Foam cannon diagram. How to make an electromagnetic Gauss gun with your own hands at home. DIY Gauss gun

For probably 50 years now, everyone has been saying that the age of gunpowder has come to an end, and firearms can no longer develop. Despite the fact that I absolutely disagree with this statement and believe that modern firearms, or rather cartridges, still have room to grow and improve, I cannot ignore attempts to replace gunpowder and, in general, the usual operating principle of weapons. It is clear that so far much of what has been invented is simply impossible, mainly due to the lack of a compact source of electric current or due to the complexity of production and maintenance, but at the same time there are many interesting projects lying on a dusty shelf and waiting for their time.

Gauss gun

I would like to start with this particular sample for the reason that it is quite simple, and also because I have my own small experience in trying to create such a weapon, and, I must say, not the most unsuccessful one.

Personally, I first learned about this type of weapon not from the game “Stalker”, although it is thanks to it that millions know about this weapon, and not even from Fallout games, but from the literature, namely from the UT magazine. The Gauss cannon presented in the magazine was the most primitive and was positioned as a children's toy. So, the “weapon” itself consisted of a plastic tube with a coil wound on it copper wire, which played the role of an electromagnet when electric current was applied to it. A metal ball was placed into the tube, which, when current was applied, sought to attract an electromagnet. To prevent the ball from “hanging” in the electromagnet, the current supply was short-term, from an electrolytic capacitor. Thus, the ball accelerated to the electromagnet, and then, when the electromagnet was turned off, it flew on its own. An electronic target was proposed for all this, but let’s not get into the topic of what interesting, useful and, most importantly, popular literature used to be.

Actually, the device described above is simplest gun Gauss, but it is natural that such a device clearly cannot be a weapon, unless with a very large and powerful single electromagnet. To achieve acceptable projectile speeds, it is necessary to use, so to speak, a stepwise acceleration system, that is, several electromagnets must be installed on the barrel one after another. The main problem when creating such a device at home is the synchronization of the operation of electromagnets, since the speed of the projectile being thrown directly depends on this. Although straight hands, a soldering iron and an attic or cottage with old TVs, tape recorders, record players and no difficulties are not scary. On this moment Having glanced over the sites where people demonstrate their creativity, I noticed that almost everyone places the coils of electromagnets on the barrel itself, roughly speaking, they simply wind the coils around it. Judging by the test results of such samples, such weapons are not far from the current publicly available pneumatics in terms of efficiency, but they are quite suitable for recreational shooting.

Actually, what torments me most is why they are trying to place the coils on the barrel; it would be much more effective to use electromagnets with cores that would be directed by these same cores to the barrel. Thus, it is possible to place, say, 6 electromagnets in the area previously occupied by one electromagnet; accordingly, this will give a greater increase in the speed of the projectile being thrown. Several sections of such electromagnets along the entire length of the barrel will be able to accelerate a small piece of steel to decent speeds, although the installation will weigh a lot even without a current source. For some reason, everyone is trying and calculating the discharge time of the capacitor that powers the coil in order to coordinate the coils with each other so that they accelerate the projectile rather than slow it down. I agree, it’s a very interesting activity to sit down and consider; in general, physics and mathematics are wonderful sciences, but why not coordinate the coils using photos and LEDs and a simple circuit, it seems like there is no particular shortage and you can get the necessary parts for a reasonable fee, although, of course, you can count cheaper. Well, what about the power source? electrical network, transformer, diode bridge and several electrolytic capacitors connected in parallel. But even with such a monster weighing about 20 kilograms without an autonomous source of electric current, impressive results are unlikely to be achieved, although it depends on how impressionable one is. And no, no, I didn’t do anything like that (lowering my head, moving my foot in a slipper along the floor), I just made that toy from UT with one coil.

In general, even when used as some kind of stationary weapon, say the same machine gun to protect an object that does not change its location, such a weapon will be quite expensive, and most importantly heavy and not the most effective, unless of course we are talking about reasonable dimensions and not about a monster with a five-meter trunk. On the other hand, a very high theoretical rate of fire and ammunition at a price of a penny per half ton look very attractive.

Thus, for a Gauss gun the main problem is that electromagnets have a lot of weight, and, as always, a source of electric current is required. In general, no one is developing weapons based on the Gauss gun; there is a project to launch small satellites, but it is rather theoretical and has not been developed for a long time. Interest in the Gauss gun is maintained only thanks to cinema and computer games, and even to enthusiasts who love to work with their heads and hands, of which, unfortunately, there are not many in our time. For weapons, there is a more practical device that consumes electric current, although the practicality here can be argued, but unlike the Gauss gun, there are certain shifts.

