DIY Gauss Gun

Since they have already started to appear in one of the articles with Gauss guns, or in another way Gauss Gun which are made with your own hands, in this article I publish another design and video footage of a Gauss gun.

This Gauss gun powered by battery in 12 Volt. You can see it in the picture.

This article can also be used as an instruction, as it describes in detail the assembly of the gun.

Gun characteristics:

Weight:2.5 kg
Projectile speed: approximately 9 m/s
Projectile weight: 29 g
Projectile kinetic energy: approximately 1.17 J.
Charging time of capacitors from the battery through the converter: 2 sec
Charging time of capacitors from the network through the converter: about 30 seconds
Dimensions: 200x70x170 mm

This electromagnetic accelerator is capable of firing any metal projectiles that are magnetic. A Gauss gun consists of a coil and capacitors. When electric current flows through the coil, an electromagnetic field is formed, which in turn accelerates the metal projectile. The purpose is very different - mainly to scare your classmates. In this article I will tell you how to make such a Gauss gun for yourself.

Block diagram of Gauss Cannon

I would like to clarify a point. On the block diagram, the capacitor is 450 Volts. And 500 Volts comes out of the multiplier. Absurd. Isn’t it? Well, the author did not take this into account a little. We set the capacitor to at least 500 Volts.

And now the multiplier circuit itself:

In the scheme field is used transistor IRF 3205.With this transistor charging speed a 1000 uF capacitor for a voltage of 500 volts will be approximately equal to 2 seconds(with 4 amp/hour battery). You can use the IRL3705 transistor, but the charging speed will be approximately 10 seconds. Here is a video of the converter working:

The video multiplier contains an IRL3705 transistor, so the capacitors take a long time to charge. Later I replaced the IRL3705 with the IRF 3205, the charging speed became equal to 2 seconds.

Resistor R7 regulated output voltage from 50 to 900 volts; LED 1 indicates when the capacitors have been charged to the required voltage. If the multiplier transformer is noisy, try reducing the capacitance of capacitor C1, inductor L1 is not necessary, the capacitance of capacitor C2 can be reduced to 1000 μF, diodes D1 and D2 can be replaced with other diodes with similar characteristics. IMPORTANT! Switch S1 is closed only after voltage is applied to the power terminals. Otherwise, if voltage is applied to the terminals and switch S1 is closed, the transistor may fail due to a sharp voltage surge!

The circuit itself works simply: the UC3845 microcircuit produces rectangular pulses, which are fed to the gate of a powerful field-effect transistor, where they are amplified in amplitude and fed to the primary winding of a pulse transformer. Further impulses are pumped up pulse transformer up to an amplitude of 500-600 volts they are rectified by diode D2 and the rectified voltage charges the capacitors. The transformer is taken from a computer power supply. The diagram shows dots near the transformer. These points indicate the beginning of the winding. The method of winding the transformer is as follows:

1 . We cook a transformer taken from an unnecessary computer power supply (the largest transformer) in boiling water for 5-10 minutes, then carefully disassemble the W-shaped ferrite core and unwind the entire transformer.

2 . First, we wind HALF of the secondary winding with a wire with a diameter of 0.5-0.7 mm. You need to wind it from the leg at the point indicated in the diagram.
Having wound 27 turns, we remove the wire without biting it off, insulate 27 turns with paper or cardboard and remember in which direction the wire was wound. THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! If the primary winding is wound in the other direction, then nothing will work, since the currents will be subtracted!!!

3 . Next we wind the primary winding. We also wind it from the beginning indicated in the diagram. We wind it in the same direction in which the first part of the primary winding was wound. Primary winding consists of 6 wires soldered together and wound with 4 turns. We wind all 6 wires parallel to each other, laying them out evenly in 4 turns in two layers. Between the layers we lay a layer of insulating paper.

4 . Next, we wind the secondary winding (another 27 turns). We head in the same direction as before. And now the transformer is ready! All that remains is to assemble the circuit itself. If the circuit is made correctly, the circuit works immediately without any adjustments.

Converter parts:

The converter requires a powerful energy source such as a 4 amp/hour battery. How more powerful battery, the faster the capacitors charge.

Here is the converter itself:

Converter printed circuit board - bottom view:

This board is quite large and after a little work, I drew a smaller board in Sprint-layout:

For those who are not able to make a converter, there is a version of the Gauss gun from a ~220 volt network. Here is the circuit of the multiplier from the network:

You can take any diodes that keep the voltage above 600 volts, the capacitance of the capacitor is selected empirically from 0.5 to 3.3 µF.

If the circuit is created correctly, it will work immediately without any settings.
My coil is 8 ohm. It is wound with varnished copper wire with a diameter of 0.7 mm. total length wires are about 90 meters.

