Making a water spray effect at the audience

We are doing a production where someone will fall into water. i want to spray water at the front row. What is a good way to accomplish this. I would like to DMX control it.
 
dmx RELAY. 24volt transformer. Outdoor sprinkler head, they sell at home depot for next to nothing. just plumb it up.
@Michael Larsen and @Van Emphasis on RELAY, a real relay, a mechanical relay that goes 'click', often referred to as an "air gap relay" NOT an SCR, TRIAC, IGBT or any other solid state device masquerading as a real relay. Few devices survive repeatedly controlling the inductive reactance of a solenoid actuated device better than a real, mechanical relay with an arc suppression network in parallel with its coil. Granted, state of the art solid state devices are getting MUCH better at survival but a real relay with arc suppression is pretty bullet-proof and economical / CHEAP.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
Lower tech option is an air cannon. Air line to a pvc pipe loaded with water. Open the valve, water shoots out. Also you don't have to worry about your relay failing and not shutting off the rig that you've got plumbed into your building...
@Michael Larsen and @bobgaggle Did either of you ever see the simple little pneumatic effects that one of the mid-sized dancing waters companies installed inside the lobby of Windsor, Ontario's Casino Windsor when it originally opened? I was employed by an A/V contractor years later to remove the original archaic control system, build new interface electronics to provide variable speed control of the three main water pumps, a screw-style high volume air compressor, an air-drier, a host of solenoid operated water valves, solenoid operated pneumatic valves to fire water cannons, approximately fifteen smaller solenoid actuated pneumatic valves designed to sound like frogs jumping off of lilly pads then disappearing below the surface and install a computer to run @Robert 's lighting software to permit house staff to add new music and reprogram the fountain eventually building a larger repertory of synchronized performances to draw upon. The little "frogs" were the simplest tricks in the system consisting essentially of a short small diameter tube mounted a few degrees off vertical with its upper end barely below the surface of the water. A momentary pulse of air fired the water out of the tube in a gentle arc landing close by with a subtle sound leaving only a few gentle ripples whereupon water would again fill the tube leaving it instantly ready to re-fire. Sort of an automatically refilling water cannon with zero plumbing required for the water. Among the "frogs" beauties were they expended extremely little compressed air, made very little noise and, when positioned correctly, threw zero water onto the patron's walkways surrounding the fountain and leading from the central lobby to the nearby entrance to a gaming room. The frogs were so quiet and took so little to run, a simple sub routine kept them operational 24 / 7 as they never bothered anyone yet there were always subtle background sounds from the fountain no matter the hour. Often simple can be magical in the right circumstances. A few years later in a provincial water park in Toronto, the designers included what appeared to be a real coin operated telephone innocently standing next to a water feature. 24 / 7 / 365 anyone unfortunate enough to put the handset to their ear heard a recorded conversation in progress and, if they listened intently for more than a few seconds, found themselves startled by a sudden blast of water blown out of the handset's mouthpiece by a brief shot of air. If the handset was left dangling off-hook, the looped conversation kept running but the water wouldn't fire until the handset had been returned to its normal resting position in readiness for its next victim.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
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dmx relay. 24volt transformer. Outdoor sprinkler head, they sell at home depot for next to nothing. just plumb it up.
I attempted the sprinkler system method with a 24VAC sprinkler valve from a place like Home depot. The water would instantly spray when power was switched on however the valve took way to long to shut off. sounds like the air canon approach would be be the way to go in the future. For my current production i scrapped the idea. Ran out of time.
 
I attempted the sprinkler system method with a 24VAC sprinkler valve from a place like Home depot. The water would instantly spray when power was switched on however the valve took way to long to shut off. sounds like the air canon approach would be be the way to go in the future. For my current production i scrapped the idea. Ran out of time.
Well, that's disappointing. I never had any delay issue. were you running sufficient Head pressure?
 
Hooked up to a water faucet like a normal sprinkler system. It seems the sprinkler valves are not an instant off but must have some diaphram inside that closes as the pressure subsides. Takes 4 seconds or so which soaked the first several rows of seats.
 
I havent been around for a bit so sorry for bumping old threads lol.. But yeah sprinkler valves are not instant-off. And the more resistance there is in the water line (via nozzles), the longer they take to close completely. You would need solenoid water valves, such as those used in dishwashers as fill valves. The air cannon idea is actually the best if you prefer to deliver a "metered" volume of water with consistency. With higher air pressure and a finer nozzle you can also "atomize" the water more finely, allowing you to achieve the effect with less water. And to address what @RonHebbard had mentioned about the fountains, that's the same type of system used in the Bellagio fountains. It is all air driven. The cannon tubes are submerged in the lake, and fill via surface pressure through a check valve while the tube is idle. Then a controller opens an air solenoid to fire the water out the top of the tube. I watched something that featured it years ago, it's a really cool system.
 

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