beginner to coilguns

slant64, Thu Aug 02 2007, 10:21PM

Well, me and a friend would like to build a single stage not very complex coilgun, but with limited or no real knowledge of electronics we really don't have a good starting point. So I'm looking for a simple coilgun design (complete design) with a simple battery power source, some capacitors and a simple, easy to make timing and trigering circuit. Perhaps something with a 555 timer chip (I've used them before a little so I'm familiar with them).

Besides this being our first coilgun we want to learn some basics of theory and design without getting too complex off the bat. So if anyone is willing to part with some electrical wiring diagrams, parts listing and power source recommendations it would be greatly appreciated.

I know we could do the disposibly camera coilgun, but we would like to start with something a little more "formal" then a camera hack. And again if at all possible we would like to use batteries or a DC power source to charge the capacitors.

Thanks very much in advance.

slant64