Now that everything is done, all that remains is to assemble the gun itself. The total cost of the gun is about 1000 rubles. The cost was calculated as follows:

1. Battery 500 rub.
2. The wire can be found for 100 rubles.
3. All sorts of little things and details 400 rubles.

For those who want to make the same gun as mine, here are step-by-step instructions:

1) Cut out a piece of plywood measuring 200x70x5 mm.

2) We make a special mount for the handle. You can make a handle from a toy pistol, but I have the handle of an insulin injection pistol. A button with two positions (three outputs) is installed inside the handle.

3) Install the handle.

4) We make fastenings on plywood for the converter.

5) Install the converter on the plywood.

6) We make a protective shield on the converter so that the projectile does not damage the converter.

7) Install the coil and solder all the wires as in the block diagram.

8) We make the body from fiberboard

9) We install all the switches in place, secure the battery with large ties. That's all! The gun is ready! This gun fires the following projectiles:

The diameter of the projectile is 10 mm, and the length is 50 mm. Weight 29 grams.

Raised body gun:

And finally, a few videos

Here is a video of a Gauss gun in action. Shot into a corrugated cardboard box

Shot at 0.8mm thick tile:

Firstly, the editors of Science Debate congratulate all the artillerymen and rocketeers! After all, today is November 19 - Rocket Forces and Artillery Day. 72 years ago, on November 19, 1942, the Red Army’s counteroffensive during the Battle of Stalingrad began with powerful artillery preparation.

That is why today we have prepared for you a publication dedicated to cannons, but not ordinary ones, but Gauss cannons!

A man, even when he becomes an adult, remains a boy at heart, but his toys change. Computer games have become a real salvation for respectable men who did not finish playing “war games” in childhood and now have the opportunity to make up for lost time.

Computer action films often feature futuristic weapons that you won’t find in real life- the famous Gauss cannon, which can be planted by some crazy professor or can be accidentally found in a secret chronicle.

Is it possible to get a Gauss gun in real life?

It turns out that it is possible, and it is not as difficult to do as it might seem at first glance. Let's quickly find out what a Gauss gun is in the classical sense. A Gauss gun is a weapon that uses a method of electromagnetic mass acceleration.

The design of this formidable weapon is based on a solenoid - a cylindrical winding of wires, where the length of the wire is many times greater than the diameter of the winding. When electric current is applied, a strong magnetic field will arise in the cavity of the coil (solenoid). It will pull the projectile inside the solenoid.

If at the moment when the projectile reaches the center, the voltage is removed, then the magnetic field will not prevent the body from moving by inertia, and it will fly out of the coil.

Assembling a Gauss gun at home

In order to create a Gauss gun with our own hands, we first need an inductor. Carefully wind the enameled wire onto the bobbin, without sharp bends, so as not to damage the insulation in any way.

After wrapping, fill the first layer with superglue, wait until it dries, and proceed to the next layer. In the same way you need to wind 10-12 layers. We put the finished coil on the future barrel of the weapon. A plug should be placed on one of its edges.

In order to get a strong electrical impulse, a bank of capacitors is perfect. They are able to release the accumulated energy for a short time until the bullet reaches the middle of the coil.

To charge the capacitors you will need Charger. A suitable device is found in photographic cameras; it is used to produce a flash. Of course, we are not talking about an expensive model that we will dissect, but disposable Kodaks will do.

In addition, apart from the charger and capacitor, they do not contain any other electrical elements. When disassembling the camera, be careful not to get hit electric shock. Feel free to remove the battery clips from the charging device and unsolder the capacitor.

Thus, you need to prepare approximately 4-5 boards (more is possible if desire and capabilities allow). The question of choosing a capacitor forces you to make a choice between the power of the shot and the time it takes to charge. A larger capacitor capacity also requires a longer period of time, reducing the rate of fire, so you will have to find a compromise.

LED elements installed on the charging circuits signal with light that the required charging level has been reached. Of course, you can connect additional charging circuits, but do not overdo it, so as not to accidentally burn the transistors on the boards. In order to discharge the battery, it is best to install a relay for safety reasons.

We connect the control circuit to the battery through the shutter button, and the controlled circuit to the circuit between the coil and the capacitors. In order to fire a shot, it is necessary to apply power to the system, and then light signal, load the weapon. Turn off the power, aim and shoot!

If the process captivates you, but the resulting power is not enough, then you can start creating a multi-stage Gauss gun, because that’s exactly what it should be like.

So, let's look at everything in order. Charging the gun operates on a 220 volt network. Charging consists of a 1.5 uF 400 V capacitor. 1N4006 diodes. Output voltage 350 V.

