Water Rocket Forum

Hallo Soren!

Here a possible solution for cluster release. Usable for gardena 9mm or gardena professional 15mm nozzle diameter,, six booster.

Regards Batkiter

Batkiter wrote: Here a possible solution for cluster release. Usable for gardena 9mm or gardena professional 15mm nozzle diameter,, six booster.

Hi Claus:

How do you synchronise the simultaneous release of all of the nozzles?

rockets-in-brighton wrote:

Batkiter wrote: Here a possible solution for cluster release. Usable for gardena 9mm or gardena professional 15mm nozzle diameter,, six booster.

Hi Claus:

How do you synchronise the simultaneous release of all of the nozzles?

Hallo Steve!

Die Auslösung der Düsen erfolgt durch gleichzeitiges herunterdrücken der oberen Platte , die mit Druckfedern vorgespannt ist.

Der innere Ring rotiert um die Hochachse und gleitet in die Bohrungen , wenn der federbelastete Arm an der Vorderseite durch
den Federblock an der linken Seite nach rechts gedrückt wird. Der Federarm ist gleichzeitig die Luftzuführung für den Cluster.

Regards Claus

rockets-in-brighton wrote:

Batkiter wrote: Here a possible solution for cluster release. Usable for gardena 9mm or gardena professional 15mm nozzle diameter,, six booster.

Hi Claus:

How do you synchronise the simultaneous release of all of the nozzles?

Hallo Steve!

The release of the nozzles takes place via simultaneous presses down the upper plate, which is linked up with compression springs. The internal ring rotary around the vertical axis and slides into the drillings, if the spring-tensioned arm is pressed to the right at the front by the spring block at the left side. The spring arm is at the same time the air supply for the cluster.

Viele Grüße

Claus

If batkiter built it, you know it's going to work!

Beautiful launcher!

Batkiter wrote: The release of the nozzles takes place via simultaneous presses down the upper plate, which is linked up with compression springs. The internal ring rotary around the vertical axis and slides into the drillings, if the spring-tensioned arm is pressed to the right at the front by the spring block at the left side. The spring arm is at the same time the air supply for the cluster.

Hi Claus, many thanks for the explanation... obviously I take back what I said about this being impossible. I still think it requires more engineering than the average wara maker can muster.

This looks like the setup they used on Mythbusters that failed all the time. But they were using cable ties which are much less precision than gargenas are and they were using a release made from plywood, so it was probably flexing when they moved it so they had one side release before another and that caused the failure.

Hi Batkiter,

Thanks for the design and for the pictures! I will try making something like that, except that it might end up a little less beautiful

Did you turn those male Gardena nozzles yourself? And how do you trigger the launcher? I suppose it will trigger automatically, if the plexiglass board is not held up by something?

I might try use a servo to release my launcher. I have the opportunity to place it right in the middle. The funny thing about it will be that the servo will be triggered from the receiver on the rocket - so there has to be a plug that is pulled out on the wire.

Regards
Soren

dongfang wrote:Hi Batkiter,

Thanks for the design and for the pictures! I will try making something like that, except that it might end up a little less beautiful

Did you turn those male Gardena nozzles yourself? And how do you trigger the launcher? I suppose it will trigger automatically, if the plexiglass board is not held up by something?

I might try use a servo to release my launcher. I have the opportunity to place it right in the middle. The funny thing about it will be that the servo will be triggered from the receiver on the rocket - so there has to be a plug that is pulled out on the wire.

Regards
Soren

I did this a long time ago for a Water Rocket that used a disposable camera flash unit for a magnetic deploy. The rocket was wired to the launcher and charged the cap on the pad so it didn't need to carry batteries in flight.

I found a nice way to make a release wire for the power. I took apart an old PC and inside was a cable with 3 wires that was used as an extension for one of the fans who had a cable that was too short. The cable had 3 pins on one end and a 3-pin female jack on the other end. I cut it in half and used one side on the rocket and one on the pad. The rocket could easily pull the plug apart when it launched.

Do these plastic gardenas work well for you folks? I experimented with one over the weekend (two actually) and the little white plastic inserts would constantly blow out at 100PSI. They are hard to find in the grass!!!

I'm working with a metal gardena disconnect now and while it can withstand the pressure it is mush harder to release.



Ben

dongfang wrote:Hi Batkiter,

Thanks for the design and for the pictures! I will try making something like that, except that it might end up a little less beautiful

Did you turn those male Gardena nozzles yourself? And how do you trigger the launcher? I suppose it will trigger automatically, if the plexiglass board is not held up by something?

I might try use a servo to release my launcher. I have the opportunity to place it right in the middle. The funny thing about it will be that the servo will be triggered from the receiver on the rocket - so there has to be a plug that is pulled out on the wire.

Regards
Soren

Hallo Soren!

The nozzles I manufactured after own parameters. They are extremely aerodynamically clean and high performance, because none turbulences inside the nozzle the water brake and thus a strong initial thrust are ensured. Own Designe!

The upper plate of the launcher lies in the initial position on the balls of the tension ring, if the spring arm is to the left locked. Between the block right beside the spring arm and the spring rod at the left side the release block is pushed in.

This block pulled presses the spring rod the arm to the right and the balls to slide into the holes. The plate moves downward and carries the clutches forward.

The nozzles consist not of plastics but of teflon and are pressureresistant till 30bar.

Regards

Batkiter

This Is a very sophisticated launcher good thing you made it and not me...

a simpler way would be to only hold down the middle one because the middle rocket can hold the other engines into the launcher

Brian wrote:a simpler way would be to only hold down the middle one because the middle rocket can hold the other engines into the launcher

This is really difficult to do if you're trying to use reinforced high pressure rockets. With reasonably sized nozzles even a reinforced rocket with a fairly low pressure like 200PSI can generate close to 1000 pounds of force trying to lift it from the launcher. It's very hard to make a launcher capable of holding this much force. The force increases linearly, so at 2000PSI you get 10000 pounds of force on the center nozzle...

Our earliest efforts at cracking the world record employed this technique and we had problems with the nozzles ripping out of the launcher or the boosters ripping off and flying on their own. It might be worth revisiting now that we have more experience with reinforcement but back then we abandoned it because we were wasting tons of composite sleeve.

nice launcher