RailGun or in our opinion Railgun

This weapon is no less famous than the Gauss gun, for which we must say thanks to computer games and cinema, however, if everyone who is interested in this type of weapon is familiar with the principle of operation of the Gauss gun, then not everything is clear with the railgun. Let's try to figure out what kind of beast it is, how does it work and what are its prospects?

It all started back in 1920, it was in this year that a patent was received for this type of weapon, and initially, no one planned to use the invention for peaceful purposes. The author of the railgun, or the more famous railgun, is the Frenchman - Andre Louis-Octave Fauchon Vieple. Despite the fact that the designer managed to achieve some success in defeating enemy personnel, no one was interested in his invention, the design was very cumbersome, and the result was so-so and quite comparable to firearms. So for almost twenty years the invention was abandoned, until a country was found that could afford to spend huge amounts of money on the development of science, and especially that part of science that could kill. We are talking about Nazi Germany. It was there that Joachim Hansler became interested in the French invention. Under the leadership of the scientist, much more was created efficient installation, which had a length of only two meters, but accelerated the projectile to a speed of more than 1200 meters per second, although the projectile itself was made of aluminum alloy and weighed 10 grams. However, this was more than enough to fire at both enemy personnel and unarmored vehicles. In particular, the designer positioned his development as a means of combating air targets. More high speed the flight of a projectile, in comparison with a firearm, made the designer’s work very promising, since it was much easier to fire at moving, and constantly moving, targets. However, the design required improvement and the designer did a lot of work to improve this sample, slightly changing the initial principle of its operation.

In the first sample, everything was more or less clear and there was nothing fantastic. There were two rails, which were the “barrel” of the weapon. The projectile itself was placed between them, which was made of a material that passed electric current; as a result, when current was applied to the rails, under the influence of the Lorentz force, the projectile rushed forward and in ideal conditions, which, naturally, would never be achieved, its speed could approach the speed of light. Since there were many factors that prevented the projectile from being accelerated to such speeds, the designer decided to get rid of some of them. The main achievement was that in the latest developments, the no longer thrown projectile closed the circuit, this was done by an electric arc behind the thrown projectile; in fact, this solution is still used today, only being improved. Thus, the designer managed to approach the flight speed of a thrown projectile equal to 3 kilometers per second, this was 1944 of the last century. Fortunately, the designer did not have enough time to complete his work and solve the problems that the weapon had, and there were quite a few of them. And so much so that this development was pushed to the Americans and no work was carried out in this direction in the Soviet Union. It was only in the seventies that we began to develop these weapons and at the moment we, unfortunately, are lagging behind, well, at least according to publicly available data. In the United States, they have long reached a speed of 7.5 kilometers per second and are not going to stop. Work is currently being carried out towards the development of the railgun as a means of air defense, so as a hand-held firearm, the railgun is still a fantasy or a very distant future.

The main problem with the railgun is that to achieve maximum efficiency it must use rails with very low resistance. At the moment they are covered with silver, which seems to be not so expensive in financially, however, taking into account the fact that the “barrel” of the weapon is not one or two meters long, this is already a significant expense. In addition, after several shots, the rails need to be changed and restored, which costs money, and the rate of fire of such weapons remains very low. In addition, we should not forget that the rails themselves try to push away from each other under the influence of the same forces that accelerate the projectile. For this reason, the structure must have sufficient strength, but at the same time the rails themselves must be able to be quickly replaced. But this is not the main problem. A shot requires a huge amount of energy, so with one car battery You can’t get away with it behind your back; here you already need more powerful sources of electric current, which calls into question the mobility of such a system. So in the USA they are planning to install similar installations on destroyers, and they are already talking about automating the supply of projectiles, cooling and other delights of civilization. At the moment, the declared firing range for ground targets is 180 kilometers, but they are still silent about air targets. Our designers have not yet decided where they will apply their developments. However, from scraps of information we can conclude that the railgun will not be used as an independent weapon for now, but as a means that complements already existing long-range weapons, allowing you to significantly add the desired couple of hundred meters per second to the speed of the projectile being thrown, the railgun has good prospects, and the cost of such a development will be much lower than some megaguns on our own ships.