Next comes the current-limiting load - H1, in my case an incandescent lamp, but you can use a powerful resistor of 500 - 1000 Ohms. Key S1 limits the charging of capacitors. Key S2 delivers a powerful discharge of current to the solenoid, so S2 must withstand high current, in my case I used the button from the electrical panel.

Capacitors C1 and C2, each 470 µF 400 V. The total is 940 µF 400 V. The capacitors must be connected observing the polarity and voltage on them during charging. You can control the voltage on them with a voltmeter.

And now the most difficult thing in our Gauss gun design is the solenoid. It is wound on a dielectric rod. The inner diameter of the trunk is 5-6 mm. The wire used PEL 0.5. The thickness of the coil is 1.5 cm. The length is 2 cm. When winding the solenoid, you need to insulate each layer with super glue.

We will accelerate our electromagnetic gauss gun with cuttings of nails or homemade bullets 4-5 mm thick and as long as a reel. Lighter bullets travel longer distances. Heavier ones fly a shorter distance, but they have more energy. My gauss gun penetrates beer cans and shoots at 10-12 meters depending on the bullet.

And also, for the accelerator it is better to select thicker wires so that there is less resistance in the circuit. Be extremely careful! During the invention of the accelerator, I was shocked several times, follow the electrical safety rules and pay attention to the reliability of insulation. Good luck with your creativity.

Discuss the article GAUSS GUNS

A Gauss gun or simply a Gauss gun is the dream of almost every beginning radio amateur. Today we will consider a variant of a powerful Gauss gun based on a very simple, but at the same time very powerful converter for its size.

Basis: PWM controller on the UC3845 chip. A fairly common microcircuit, it is used in switching power supplies as a master oscillator. The only drawback of the microcircuit is that it starts to work only when the supply voltage rating is above 9 volts, and the maximum value does not exceed the rating of 18 volts. Thus, a signal with a frequency of 60 kilohertz is received at the base of the field-effect transistor, the signal voltage is about 8 volts, which is enough to open the transition of a powerful field-effect transistor.

Reverse conduction transistor, field-effect N-channel transistors such as IRF3205 and IRL3705 do an excellent job, although you can install the widely used IRFZ44, but it overheats quite quickly. Although the recommended transistors need to be strengthened with a small heat sink. The circuit turns off when the capacitors are charged to a nominal 300 volts, then the white LED begins to glow. The converter has a power of 70 - 80 watts, but it also consumes quite a bit... 9 amperes, at peak up to 12 amperes. As for diodes, both diodes in the circuit must be used high-speed or ultra-fast, there are many analogues and it is not at all necessary to use these diodes, but the circuit works perfectly with them. An 820 ohm resistor should be selected with a power of 1 - 2 watts, since it also overheats.

The transformer is wound on a cup, although you can use ferrite transformers from computer power supplies (the larger one). The primary winding contains 5 turns, wound with 0.7 mm wire in 3 cores. Secondary winding contains 120 turns of wire with a diameter of 0.5 - 0.8 mm.

The converter can be powered by any DC voltage source, of course, if the source can provide the necessary parameters to power the converter. I highly recommend using a battery from an uninterruptible power supply. To reduce the size, you can use nickel-cadmium or nickel metal hydride batteries with a capacity of 1000 mA or more.

The gun itself is made on a plastic pipe with internal diameter 9 mm, fortunately I had a lot of iron rods that freely entered and exited into the pipe, as people say “tail to neck”. The rods were cut to 3 cm in length and sharpened like nails. The winding contains 50 turns of wire with a diameter of 0.9 - 1.2 mm.

Capacitors: Although the converter turns off as soon as the voltage across the capacitors is exactly 300 volts, capacitors with a voltage of 400 volts are still used. It’s even good that there is a voltage reserve, in this case 100 volts. 4 capacitors with a total capacity of 13200 microfarads (each 3300 microfarads) were used. The capacity is fully charged 3 - 4 seconds after turning on the converter.

List of radioelements

Electromagnetic Gauss gun on a microcontroller

• Robotics development

Hi all. In this article we will look at how to make a portable electromagnetic Gauss gun assembled using a microcontroller. Well, about the Gauss gun, of course, I got excited, but there is no doubt that it is an electromagnetic gun. This microcontroller device was designed to teach beginners how to program microcontrollers using a design example electromagnetic gun with our own hands. Let's look at some design points both in the electromagnetic Gauss gun itself and in the program for the microcontroller.

From the very beginning, you need to decide on the diameter and length of the barrel of the gun itself and the material from which it will be made. I used a plastic case with a diameter of 10 mm from under mercury thermometer, because I had it lying around idle. You can use any available material, which has non-ferromagnetic properties. This is glass, plastic, copper tube etc. The length of the barrel may depend on the number of electromagnetic coils used. In my case, four electromagnetic coils are used, the barrel length was twenty centimeters.

