1950's Style B-Movie Ray-guns

[CARBr6]

Hi, sorry if this is posted in the wrong place.
I am looking for advice, help and inspiration. I am due to be in a stage show (Return To The Forbidden Planet) and traditionally at the end of our runs the cast members give out gifts to each other. I plan on giving out a number of different 50's B-movie type ray-guns. So not exactly props from something but custom made ones. I have some ideas but I am looking for any help for some. I have got two NERF Zombie Strike Doublestrike Blasters to adapt into Rayguns for two of them, so I am after any kind of inspiration as to what to do to those. I am stuck with whether to repaint and mod slightly but keep them as functional NERF guns or whether to completely mod them into what would just be a prop ray-gun, so members thoughts on that would be appreciated.

I also have a plan for larger fully custom built Ray-gun for the Director from the whole cast. For that one I am intending to add lights and sound effects using ATTiny85 and Arduino. Again, any advice, or codes that members may already have would be appreciated to save time (although I do have until the end of June), ideally I am thinking of having a switch attached to the trigger that will cause a strip of coloured LEDs to flash in sequence along the barrel to simulate a laser blast alongside a laser blast sound effect.

Grateful for any hints, tips, links or advice. Trying to be as tight on budget as I can. I can paint and mould and use a soldering iron but I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. More an enthusiastic amateur.
Thanks

 

[suttykins]

Perhaps you have already seen this video from Tested but it certainly inspires me to design and build a load of 50s ray guns. It definitely changed the way I look at hairdryers, water pistols and vacuum tubes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZkCLOolYo0&t=362s

As far as electronics go, I've messed around with Arduinos before for various projects but for something like this, I'd be more inclined to go to a £/$/€ store and find some toy guns or similar that light up and make sounds. These will have a self contained circuit and proprietary sound chip that you can just rip out and install rather than designing your own circuit and coding. Especially since you're on a tight deadline.

 

[CARBr6]

Hi suttykins, and thanks. I had watched that tested video. Some beautiful examples there (I also think it was that video that helped to inspire me!!) I know what you mean about predone circuitry. I did the same thing for a lightsaber I built. Ripped the guts out of an eBay flick out saber then put it into a custom made hilt with poly-blade. If I can find a cheap enough pistol then I might do that. But part of me wants to programme it myself, just so I can say that I have done that. Does that make sense?

 

[CARBr6]

Can anyone help with my Arduino coding?
I want a code that will make an LED flash and a speaker play a sound when a button is pushed. But I only want it to react once, even if the button is held down. Then once the button is released it resets and then is ready to go again.

I tried the very simple code and ended it with the "exit (0)" function but I don't know how to then make it reset ready to start again, can anyone help me?

 

[moom1881]

Let me premise this by saying I have some experience with Arduino code and make no guarantees.

Using exit (0) means you will need a reset button to get the code to run again. You could try using break instead.

Alternatively something like this should work:

bool runanimation = false //sets the variable to start off false

void loop() {
if (trigger == high) //trigger is pressed
runanimation = true //can only be toggled true once so code has to run before pressing the trigger again will do anything

if (runanimation = true) //checks variable says do the thing
your code for the LEDs etc
runanimation = false //stops the loop running until next time trigger is pressed
}

 

[nomuse]

What moom1881 posted will work. There's two ways I've approached a one-shot trigger on Arduino.

First is using a flag as moom1881 shows. To expand upon his pseudo-code:

trigger = digitalRead(trigger pin);
if (trigger == 1 && runAnimation == 0)
{
light();
runAnimation = 1;
}
if (trigger == 0)
{
runAnimation = 0:
}


The other way is to use delay(). If you are just controlling an LEDt, the simplest solution here is simply to set a delay() time equal to however long you want the light to stay on;

(again in pseudo-code; do NOT copy-and-paste these examples!)

trigger = digitalRead(trigger pin);
if (trigger == 1)
{
digiitalWrite(light, HIGH);
delay(300);
digitalWrite(light, LOW);
delay(100);
}

Of course, the operator could chose to hold down the trigger through the length of the shot; the second delay would make this fire machine-gun style in that case. So combine both cases by setting a flag so the trigger has to be released in order to play the sound'/flash the light again.



Incidentally, you haven't explained what hardware you are using for the light. The more powerful LEDs require something in addition to the Arduino to swing their amperage. As an alternative, there are also digitally controlled lights. The syntax is a little more complex but the basic form is still there.

 

[blackironart]

This is a Ray Gun I built a couple Months ago after watching those Adam Savage Tested videos. It was a lot of fun and my first from scratch, out of my mind build that isn't a replica or at least based on prop I've seen.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/502766146/raging-jaguar-ray-gun-one-of-a-kind

 

[foldart]

Here's an example of Doublestrike mods: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=106425&page=80


Or you might hit your local discount store for water pistols: