How a Fan Built Batman’s Smoke Gadget for Real Showing How One Press and You’re Gone

Caleb Rash wanted something better than the slow-burning Batman-inspired smoke devices scattered across the internet. Those versions needed fuses or pins and took too long to fill a space. He set out to create a compact puck you could wear on a belt and trigger with one button, producing a thick cloud fast enough to hide a person or even a small vehicle in broad daylight.

Months of experimenting and testing went into perfecting the Instant Vanishing Device, as Rash describes it. He started by creating a unique smoke chamber at his workshop. Inside, there was a blazing red LED opposite a light sensor attached to an Arduino Uno. The system was quite clever, as it measured how much smoke was blocking the light beam, with the assumption that the more blockage, the thicker the smoke. He did trial after experiment with various fuel blends, charting the results on graphs until he discovered the perfect combination.

Sorbitol, potassium nitrate, and paraffin wax were combined to create the winning mixture. Sorbitol, for example, burns at a lower temperature than sugar, which is beneficial because it avoids the unpleasant caramelisation problem that spoils so many other recipes. In contrast, potassium nitrate provides all of the oxygen required for a constant burn. Just a dab of paraffin wax binds the powders together, slows the burn just enough to provide a strong output, and maintains the entire process smooth from start to finish. The mixture is pumped into a flat puck printed with Tough 2000 V2 resin. Eight small apertures are positioned around the sides to allow smoke to exit in all directions, while the top and bottom remain tightly sealed, allowing pressure to build and push the cloud laterally and upwards naturally.

Ignition happens through a simple electric match wired to a battery and a push button. Rash’s safety feature, however, stuck out to us. He put a small Hall effect sensor into the puck, and when the puck is sitting in its belt holster, a small magnet keeps the circuit closed, ensuring that nothing is triggered by accident. Lift the puck out, and the magnet disappears as the sensor completes the circuit, and you’re ready to go.

He also included some powerful neodymium magnets, each capable of handling 150 pounds of pull. The puck can simply stick to a car door or a metal surface and continue to emit smoke as needed. The inside of the housing is protected with heat shielding to prevent the resin from melting under high temperatures, and small vents on the device’s arms safely release any excess pressure.

When Rash finally had it all tested and finished, the findings were quite impressive. You press the button, and the gadget fills the air with dense white smoke in an instant. A test shows two individuals standing next to a small four-seater cart as the cloud explodes and swallows them whole, leaving the people entirely out of sight until they move forward into the clear again.
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