C&C tiberium wars Advanced flame tank

[Loki]

You are my god from now on xD

[jiggiwiddit]

When working with liquid aluminium: DON'T forget to use you anti brain scanner hat.

LMAO

Seriously tho..... amazing home foundry work. Cant wait to see how this turns out +rep

[cyclonite]

Update 4

Hello people, finally update number 4.
Sorry for keeping you waiting, my fathers engine of his boat broke down and I had to overhaul it.
And after it was fixed it ran well for a couple of hours but then one of the injectors broke down.

If someone likes to take a look at the process, I created a page on the overhaul.



But to the point, I have also done lots of work to the tank.

• I stripped my PS3 from its housing to take a look at the electronics
• The electronics and pneumatics had been bought.
• a succesfull pour of a row tracks have been done.
• a track has been assembled.
• multiple parts of electronics have been designed
• I started shaping pieces of metal.

This is 1 of the airbottles I will be using, it is resistant up to 200 bar pressure and used by paintball devices.
A pressure reducer will be connected to this bottle.

A converter to connect the hoses to the bottle has been bought.

To connect the bottles to the frame I created 2 mounting brackets.

As you can see it is placed on the bottle like this, it is held in place by 3 screws.

This is the airstation to fill the bottles with air from a large diving bottle.

I did continue the development of the electronics of flame tank V1.0
This one had a screen and some other electronics which on the new MCB controller will be removed.

The old MCB controller connected to its small computer, that is a simple x86 processor which runs on 300MHZ and runs ubuntu 10.04 server edition.
The PS3 will use this version too.

This is the NEW MCB controller V2.0
It supports the following features:

• 3 bobines to ignite the fluids.
• usb slave interface to the ps3
• 4 sharp IR distance sensors.
• i2c bus for software updates and control of the motor PCB's.
• spi interface
• pressure sensor (up to 10 bar)
• 8 servo's
• external serial bluetooth module
• 4 external leds
• electronic compass
• PCB is 45 x 55 mm

I did continue analysing the PS3

The PS3 with the PSU next to it, as I want to use a 12V power supply for the PS3. I had to develop my own (stable) PSU.

This is the PS3 PSu, as you can see it is quite large.
It generated 2 voltages 12V for the board and 5V as standby power for the capacitive buttons and bluetooth receiver.

On this picture the 12V connector is good to see, I had only one problem.
I couldn't find the connector anywhere to buy, I think I will solder my PSU directly to the PS3 PCB.

And this is the inside of the originale PSU, as you can see It is a simple design.

And this is what I came up with, the specs:

• buck boost design with a voltage input range from 7 to 16 volt DC
• output is 12v stable and 5v constant (it can be disabled through the internal processor)
• The design can handle up to 200 Watt.
• The PSU can be controlled through i2c
• processor updatable through i2c
• voltage and current measument, these values can be read constantly.
• PCB is 86 x 45 mm
• PSu can also run natively (without processor in the PS3)

Next step was to look at how the track would fit.

The motor fits perfectly.

The concept of the current tank has been changed quite a bit compared to the first tank.
With the first tank a Motor controller which could controll up to 8 motors was used (through i2c)
For the new concept one processor for each motor is used, still controlled through i2c.
In total 4 wires run into the track (GND, VCC, SCL and SDA)
I want to mount the new controller directly to each motor.
(this is quite a challange as the pcb needs to be small)

This is the track,it isn't welded yet but fits perfectly.

The designed motor print has the following specs:

• The design withstands voltages up to 16V
• short circuit proof.
• The design can controll motors up to 3 amps.
• The PCB can be controller by an RC controller (as motor or servo)
• digital (puls) and analog(trim resistor) feedback sensors
• power measurement of the motor
• PCB van controll a motor normally or as a servo, when a second print is mounted it even van controll stepper motors
• PCB has a diameter of 26 mm
• software is upgradable by i2c

This is the bobine used to ignite the spiritus fume.

I bought the camera at dealextrem, I am using 4 of them.

THe GPS module is also bought from deal extreme.

These are the tracks, milled from MDF wood.

Too make the surface smooth I use filler and then sand it down.

These are the plates after treatment.

After that a mold had to be made to place the bindol sand in.

