the bike pump(6-8 pumps is usually enough for a 3L container). Then step back and with the remote you can aim and fire away!