On patrol at a local car boot sale, I picked up a DJ/Theatrical type of smoke unit for £3.
First test was a bit hit & miss so the case was opened, I worked out that the pump for the smoke fluid was knackered, but holding the tank higher than the unit gave a decent gravity feed and great huge gobs of smoke.....very "Phantom of the Opera"
The transformer inside fed 12v to the pump and the tank/heater uses 240v, now this is for use in my 12th scale TID whos over 6ft long, so theres plenty of room for all this. Next step is to try feeding the 240v tank circuit with a 12v inverter.
What I did notice was that once the heater/tank is warmed up....very warmed up, it stays hot for ages, despite the insulation not being the greatest in the world.
Im thinking that I could 'time' the heater rather than have it on all the time, or feed it from a switch, the residual heat still makes mad amounts of smoke.
I tried ducting it up a pipe with a computer fan and it was amazing!!!
I'll try and do a demo and upload to YouTube at some point.
Mention was made before about the 'eerie smoke' gadget from Maplins, I tried that until I discovered it wants AC...not DC, at that time not being aware that I could use an inverter, now thats solved, it could do sterling service in a medium sized boat, say 3ft or so. Be aware that although it only uses water, it superheats it locally and will melt a plasic funnel, I had to line mine with ally at the base. Your funnel will also need holes around the base to allow the vapour to be drawn up.
But all in all its still a viable option.