Continue to Site

Welcome to our site!

Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

  • Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

Coil gun

Status
Not open for further replies.

Kubanator

New Member
So, I decided to build a coil gun. I am using a camera circuit to provide power (330V, 120uF cap) and have a question.

Is the power of the solenoid dependent more on the voltage or the amperage?
 
So, I decided to build a coil gun. I am using a camera circuit to provide power (330V, 120uF cap) and have a question.

Is the power of the solenoid dependent more on the voltage or the amperage?

hey i was thinking that! are u going to do like with thin copper wire and some springs?(for the thrust) and some farps in the end of the copper...

wait a minute, whats a coil gun? i might be thinking of taser...
 
hey i was thinking that! are u going to do like with thin copper wire and some springs?(for the thrust) and some farps in the end of the copper...

wait a minute, whats a coil gun? i might be thinking of taser...

You're thinking of a taser. A coil gun basically makes a really powerful magnetic force to pull a projectile towards it, and then shuts it off, letting the projectile fly. I'm using the camera's capacitor to provide this force. It could also be used to make a taser, but as far as I know, that's very illegal in Canada, and probably in the States too.
 
You're thinking of a taser. A coil gun basically makes a really powerful magnetic force to pull a projectile towards it, and then shuts it off, letting the projectile fly. I'm using the camera's capacitor to provide this force. It could also be used to make a taser, but as far as I know, that's very illegal in Canada, and probably in the States too.

good job i live in europe :D

just seen vids of coild guns on youtube :O they are awsome!
are u sure that the camera circuit works? i've tryed making an EMP with one... copper burnt... it was too thin, then i tryed with thicker copper and nothing happened... anyways good luck with that, Post some pics when ur done!
nite
 
The amperage. Vector potential (the h-field) is given in amp-turns.
 
Now, if I wanted to get the potential amperage, assuming the whole capacitor discharged over 1 second, it would be....

F = A*s/V
V*F=A*s
330*(12*10^-6)=A*1
0.00396=A

Meaning that the potential wattage would be...

W=VI
W=(330)(0.00396)
W=1.3068

Is that correct?
 
No. Use k = .5*cV^2, where c = capacitance, V = volts, k = watt-seconds of energy. That gives 6.53 watt-seconds.
 
No. Use k = .5*cV^2, where c = capacitance, V = volts, k = watt-seconds of energy. That gives 6.53 watt-seconds.

Is that Joules given off as heat, or given off as any force, including electromagnetic? And, did I get the F = A*s/V calculation right?
 
Joules is watt-seconds, it doesn't care how you use it.

You are off by a decimal, 120µf = .00012 = 12*10^-5.

The voltage is not constant, it decreases exponentially, that's why the wattage formula fails.

This is the wrong approach - your peak current will be much higher, because it will discharge in milliseconds or less. It will be limited and controlled by the inductance of the coil.
 
When that capacitor is fully charged it will hold 6 Joules of energy. If you can convert ALL that energy into bullet energy then a 10gram bullet would travel at 35m/S or 124kM/h. In reality you will be lucky to convert half the energy and so the good news is that you won't kill yourself. At least not with the projectile - the high voltage is another thing.:D

Mike.
 
Yeah, 6.125J with those numbers. I see someone else has kicked this idea around a few times. ;)

Even at 35m/s he couldn't kill himself. Bullet velocities are ten TIMES that, and kinetic energy goes up with the square of the velocity, so he has a way to go before he shoots himself in the foot and notices.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest threads

New Articles From Microcontroller Tips

Back
Top