Coil-gun Project

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Ruvim
 
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Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:23 am

Coil-gun Project

Post by Ruvim »

Hello,
I am new to arduino and am building a coil-gun for my last quarters physics class. I am building a multistage coil-gun and have run into a problem. Check out this site to so that you'll know kinda what I'm taking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdZo_keUoEs I am hooking up photo interrupters to an arduino and need to hook up a couple of capacitors to run the current through the coils while being able to have the arduino turn on and off the current running through the coils. My problem is that I'm using super capacitors (Maxwell 350Farads) and I need to hook them up so I could control there flow with the arduino without frying the arduino or anybody else. Any tips/suggestions would be much appreciated. I heard of ESC (Electronic Speed Control) but not sure if there strong enough.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Coil-gun Project

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Generally speaking, it sounds like you want to control the capacitors with mosfet switches, but an exact solution will depend on the voltage you're using, the size of the caps, the peak current you want the coils to achieve, coil size and spacing, etc.

I'd suggest you talk to your physics professor or TA to work through the details. At very least, they should be able to point you to some references on the subject.

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