Very strange concept. speakergun

[Halogrunt1234]

Watching some very large speakers at work, I was wondering if the speakers themselve could be used to launch a projectile. the idea is that I apply a powerful DC current to the speaker to make it come inwards to the magne, the suddenly I apply a GIANT pulse of the opposite polarity to the speaker, making it pop forward at high speed. do this with a light projectile on the cone surface, and I may be able to launch the projectile, with an added sound to it.

I know that, given that this isn't a completely absurd and unrealistic idea, I would need a HUGE speaker, and a large DC power source. I just want to know if this would ever be possible to achieve.

or, on a very related subject, I could take the coilgun that I've been trying to get working, put a long permanent magnet inside of it, and when I engage the electromagnetic coil, the magnet jumps up to the coil, and then when it gets to the coil, it stops abruptly and any tiny nonmagnetic projectile that was resting on top of the magnet is flung forward.

please tell me if you like any of these ideas and if they have even a snowball's chance in hell of working.

 

[Clyd3]

whether its possible or not, hey, specialized little cone of your own, with more travel, and reinforcing would help, or make a railgun or something...

 

[stevez]

Sure it could work but you'd have a lot of design work to do. It doesn't sound particularly efficient but if that's what you want to do then give it a try.

A couple of problems - the speaker is designed to move air not projectiles. The projectile just might penetrate the surface of the speaker if you move the speaker forward fast enough. Another problem - the coil has limits on the amount of power it can tolerate. Apply enough power and it goes up in smoke.

 

[Dr.EM]

Hmm, basically what your doing could be simplified down to a coilgun type design that fires a magnet rather than a steel/iron rod. If you think about how a speaker works, thats basically what it is, a pernament magnet acting on an electromagnet. The cone would only slow it down. I suppose you could take the voice coil out, and use that assembly as a launching pad for other projectiles though.

 

[jrz126]

Also, it would be kinda expensive...The subs I'm running in my car now (12" Kicker CVR's) were about $80.00 a piece. Also, there isnt very much movement...my CVR's have an Xmax (cone excursion) of .51", so the projectile will only be in contact with the cone for half an inch.

 

[Oznog]

So if the projectile is sitting on the cone and the whole cone is thrust forward at the same speed as the projectile, what makes you think the cone is going to stay with the speaker?

 

[zachtheterrible]

It has to be a pulse. Speakers do not like DC current. If the DC is kept at a steady rate, the coil is going to heat up because its only 8 ohms or so. And at the power levels you're talking about, that coil will get very hot very quick.

If it is a pulse, that would probably solve the problem though.

Interesting, although I'm not sure how well it will work. Might as well build a coilgun.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I can't believe that EVERYONE on these forums hasn't 'fired' small items off a speaker cone :lol:

Just have the speaker lying on it's back, place something small on the cone (like a paper clip, or resistor) and wack the volume up fast on a loud piece of music. Hours of fun :lol:

Make sure you use an amplifier with a proper volume control, and not one of these silly encoder types - which won't let you turn it up fast enough.

 

[Dr.EM]

Yeah, I remember having launched lego people off of a car speaker cone, I just connected it briefly to a 9v battery by touching the wires :lol:. Only about 3 inches maximum launch though from that setup.

 

[Someone Electro]

Yea fun bouncing stuff of speakers.

I once haked an old radio to plug in an PC sound card (tock just a bit of soldering an desoldering)Then i put the bass to the max and put on an mp3.

Its not good on bouncing off stuff..But it was fun to watch an paper on it.

Since the center of the speaker had an shiny half globe. I cod reflect the PC monitor in it and it looked like the monitors screen was waveing forward/backwad(I still have an CRT)

Yea a coil gun is cool.All you need is the right capacitor and an right coil.

 

[pike]

Instead of a paperclip put sugar on it, you'll see some crazy stuff i swear.

If you really want to launch it some distance, hook it up directly to the power point, guaranteed to blow the rubber surrounds on them.

NB: I nor electro-tech-online are responsible if your death results from this!!!

 

[Someone Electro]

I have an 40 000uF 63V cap bank that i wodnt conect to a speaker since the membrane wod probobly get riped a part.

i think someone discharged a cap in a speaker to make an blast of air.

 

[Clyd3]

Yeah, I remember having launched lego...

Yeah, lego's the way baby!!!!
good memories!!!
I have this cheap arabean lego man ripoff stuff too, really funny

 

[jrz126]

**broken link removed**

There are some more vid's subwoofer abuse on the site, takes a bit of looking around though
https://www.realmofexcursion.com/videos.html

 

[Optikon]

Sure it could work but you'd have a lot of design work to do. It doesn't sound particularly efficient but if that's what you want to do then give it a try.

A couple of problems - the speaker is designed to move air not projectiles. The projectile just might penetrate the surface of the speaker if you move the speaker forward fast enough. Another problem - the coil has limits on the amount of power it can tolerate. Apply enough power and it goes up in smoke.

:0
Theoretically, I can crawl to china. And..I'll probably learn alot along the way. But I can learn the same things much quicker for less money by spending my time on something a little more realistic.

 

[Clyd3]

i like that story about crawling, talk about a life lesson!!!
I think many hobiests like to see something they like (like a speaker) do something cool and different, even though they could be doing something more constructive, btw, threadstarter, tell us how you do...