The only question that remains is whether we should be considered lagging behind in this matter, since usually what works poorly is tried to be promoted by everyone possible ways“Everyone was afraid of it,” but what is really effective, but its time has not yet come, is closed behind seven locks. Well, at least that's what I want to believe.

Hello friends! Surely some of you have already read or personally encountered the Gauss electromagnetic accelerator, which is better known as the “Gauss Gun”.

A traditional Gauss gun is built using hard-to-find or rather expensive high-capacity capacitors, and also requires some wiring (diodes, thyristors, etc.) to properly charge and fire. This can be quite difficult for people who do not understand anything about radio electronics, but the desire to experiment does not allow them to sit still. In this article I will try to talk in detail about the principle of operation of the gun and how you can assemble a Gauss accelerator simplified to the minimum.

The main part of the gun is the coil. As a rule, it is wound independently on some kind of dielectric non-magnetic rod, whose diameter is slightly larger than the diameter of the projectile. In the proposed design, the coil can even be wound “by eye”, because the principle of operation simply does not allow any calculations to be made. It is enough to extract copper or aluminum wire with a diameter of 0.2-1 mm in varnish or silicone insulation and wind 150-250 turns on the barrel so that the winding length of one row is approximately 2-3 cm. You can also use a ready-made solenoid.

In classic guns, this is achieved through precise calculations, the use of thyristors and other components that will “cut” the pulse at the right moment. We will simply break the chain “when it works out.” For emergency tearing electrical circuit In everyday life, fuses are used; they can be used in our project, but it is more advisable to replace them with light bulbs from a Christmas tree garland. They are designed for low voltage power supply, so when powered from a 220V network they instantly burn out and break the circuit.

The projectile's ejection speed here is quite high, but it even penetrates paper with difficulty; sometimes iron bullets are driven into the foam.

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 guys who didn’t finish playing “war games” in childhood and now have the opportunity to catch up.

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.

Possess a weapon that, even in computer games ah can only be found in a mad scientist's laboratory or near a time portal to the future - that's cool. Watching how people indifferent to technology involuntarily fix their eyes on the device, and avid gamers hastily pick up their jaw from the floor - for this it is worth spending a day assembling a Gauss cannon.

As usual, we decided to start with simplest design- single-coil induction gun. Experiments with multi-stage projectile acceleration were left to experienced electronics engineers capable of building complex system switching on powerful thyristors and fine-tune the moments of sequential switching of the coils. Instead, we focused on the ability to create a dish using widely available ingredients. So, to build a Gauss cannon, first of all you have to go shopping. In a radio store you need to buy several capacitors with a voltage of 350-400 V and a total capacity of 1000-2000 microfarads, enameled copper wire with a diameter of 0.8 mm, battery compartments for the Krona and two 1.5-volt type C batteries, a toggle switch and a button. In photographic goods, let's take five Kodak disposable cameras, in auto parts - a simple four-pin relay from a Zhiguli, in "products" - a pack of cocktail straws, and in "toys" - a plastic pistol, machine gun, shotgun, shotgun or any other gun that you want to turn it into a weapon of the future.

Let's go crazy

The main power element of our gun is the inductor. With its manufacture it is worth starting assembling the weapon. Take a piece of straw 30 mm long and two large washers (plastic or cardboard), assemble them into a bobbin using a screw and nut. Start winding the enameled wire onto it carefully, turn by turn (with a large wire diameter this is quite simple). Be careful not to allow sharp bends in the wire or damage the insulation. Having finished the first layer, fill it with superglue and begin winding the next one. Do this with each layer. In total you need to wind 12 layers. Then you can disassemble the reel, remove the washers and put the reel on a long straw, which will serve as a barrel. One end of the straw should be plugged. It's easy to test the finished coil by connecting it to a 9-volt battery: if it holds a paper clip, you've succeeded. You can insert a straw into the coil and test it as a solenoid: it should actively draw a piece of paper clip into itself, and when connected pulsed, even throw it out of the barrel by 20-30 cm.

Once you get comfortable with a simple single-coil circuit, you can test your strength in building a multi-stage gun - after all, this is what a real Gauss cannon should be like. Thyristors (powerful controlled diodes) are ideal as a switching element for low-voltage circuits (hundreds of volts), and controlled spark gaps are ideal for high-voltage circuits (thousands of volts). The signal to the control electrodes of the thyristors or spark gaps will be sent by the projectile itself, flying past photocells installed in the barrel between the coils. The moment when each coil turns off will depend entirely on the capacitor supplying it. Be careful: excessively increasing the capacitance of the capacitor for a given coil impedance can lead to an increase in pulse duration. In turn, this can lead to the fact that after the projectile passes the center of the solenoid, the coil will remain on and slow down the movement of the projectile. An oscilloscope will help you track and optimize the moments of turning on and off each coil in detail, as well as measure the speed of the projectile.

