Coil Gun Build

G'day,

This is my latest build that's in progress.

What is a coil gun you ask?

Its a gun. It uses a powerful but short pulse to a electromagnet to pull a ferromagnetic slug/bullet down the barrel towards the coil then turns off, so the slug keeps its speed as it exits the barrel.

Now this is the kit i bought: Coil Gun Kit
(it appears there are none in stock atm)

LED Indicators:
A power LED to indicate the unit has available power.
A charging LED to indicate the unit is charging the 2x large 400V capacitors
4x charge level LED's - yellow = 100V first green = 200V second green = 300V red = 400V

The operation of the unit goes like this:

Supply power to the unit, the power LED comes on.

Press the charging switch and the green charging LED comes on and unit starts to whine as it oscillates as it boosts the voltage from 9V to 400V.

The charge level indicator LED's come on at 100V,200V,300V and stops charging after the 400V red LED has turned on.

The unit is now ready to fire.

There is a IR LED and phototrasistor that watch the barrel for anything that comes between the IR LED and phototransistor.

As soon as you put your bullet shaped slug passed the 1st phototransistor, one of the 400V capacitors will discharge into the first coil via a SCR, then the same happens for the second coil.

Here's the PCB i completed and testing the charging circuit:


I have ordered a acrylic tube and 1kg of 22AWG magnet wire to wind the coils!

Will update this thread as i complete more of it!

Thanks for looking!

Fiddy.

Re: Coil/Rail Gun Build

That would be a coilgun, railguns are different on that they accelerate via Lorentz's force between two rails contacting the projectile.

Its a nice little kit, later on you can try out more stages with iron coil houses for even greater velocity. (If I read right yours is a 2 stage).

Good luck with your project.

thanks for the tip

You gonna hunt spiders around your room with it?

Its a pitty that these are out of stock :cryyy:
I want one
Fiddy, good job !

Jim

Digital said:

You gonna hunt spiders around your room with it?

Click to expand...

haha, i think this puppy will go straight through walls lol

jimdt7 said:

Its a pitty that these are out of stock :cryyy:
I want one
Fiddy, good job !

Jim

Click to expand...

Thanks man!
Yeah, i think the guy who sells them is a one man band, so stock is very limited.

UPDATE

Finished the Optical gate system for triggering the SCR's to fire and discharge the caps into the coils.

You don't look like your having enough fun, after you finish this coil gun maybe you should build a Lorentz Gun

They shoot bolts of lightning :eg:

Fiddy, if you build your own you can save a lot of money on costs... Those kits are usually like 200% overpriced based off of what I've seen. If you're curious, you can go to 4hv.org and ask around. The people there are extremely nice.

Just a suggestion!

UPDATE

Heres my first test fire only using 1 coil!

Le Quack said:

Fiddy, if you build your own you can save a lot of money on costs... Those kits are usually like 200% overpriced based off of what I've seen. If you're curious, you can go to 4hv.org and ask around. The people there are extremely nice.

Just a suggestion!

Click to expand...

The guy that makes these kits is an awesome bloke. I'm pretty sure the coilgun also comes with laser cut acrylic parts. His prices are more than reasonable considering the effort, and thus quality of the kits he produces IMO.

Things said:

The guy that makes these kits is an awesome bloke. I'm pretty sure the coilgun also comes with laser cut acrylic parts. His prices are more than reasonable considering the effort, and thus quality of the kits he produces IMO.

Click to expand...

Yup! the coil gun didn't come with any acrylic parts you have to make em yourself, the circuit board is really well done tho!

Ah, in his youtube video it had acrylic parts.

Aiming to have my laser cutter finished within a month, so if you haven't got anything sorted by then, let me know

Gigity! I need that blue plastic piece for the pistol that holds the barrel and PCB cut, i have the drawing

Nice - its looks like its a charger similar to the battery powered ones GBD and I were experimenting with, with a lot more bells and whistles (the firing sequencer etc).

Its difficult to see in the video, but are the two tabbed semiconductors mosfets, and is there a transformer and cap before the hf bridge rectifier? if so the charger portion (not the rest of it) is that classic royer/mazilli one

there is 2x SCR's that fire to dump the 400V capacitors into the coil(s).

It uses a power mosfet to turn off and on via feedback from a step up transformer i think.
i dont think it has a bridge rectifier, can pm you the schematic if you wish.