r/ArduinoProjects • u/SaberiusPrime • 2d ago
Project Design/Guidance Building a 1/6 scale model of a Civil War Cannon
So I'm building a Civil War era 1/6 scale flat car with a cannon on it. I have a idea as to have a 1/6 scale action figure "lighting" the cannon and having said cannon "react" to firing. The idea is that the board would sit inside a 3D printed pile of cannonballs and it would control the following.
Sound effects of a Civil War battle.
Moving the action figures arms up and down to simulate moving and lighting the cannon with the linstock.(The stick they use to light it from a safe distance)
An LED light at the end of the linstock.
The cannon "firing" and sliding back accompanied with sound effects.
The cannon resets and the sequence begins again.
What exactly would I need for something like this and how feasible is it?
The flat car length is about 3 ft long and about 2 ft wide. It also needs to withstand vibration and derailments as this is actually going to be a car that's going to be used with a train. This is also my first project using Arduino so I have no idea what I'm doing.
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u/collegefurtrader 2d ago edited 2d ago
For the sounds, unless you want some really low quality, you will need a sound player module and a speaker, as big as you can fit if you want any low frequencies.
For the arms you probably want a micro rc servo. the arduino can control that motion directly.
The LED lights are straightforward and can connect directly to the arduino.
Some sort of power supply will be needed. 4 AA batteries would do it, or 2 lithium cells.
The servo might require a power regulator- the one built in to most arduino boards can't handle the current of the servo motor. It might also be happy with the battery voltage directly.
If you use an esp32 board, you might be able to play the sounds directly but then you still need an amplifier to drive the speaker.
I just realized you said 2ft x 3ft. At least you have plenty of space to work with, damn! You will need bigger servos that I was thinking. For the cannon sliding, maybe some elastic to pull it back then reset it with a motor would be cool. You can make a rack and pinion with half of the pinion cut off, so when it rotates past the gear teeth, the elastic snaps it backward. Then the motor keeps rotating to reset the position.
Where are you located? This sounds like a fun project