Dissecting values

A battery of capacitors is ideally suited for generating a powerful electrical pulse (in this opinion, we agree with the creators of the most powerful laboratory railguns). Capacitors are good not only for their high energy capacity, but also for their ability to release all the energy within a very short time, before the projectile reaches the center of the coil. However, capacitors need to be charged somehow. Fortunately, the charger we need is available in any camera: a capacitor is used there to generate a high-voltage pulse for the ignition electrode of the flash. Disposable cameras are best for us, because the capacitor and “charging” are the only electrical components, which they contain, which means that getting the charging circuit out of them is as easy as shelling pears.

The famous railgun from the Quake series takes first place in our ranking by a wide margin. For many years, masterful use of the “rail” has distinguished advanced players: the weapon requires filigree shooting accuracy, but if it hits, the high-speed projectile literally tears the enemy to pieces.

Disassembling a disposable camera is a step where you need to start being careful. When opening the case, try not to touch the elements of the electrical circuit: the capacitor can retain a charge for a long time. Having gained access to the capacitor, first short-circuit its terminals with a screwdriver with a dielectric handle. Only after this can you touch the board without fear of getting an electric shock. Remove the battery brackets from the charging circuit, unsolder the capacitor, solder a jumper to the contacts of the charging button - we will no longer need it. Prepare at least five charging boards in this manner. Pay attention to the location of the conductive tracks on the board: you can connect to the same circuit elements in different places.

The sniper gun from the exclusion zone receives the second prize for realism: the electromagnetic accelerator, made on the basis of the LR-300 rifle, sparkles with numerous coils, characteristically hums when charging capacitors and kills the enemy at enormous distances. The power source is the Flash artifact.

Setting priorities

Selection of capacitor capacity is a matter of compromise between shot energy and gun charging time. We settled on four 470 microfarad (400 V) capacitors connected in parallel. Before each shot, we wait for about a minute for a signal from the LEDs on the charging circuits, indicating that the voltage in the capacitors has reached the required 330 V. The charging process can be accelerated by connecting several 3-volt battery compartments in parallel to the charging circuits. However, it is worth keeping in mind that powerful “C” batteries have excessive current for weak camera circuits. To prevent the transistors on the boards from burning out, each 3-volt assembly must have 3-5 charging circuits connected in parallel. On our gun, only one battery compartment is connected to the “chargers”. All others serve as spare stores.

Location of contacts on the charging circuit of a Kodak disposable camera. Pay attention to the location of the conductive tracks: each wire of the circuit can be soldered to the board in several convenient places.

Defining safety zones

We would not advise anyone to hold a button under their finger that discharges a battery of 400-volt capacitors. To control the descent, it is better to install a relay. Its control circuit is connected to a 9-volt battery through the shutter button, and the control circuit is connected to the circuit between the coil and the capacitors. It will help to assemble the gun correctly circuit diagram. When assembling a high-voltage circuit, use a wire with a cross-section of at least a millimeter; any wire will be suitable for the charging and control circuits. thin wires. When experimenting with the circuit, remember: capacitors may have residual charge. Discharge by short circuit before touching them.

In one of the most popular strategy games, the foot soldiers of the Global Security Council (GDI) are equipped with powerful anti-tank railguns. In addition, railguns are also installed on GDI tanks as an upgrade. In terms of danger, such a tank is about the same as the Star Destroyer in Star Wars.

Let's sum it up

The shooting process looks like this: turn on the power switch; wait for the LEDs to glow brightly; lower the projectile into the barrel so that it is slightly behind the coil; turn off the power so that when firing, the batteries do not take energy from themselves; take aim and press the shutter button. The result largely depends on the mass of the projectile. Using a short nail with a bitten off head, we managed to shoot through a can of energy drink, which exploded and flooded half the editorial office. Then the gun, cleaned of sticky soda, launched a nail into the wall from a distance of fifty meters. And our weapon strikes the hearts of fans of science fiction and computer games without any shells.

Ogame is a multiplayer space strategy in which the player will feel like an emperor of planetary systems and wage intergalactic wars with the same living opponents. Ogame has been translated into 16 languages, including Russian. The Gauss Cannon is one of the most powerful defensive weapons in the game.