Okay, here's my shot at documenting my battery-operated squirt gun project, just like a regular, chatty blog post.

Alright folks, gather 'round! Today I'm gonna spill the beans on my latest tinkering adventure: a battery-operated squirt gun! Yeah, you heard right. I got tired of manually pumping those things, especially when you're in the middle of a serious water war. So, naturally, I decided to electrify the situation.

It all started with a trip to the local thrift store. I snagged a cheap, plastic squirt gun – the bigger the better, 'cause we're going for maximum soakage here. Cost me like, five bucks. Score!

Next, the guts. I raided my parts bin (which is really just a messy drawer in my garage, let's be honest). I needed:

• A small DC motor – Found one from an old toy car. Perfect!
• Some tubing – The kind you use for fish tanks works great.
• A small water pump – I actually ordered this online. Cost about 10 bucks. Make sure it's a 3-6V pump.
• A battery pack – I used a 4xAA battery holder.
• A switch – Gotta be able to turn this thing on and off, right?
• Some wires – Red and black, the usual suspects.
• Hot glue – My best friend in any project.

Okay, so here's where the fun began. First, I completely disassembled the squirt gun. We gotta get rid of that manual pump action. I basically gutted the whole thing, leaving just the shell and the trigger mechanism (which I planned to repurpose for the switch). It was messy, but oddly satisfying.

Then came the tricky part: fitting everything inside. I attached the water pump to the end of the water intake tube (the one that goes into the water reservoir). Next, I ran another piece of tubing from the pump's output to the squirt gun's nozzle. I had to drill the hole a bit bigger to accommodate the new tube.

Now, the motor. I used hot glue to secure the DC motor to the side of the pump. Then, I connected a small rubber wheel (also from my parts bin) to the motor's shaft. The idea was for the wheel to push on the pump to activate it. This part took some fiddling, I had to make sure the wheel was making good contact with the pump and wasn't slipping.

Wiring time! I connected the battery pack to the switch, and then from the switch to the motor. Make sure to get the polarity right, or the motor will spin the wrong way (ask me how I know!). I tested it at this point – and nothing happened! Turns out, my batteries were dead. Doh! New batteries, and we were in business! The motor whirred to life!

The trigger was next. I wired the trigger to act as a simple on/off switch for the whole circuit. Pull the trigger, and the motor spins, activating the pump. Release the trigger, and the water stops flowing. Simple, yet effective. Lots of hot glue was used to keep the switch secure and away from the moving parts.

Finally, I carefully stuffed everything back inside the squirt gun's shell. It was a tight fit, and I had to do some creative cable management to get everything to squeeze in. Once it was all together, I filled the reservoir with water and gave it a test run.

BOOM! A powerful stream of water shot out of the nozzle! It worked! I was grinning like a mad scientist. The range wasn't amazing, but it was definitely better than the original manual pump. Plus, no more tiring pumping! Just pure, unadulterated water-spraying fun!

Of course, there were some hiccups along the way. The pump initially leaked a bit, but some extra hot glue fixed that right up. Also, the battery life isn't great – I'm thinking of upgrading to a rechargeable battery pack in the future. And it's a bit bulky, but hey, it's a prototype!

All in all, it was a super fun project. Definitely worth the effort. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a water war to prepare for!