Railgun vs. Coilgun - More bang for your buck.

[Kurt_]

Well, I'm looking into making a little toy gun. Electromagnetic toy gun, based on applied physics involving a PIC or two.

My question: Which would provide more muzzle energy? A single-stage coilgun, or a railgun? Any insight or thoughts are welcomed, as I know you all don't know off-hand.

[palmertech]

Coil gun, for sure. DIY railguns are impractical, and require a lot of replacing parts to stay functional. My coil gun, on the other hand, it completely silent, requires no maintenance, and can fire a nail through cardstock!

Oh, and for a single stage gun, no PICs or anything is needed, if you are willing to spend a little time getting the spacing just right. Heck, for two stage it is not 100% needed.

If you want, I could post pics of my coilgun (Assuming I can find it in my workshop).

[Kurt_]

If I was to build a coilgun, I'd use a PIC anyways. You can precisely time how long the capacitor discharges for. If for nothing else, it will result in less wasted energy, meaning less time in between charges.

I have the option of choice between two capacitor banks: 182J or 79J.

How many joules is yours? I'm trying to get a rough idea of what I should be aiming for, as the 79J capacitors are much smaller.


Found this on another website: http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1757984

Coilgun:
"Limitations
The coilgun, although the easiest to make of the list, is also the weakest. The solenoids are not as strong as a string of electromagnets found in a Gauss rifle and the forces are far weaker than the Lorentz force generated by a railgun."

Railgun:
"One last limitation the coil gun and Gauss rifle do not suffer is that the railgun must use some other force, such as compressed air or even gunpowder, to start the projectile moving before the Lorentz force can take over. "

[timmeh87]

To make a real railgun you probably need to inject the projectile with gas like most people seem to be doing. If it starts from stationary it just welds to the rails/explodes or whatever. Most of the setups Ive seen look like they are freakin huge. Theres no real place for PIC control on there either, its just two live rails and one unfortunate projectile.

You probably just want a two stage coil gun. The cap bank should be sized to the coil, it is probably possible for it to be way too big. Do some pspice or get our scope working cause you are going to want to see some v/i curves...

[XCVG]

Neither, a potato cannon will give you WAY more bang for the buck, unless you already have the capacitors.

In all seriousness, most things that are called railguns are actually coilguns. So probably coilgun.

[themadhacker]

palmertech, I would be very interested in seeing pictures of your coilgun!

[palmertech]

Okay. I am gonna go take pics of my mini coilgun, I love it.

[nevermind1534]

Here's a WIP http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/foru ... hp?t=18211

[themadhacker]

alright, can't wait!