News

You might be interested. The other day we used the gun as a pile driver and pounded a SCREW into a 2x4 it took two shots to put most of it into the board.

We've made 2 new projectiles, pictures to come later. We've also added a grip frame from a paintball gun and wired the switch in so there is a trigger on the gun. I painted it black the other day, so it looks a little less "ghetto"

Mark VI

MARK VI REPORT

Yes MARK VI is finished, and working beautifully. It is the most powerful version yet, and I have some pretty interesting footage that I will upload once it is edited. Just today we built a case for the SCR switch and its necessary components. It has a nice big red button for "FIRE."

Video coming shortly (after I finish my homework...)

Charger

The green light indicates that the power is switched on. The red light indicates that the voltage is at or above the set voltage (charged).



The gauge is Volts X 10.



Photos courtesy of Quentin Swager

SCR and Capacitors

This is the SCR holder. The power will flow from one plate to the other when turned on. There are insulators on the bolts.



Here are two capacitors connected together.


The photos are courtesy of Quentin Swager

Progress

The charger case is almost complete. It works great and looks really neat. I'll put pictures up as soon as we have some.

Last Saturday we machined some aluminum to connect 2 caps, and to hold the SCR.

We have calculated the peak current for the coil dry firing with two capacitors, and it is well within the capabilities of the SCR.

One problem we may have is the pulse length with 2 caps and an SCR - because unlike an IGBT, the SCR switches off after all the power is spent. We can't control the pulse-length like we can with the IGBT, but we can handle more amperage.

In summary, we will probably be able to test again within a week. Hopefully it will be more powerful (it should be) but like I mentioned; the pulse-length may be so long that the magnetic field begins to pull the projectile back into the solenoid. If the field is still present when the projectile passes the center of the solenoid we would have losses.

As usual - when we test, I will have a video of it on here. My videocamera died so I will borrow one, but I promise another video.

Status/Parts Update

We now have the SCR (which is physically much smaller than we assumed).

We are working on the case for the charger/power supply.

We are calculating inductance of the coil and verifying amperage so currents can be well within the capacities of various components.

I'll include a picture to illustrate the size of the SCR.