Smoke Generator

MMB Foggy unit with element removed

24v DC mister element

Mist element placed in new housing

Fan removed from Foggy and fitted in new housing

Cables routed

Video of the unit working at the bottom of page

Flexible hose fitted and sealed.

I have been wanting to make a decent fog/smoke machine for my Droids for some time now but have either hit a brick wall in terms of the design or cost. At the South West Model showI met a chap called Mark, who runs this website: http://marksmodelbits.com/ .He had on display a product called a Foggy, which is a very simple fog machine which generates fog/mist from water.The unit is basically a box with a small 24v dc mister element and a fan on top to push the mist out. Mark also mentioned he can make custom units as well.  I have used the larger units before in theatre events as they don't trigger smoke alarms and generate a fair amount of fog, the only downside being that when the mist lands it turns back into water leaving everything damp. I had already started thinking about the design for my own fogger as I thought the ones that Mark had would be to big to fit in a Droids, a custom one would cost to much and they looked to be more suited to model boats. When I played around with the original unit my fears were confirmed, the mist effect was fantastic but the unit leaked. I suppose on a model boat this small amount of splashed water would not be a problem but in a Droid with hundreds of pounds of electronics, it would be. Don't get me wrong, Marks design is excellent, but I needed something a bit more custom, I can't imagine he gets many requests to build custom units to fit in Droids.  My design has simply used a plastic sink trap costing £4. Due to the way the internal structure tappers towards the top, water droplets from the mister element placed in the base reservoir can not splash out of the fan mounted in the top. A flexible hose is taken out of the side aperture allowing the fog to be directed. The fan is running of an ESC giving a throttle effect. The main mister element runs from 24v. If you have a look at the video at the bottom of the Blog page you can see it working. Time will tell if the mist element is robust enough. I still have a few tweaks to add to the system  plus I need to do some longer test. Check out Marks website, some interesting stuff.

http://marksmodelbits.com/