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Now that I have your attention with the title, I'll explain. The Sonex is basically a little fighter plane, right? So, it just wouldn't be right without appropriate armament! Since I can't mount a couple of Browning .50 cals without going to jail, I'll settle for the next best thing: Fake guns!
The idea goes like this. Make a small electronic box with a sound recording of some machine guns firing. Then, rig up a trigger switch to the control stick, and patch the audio output into the intercom, and presto.....I can deliver a crippling blow to any unsuspecting target that crosses my gun sight. If I want the other guy to hear his fate, I simply key my PTT switch and broadcast hot lead over the airwaves :-)
Some of you may think this cool. Great! You can fly my wing anytime. Everyone else, watch your six!
NOTE: photos link to full size image
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The project began with a suitable sound recording of machine guns. There a multiple ways to tackle this, from building a custom circuit board with a chip on it that can be encoded with my sound file, to modifying a digital voice recorder, to "harvesting" an existing sound chip. I chose to harvest. It took a bit of shopping around to find a toy with a suitable electronic sound, but this hovercraft is what I eventually settled on. It has 4 sounds (the 4 gray buttons on the side), but only one is suitable.
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After playing with the toy for a good 10 minutes or so :-) I set about to reducing it to it's electronic components.
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The electronics have been completely removed now. They consist of the circuit board, a speaker, battery case, and flashing LED.
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Here is a close-up of the board. The gray rubber boots are remnants of the manual switches on the original toy. They will be removed, and wires soldered onto the contacts. These will go to a 1/8" microphone jack for the trigger switch. Next, wires are attached to the speaker output and again terminated on a 1/8" mic jack.
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The whole shebang is closed up in a small project box from Radio Shack, finishing off the assembly. Total cost: $15. Here is the end result.
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With the sound box complete, it was time to make a suitable gun sight. I fabricated a ring and cross hairs sight using some 3/16" brass tubing soldered to a 2" brass diving ring.
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The tubing is hollow, and will serve double duty as the fuel tank vent line. The gun sight is left long until the correct height can be determined in flight.
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This is what the pilot will see...but preferably as you roll in on your foe!
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