Of course the Iron Man movies are a blur of special effects in search of a plot, but that doesn’t make the Iron Man suit and weaponry any less cool. One weapon in particular, Iron Man’s signature plasma bolts that shoot out of his hands (at least I think they are plasma bolts, feel free to argue I’m no Iron Man technology expert here), were my favorite part of the movie. I mean being able to take out tanks with your hands is joyfully destructive, and one clever DIYer managed to emulate the effect with this arm mounted light cannon.
Now I should note that no, you will not in fact be shooting plasma bolts, but rather I’d imagine it would be used to blind or disorient your opponents. I’m not sure I would rely on it in an actual firefight, but the construction of the piece looks fairly straightforward. The lamp has a ring of LEDs around it to make it look cool, but the flash is driven by a xenon bulb at the center. The flash capacitor and charge actually came from a disposable camera and the battery voltage is cranked up for 330V. This produces (as you can see pretty clearly in the video) a “slightly blinding discharge.” I’d probably prefer a completely and utterly blinding discharge for actual use, but I’m sure you could take it up a notch if you really needed to.
The device charges by pressing a button located on the back of the hand harness. When you’re ready to do some serious slightly blinding flashes, your fingers can touch the conveniently positioned trigger. Sure it isn’t the real thing, but I still want one for myself! All you need to do now is throw one of these together with the real life Iron Man suit and you are one step closer to the genuine article. Of course you’ll probably get a little stinky stomping around trying to save the world, but there’s always Iron Man Cologne for that, too.
Via: EasternGeek Via: Hack a Day