Because aluminum is quite dense I use bolts to ensure I will not float while pouring.

The mold is coated by graphite so the sand releases the mold easy.

The graphite on the plates.

After the sand can be poured.

The other site is filled too, after that the wooden mold is removed and the complete thing is tightened.

After that the first test pour has been done, sadly it didn't came out quite right.

As you can see the aluminium didn't flow quite right.
This is due to the temperature and the consistency of the aluminium.

The tracks which are good fit perfectly

I created an improved burner, now the crucible gets way hotter.

You can see the crucible glow even after a few minutes.

This is the new result, WAY better.

After this I started on the Stainless steel hoods, I want to mold the metal myself with a hamer and an english wheel.

I cut the shape out of the steel.

You have to hammer dents in the metal to stretch it as much possible and then roll out the dents.

I roll out the dents with an english wheel, I use different rolls for different curves.

And then the steel needs to be rolled...

I made a movie from this process and removed the audio (because of the noice )


ps. I Anyone wants to see the schematics of the electronics I created, just ask.

Thats all folks

[Mach]

Inspiring work Cyclonite! Can't wait to see what you have in store next

[SXRguyinMA]

wow that's a LOT of work but I'm sure it's going to come out awesome!

[ownaginatious]

Wow... I have never seen someone so pro at engines, metal working, analog and digital electronics all at the same time.

Absolutely amazing work.

[cyclonite]

Wow... I have never seen someone so pro at engines, metal working, analog and digital electronics all at the same time.

Absolutely amazing work.

Thank you so much for the compliment!

[cyclonite]

Time for a small update.

I have been busy designing and prototyping the most important part of this tank:
The flame throwers!

As allways with prototyping there are successes and setbacks.
What I initially wanted to do is:
Blowing air past a hole to create a vacuum, this vacuum sucks in fuel which will then be blown into small particles (easy to ignite)
This mixture then has to travel past an constant arc which should ignite the mixture.

I first started with building an constant arc, I cracked open a few old CRT monitors to salvage the flyback driver from them.
As I was experimenting and researching I stumbled upon homebuilt plasma speakers A.K.A. singing arc.


These arcs are modulated by sound and can display normal audio.

Thus I created a prototype of such a speaker.
After some experimenting this is my first attempt, de sound is still a bit low but you clearly can hear the "C&C red alert's hells march" playing



Next part was the design of the flamethrower itself.

A large hole is drilled for the air-fuel mixture.

Also the back side has to be drilled.

This will become the hole through which the fuel will be transported to the vacuum chamber.

Next part is to drill the actual hole from the fuel hose to the vacuum chamber.

The drilled holes them are welded shut so no leakage can occur no matter the temperature.

These insulators will hold the electrodes for the sparc gap.

Yeehaa a nice constant arc

After having created the inner nozzels (which control the amount of vacuum and the fuel-air ratio)
I did a few tests.

The fluids did spray very well with my design but the ac just couldn't ignite the mixture.
I did some test with a guard flame running on butane.
I bought 2 butane tourches and created new housings for them and adapted them in such a way they could be shut off with a valve.

You can see the tourches here, they are fitted in a new brass housing.

I created this holder to accomodate the tourches, the touches will be mounted at an angle for the best ignition position.

Then I welded it toghethe with the flamethrower itself.

You can see how the electrode will now ignite the butane gas, I am thinking of relocating the electrode to the top of the flame thrower so the air won't intterupt the ozone created by the arc.

You can see the thing with the tourch attached.

And the rear.

And now the unit with the initial valve attached (this changed later)

I had to create a connector to distribute the butane to both tourches, that is why I made this.

Both pieces of brass are connected to each other by soldering them together.

And now with the air connectors attached.

Next step were the actual results , hope you like them.

In this picture you can see the complete setup, more detail is shown in the movie.



If you have questions : please ask

[OvRiDe]

[x88x]

Wow dude, that is....wow.

Now I know, for the inevitable zombie apocalypse, a paint-thinner-based flamethrower may be best. I'm impressed at how well the diesel worked, actually, in comparison with, say, the nitro. I lover the setup now, how the spark lights the guard flame, then that lights the main fuel. It looks awesome. IMO, better than when it was just a straight spark.