Make:

• AVR demo platform rocks the color VGA +audio
• Send GPS data to your computer without a microcontroller
• Gloves warn you of the outside temperature
• Homebrew iPod remote allows for easy control for the visually impaired
• Octopulse instrument
• Programmable IR Receiver

I'll elaborate soon, but me and my friend (Jake Davis) used 42 2900uF electrolytic capacitors at 400V for the power supply. That equates to almost 10kJ of energy storage. With those tests, we did not exceed 350V.

We used a pneumatic potato gun (minus the barrel) to inject the projectile so it wouldn't weld.

The projectile is aluminum foil, which vaporizes and forms a plasma armature.

Our web page describing some of the construction (being updated to include the recent capacitor upgrade and the pictures), can be found at http://ryft.org/index.php?title=Railgun

Posted by: thesamurai1200 on April 24, 2008 at 4:40 PM

i reaaaally wanna know what you guys use for switching. i have heard that most switches will work once, welding itself closed on the first shot. That's a lot of fooking current!

We didn't use anything for switching, the rails are live. They are triggered when the projectile passes through

thats what i figured. i'm building a rail gun too, but not sure exactly how to make the rails. I've already figured out how to inject the projectile, now i need is what projectile to use and how to make the rails.

my setup can inject any projectile between 40 and 500 grains up to 1000 fps. I just haven't figured out what to shoot and what design of the rails do i use.

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