As for the diameter of the tube used, during operation the electromagnetic gun showed that it is necessary to take into account the diameter of the barrel relative to the projectile used. Simply put, the diameter of the barrel should not be much larger than the diameter of the projectile used. Ideally, the barrel of the electromagnetic gun should fit the projectile itself.

The material for creating the projectiles was an axle from a printer with a diameter of five millimeters. Five blanks 2.5 centimeters long were made from this material. Although you can also use steel blanks, say, wire or electrode - whatever you can find.

You need to pay attention to the weight of the projectile itself. Weight should be as low as possible. My shells turned out to be a little heavy.

Before creating this gun, experiments were carried out. Used as a trunk empty paste from the handle, as a projectile - a needle. The needle easily pierced the cover of a magazine installed near the electromagnetic gun.

Since the original Gauss electromagnetic gun is built on the principle of charging a capacitor with a high voltage, about three hundred volts, for safety reasons, novice radio amateurs should power it with a low voltage, about twenty volts. Low voltage means that the projectile's flight range is not very long. But again, it all depends on the number of electromagnetic coils used. The more electromagnetic coils are used, the greater the acceleration of the projectile in the electromagnetic gun. The diameter of the barrel also matters (the smaller the diameter of the barrel, the further the projectile flies) and the quality of winding of the electromagnetic coils themselves. Perhaps, electromagnetic coils are the most basic thing in the design of an electromagnetic gun; serious attention must be paid to this in order to achieve maximum projectile flight.

I will give the parameters of my electromagnetic coils; yours may be different. The coil is wound with wire with a diameter of 0.2 mm. The winding length of the electromagnetic coil layer is two centimeters and contains six such rows. I did not insulate each new layer, but began winding a new layer on the previous one. Due to the fact that the electromagnetic coils are powered by low voltage, you need to get the maximum quality factor of the coil. Therefore, we wind all the turns tightly to each other, turn to turn.

As for the feeding device, no special explanation is needed. Everything was soldered from waste foil PCB left over from production printed circuit boards. Everything is shown in detail in the pictures. The heart of the feeder is the SG90 servo drive, controlled by a microcontroller.

The feed rod is made of a steel rod with a diameter of 1.5 mm; an M3 nut is sealed at the end of the rod for coupling with the servo drive. On the servo drive rocker, to increase the arm, there is a curved one at both ends. copper wire with a diameter of 1.5 mm.

This simple device, assembled from scrap materials, is quite enough to fire a projectile into the barrel of an electromagnetic gun. The feed rod must extend completely out of the loading magazine. A cracked brass stand with an internal diameter of 3 mm and a length of 7 mm served as a guide for the feed rod. It was a pity to throw it away, so it came in handy, just like the pieces of foil PCB.

The program for the atmega16 microcontroller was created in AtmelStudio, and is a completely open project for you. Let's look at some settings in the microcontroller program that will have to be made. For maximum efficient work electromagnetic gun, you will need to configure the operating time of each electromagnetic coil in the program. The settings are made in order. First, solder the first coil into the circuit, do not connect all the others. Set the operating time in the program (in milliseconds).

PORTA |=(1<<1); // катушка 1
_delay_ms(350); / / working hours

Flash the microcontroller and run the program on the microcontroller. The force of the coil should be enough to retract the projectile and give initial acceleration. Having achieved the maximum projectile reach, adjusting the coil operating time in the microcontroller program, connect the second coil and also adjust the time, achieving an even greater projectile flight range. Accordingly, the first coil remains switched on.

PORTA |=(1<<1); // катушка 1
_delay_ms(350);
PORTA &=~(1<<1);
PORTA |=(1<<2); // катушка 2
_delay_ms(150);

In this way, you configure the operation of each electromagnetic coil, connecting them in order. As the number of electromagnetic coils in the device of an electromagnetic Gauss gun increases, the speed and, accordingly, the range of the projectile should also increase.

This painstaking procedure of setting each coil can be avoided. But to do this, you will have to modernize the device of the electromagnetic gun itself, installing sensors between the electromagnetic coils to track the movement of the projectile from one coil to another. Sensors in combination with a microcontroller will not only simplify the setup process, but will also increase the projectile’s flight range. I did not add these bells and whistles and did not complicate the microcontroller program. The goal was to implement an interesting and simple project using a microcontroller. How interesting it is, of course, is up to you to judge. To be honest, I was happy like a child, “grinding” from this device, and the idea of ​​a more serious device on a microcontroller matured. But this is a topic for another article.

Program and scheme -