This DIY Nerf Cannon Fires At Targets Autonomously
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It’s a great time to be a maniacal villain, there are so many fantastic new weapons to choose from. First, the anti-matter gun. Then the laser Gatling gun. And now, sure to induce wobbly-kneed terror in anyone who faces it: the Nerf Vulcan Sentry Gun.
A run of the mill Nerf Vulcan Gun includes a battery-powered fully automatic cannon that lets users unleash micro darts at distances of 20-30 feet. That’s all well and good, but recently, BrittLiv, a member of the DIY website Instructables figured out how to upgrade the gun to shoot automatically. That’s right, you can pop a beer, lean back, and wreak Nerf havoc on all of your neighbors. Someone knows how to have a diabolical good time!
BrittLiv also added an ingenius touch to the gun’s auto-fire system: it won’t shoot anyone wearing the Instructable logo robot. To make the modification is simple. One only needs some pretty standard hardware, such as plywood, ball bearings, screws and nuts (the looser the better!), glue, brackets, sandpaper, and paint, as well as some fun tools, including a hot glue gun, drill, and soldering iron. The electronic mechanism of the gun requires a couple servos, wire, a transistor, and a pin header. Other than that, you just need a Nerf Vulcan, batteries, a replacement spring, a webcam, and a laptop. Okay, maybe it isn’t super easy, but what awesome devices are?
While others online have written instructions for building a Sentry Gun, BrittLiv’s love for all things Nerf is in a class of its own. She has also modified a Nerf Maverick gun to shoot 18 darts and support faster reloading.
A chemical and biological engineering student in Germany, BrittLiv has posted instructions make all kinds of fun gadgets on the site. Her first was a Rubiks Cube USB flash drive, but since then she’s posted instructions for making Kryptonite candy, magical edible Harry Potter wands, and a zombie defense table, among others.
Honestly, I can’t think of any inventor, scientist, engineer, or lunatic making cooler stuff. Or a site that facilitates people following suit. Instructables is a comprehensive clearinghouse of instructions for making everything from stuffed peppers to a steel Batman boomerang to a one-piece ukulele. Right now it’s 3D printing month at Instructables. Not only will you find all kinds of DIY projects, but aficionados can enter the printing contest for a chance to win a MakerBot Replicator 3D printer, among other prizes.
I love how sites like this legitimize DIY craftiness while also promoting science and technology. Often we think of technological devices as being ridiculously pricey, and it’s great to see resourceful folks developing their own fixes, upgrades, and modifications. Something like the Nerf Vulcan Sentry Gun is particularly important to society in that it allows us to air our disagreements in a most mature way, and without having to worry about anyone pressing charges.
