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Fully-electronic version of a concussion mortar?

Hello there,

I am often performing music shows in front of 100-5,000+ people and I would love to be able to bring with me a SAFE device that I can trigger with my foot that will simulate a very loud cannon-type explosion. I just did some research and I learned about "concussion mortars" that are pretty much very short and heavy steel chambers in-which a special gunpowder is detonated.

I was wondering if anyone had ever come up with a fully-electronic method of storing and detonating energy that would simulate the sound and earth-shaking impact of a cannon? Apparently, theatres use these "concussion mortars" quite often, but in my case I want to avoid the headaches of transporting gunpowder....also I always have plenty of electricity available along with the time to store it beforehand.

At one of my 1st jobs, I found a capacitor bank laying around that was comprised of approx 8-12 capacitors in parallel, each the size of a beer can. I remember always scaring this one lady by trickle charging it up to approx 600VDC on the megohmmeter and sneaking up behind her and discharging it with a big screwdriver across the terminals. It was a loud bang and she jumped every time, the screwdriver even got all melted from the arcing, but even that was probably a couple thousand times smaller than I need in terms of instantaneous energy discharge.

Just wondering. thx, frenchy

Steve French

814.584.1220.office/studio 814.730.0003.cell

-------------------------------------------------------- Owner & Principal Recording Engineer

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Reply to
they call me frenchy!
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(snip)

I think you get a lot more of the energy delivered to the concussion if you vaporize a thin wire with the capacitor bank, instead of blowing atoms off the side of a screw driver shaft. The wire vaporizes, leaving a plasma that continues to turn energy into super heated gas. You are essentially making short lightning bolts. If you can deliver high enough voltage, fast enough, you don't even need the wire. But regardless, the sound is a lot sharper than that produced by burning gun powder. More of a crack than a boom, though I wonder how it would sound, filtered by being inside a mortar chamber.

Reply to
John Popelish

Here's one way:

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:)

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken 

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http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=carbide+cannon
Reply to
John Fields

The Noise Emitting Diode (NED). Apply 1000V and it emits a loud noise (once).

Tim.

Reply to
Tim Shoppa

You're a Systems Design Engineer, so just do the math: estimate how much gunpowder the mortar uses, look up the joules/gram energy output of gunpowder, grab a Mouser catalog, and see how many capacitors you'd need to buy to store that many joules. All the numbers should be googlable.

It usually turns out that it takes a small mountain of caps to replace a small source of chemical energy, gunpowder or batteries or whatever.

I'd go for propane in a stout steel pipe. The optimum air/gas ratio makes the biggest possible bang, so it's inherently limited, and there wouldn't be much potential for ignition of nearby stuff. Or as JF suggests, carbide.

Or play really good music and ditch the effects.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

I would simply use a microcontroller and an output into your PA system Just generate a low frequency burst.

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they call me frenchy! wrote:

Reply to
Marra

Thin foil. Also see 'slapper' as a detonator.

--
Dirk

http://www.onetribe.me.uk - The UK\'s only occult talk show
Presented by Dirk Bruere and Marc Power on ResonanceFM 104.4 
http://www.resonancefm.com
Reply to
Dirk Bruere at NeoPax

On Tue, 05 Dec 2006 08:36:29 -0800, John Larkin wrote: ...

I like this one the best. :-)

Cheers! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

I don't think electrical sources can compete with chemical ones for this task.

OTOH myabe something mechanical could be done, A large tank full of compressed air through a fast valve or bursting disc.

capacitor technology has improved, but not enough.

--

Bye.
   Jasen
Reply to
jasen

Hair spray powered soud guns are cheap and remarkably loud. Scale up or down as required. I use mine to fire off Dixie-cup "blanks" rather than potatoes. Noise level exceeds that of several M80s going off at once.

Reply to
Father Haskell

The simplest loud concussion "BOOM" I have ever heard -

Acetyline & Oxygen in an everyday balloon, size of a softball. Louder than most, if not all powder-charged explosions I have ever heard. Anyone who has tried this knows what I mean. It is small, easy, and unbelievably LOUD!

Reply to
WuzhengNA

It doesn't even have to be that much OA - ever heard of a carbide cannon? A few ml of mixture should give a nice boom, depending on your cannon design. :-)

You could also lurk in rec.pyrotechnics for awhile - please lurk for awhile before you post - they can be a bit elitist if you just charge in with guns blazing. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

I've heard both and I'm sure think the 150mm(?) artillery piece firing blank ammo (outdoor performance of the Tchaikovski's 1812 overature) was much louder than the party baloon full of acetylene and oxygen (indoor chemisty demonstration).

"bird scarers" use LPG and air and make a reasonably loud noise, that could possibly be scaled up

Bye. Jasen

Reply to
jasen

Who ever asserted that a few grams of welding gasses would ever match the energy of a kilogram or so of HE in a saluting cannon?

My favorite "carbide cannon" is 1 gallon can, low cost materials, low cost supplies and decently loud.

--
 JosephKK
 Gegen dummheit kampfen die Gotter Selbst, vergebens.  
  --Schiller
Reply to
joseph2k

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