Board Thread:General Nerf discussion/@comment-38684270-20200110172538/@comment-27306930-20200114021755

Many years ago I scavenged a 160,000 µF (microfarad) capacitor out of an old mainframe computer power supply. It was/is the biggest capacitor I've ever seen. Here it is next to a half gallon of OJ 😵

Just for comparison, it would take 31 of these ganged together in parallel to equal one of those C-sized 5 farad super capacitors 🤯

You're right about that 35mm solenoid. 12 volts at 8 amps is 96 watts. So basically it uses as much power as a 100 watt incandescent light bulb. I'll bet it could push a bowling ball down an alley.

I've got a call into an industrial component supplier to see if there are lower power solenoids with a similar throw, preferably 6 volts. Gimme a day or two.

Modifying the gearbox is an option, albeit a complex one. Honestly, I still think a motor brake is the simplest solution under the circumstances. I've got the whole thing in my head, I've just had zero free time to start soldering.