Hey Everyone,
First of all, thanks for reading this. I'm a beginner at electronics so you know.
I'm looking for an IC to use in a particular project. I'm designing a four-barrel automatic paintball-gun turret. I've succeeded in making a two-barrel version already. It took me three revisions. Anyways,
I'm looking for a quad AND gate IC. It must trigger on the leading edge of a 5v HIGH signal. Preferably something CMOS, nice and durable. You don't want your gun turret to die in the middle of a fire fight.
(you can skip the next paragraph.. unless you're interested)
The device drives solonoids, which physically pull the firing pins in the guns. A 555 timer pulses at 40Hz, and a 4017 decade counter divides the timing signal into four lines. However, the output from the 4017 can't go straight to the solonoids; the duty cycle is too long. If the firing pin is not returned immediately, the gun will not be able to re-c*ck itself. So using four AND gates, the 4017 can be filtered by the 555 output, making it so that each channel has a short duty cycle as determined by the 555. This allows the solonoids to pop down and return up very quickly, before the next solonoid fires.
In my first model, which fired two guns in automatic succession of eachother, I used PNP transistors as AND gates. These were leaky, and caused random gunfire. Plus, their overall implementation consumed space and allowed for more error. I want to replace them with an IC package specifically designed as an AND gate, that runs on 5 volts, and maybe has schmitt triggers. So if anybody has any suggestions on which IC to use, your advice would be appreciated.
You can skip the next paragraph too.
The leakiness issue probably raises a few of your eyebrows. It sure raised mine. I never really narrowed down the cause to anything in specific. Might have been caused by induction current from the solonoids, which consume 4 amps, and probably create massive induction spikes. These are defeated by high voltage diodes, but perhaps the current is looping through and causing the solonoid to double-fire. Or leaking through a film of flux on the PCB and triggering the power amp's base pin. I better implement a discharge lamp to kill that induction spike. Oh well. I'll do all that later. For now I need to eliminate all other possibilities.. like the homemade AND gates.
Thanks everyone for your time.