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Registered Member #3957
Joined: Sun Jun 19 2011, 02:17AM
Location: Minnesota, US
Posts: 8
I have decided to build a compulsator to power my rail gun project. I may supplement/control it with a small bank of capacitors. I will be using a 10hp gas engine (lawn mower) attached to a pair of car alternators to generate the needed wattage. I will have to completely tear out all of the coils inside these alternators and rewind them for the power i need anyway, so i am wondering what a good power pulse for a rail gun would be. I hear that about 10,000J to 20KJ is about normal, but what voltages/amps do you use in your projects?
Registered Member #3792
Joined: Sun Mar 27 2011, 06:07PM
Location:
Posts: 136
The only homebrew compulsator that i have ever heard was at Jengel's and Fatro's railgun page. They haven't any comment about it, nor if it ever worked.
I'd love to hear that someone can built such a thing. It would be an impressive step into amateur electromegnetic projectile accelerators.
For the 10 to 20 KJ range you must expect voltages of about 3 - 4 KV and amperages of about 100 - 200 KA. Maybe i'm wrong, but I have not seen any other railgun into that power range to be powered by less that these volt/amp values.
Registered Member #3888
Joined: Sun May 15 2011, 09:50PM
Location: Erie, PA
Posts: 649
4kv would make it hard to insulate your windings from each other. try something more in the 600 to 1500v range. then you can estimate the current needed from the time that the projectile is inside the rails (say, 1ms, then your 20kj pulse would be 600v @ 33.33kA to 1500v @ 13.33kA)
Registered Member #3957
Joined: Sun Jun 19 2011, 02:17AM
Location: Minnesota, US
Posts: 8
forty also said the same, no amateurs have built compulsators before. IMO my design should simplify the process a lot, im using a prebuilt housing and rotor. I will confess i don't know what i'm doing, i know electronics, and I know mechanics of gas engines, but this is a combo of the two. I am also wondering what the power pulse time length should be, and thusly the RPM of my compulsator. so correct me if im wrong, but the idea with the compulsator is that i need to compensate it with a second winding and input power to that, if anybody can explain this two me better, please do.
Registered Member #3957
Joined: Sun Jun 19 2011, 02:17AM
Location: Minnesota, US
Posts: 8
insulation: what kind of wires do i need? i assume copper not aluminum magnet wire? for 1ms, it really doesn't matter what guage the wire is right? I found this http://www.ceramawire.com/
Registered Member #3888
Joined: Sun May 15 2011, 09:50PM
Location: Erie, PA
Posts: 649
I'm pretty sure you can use the original field coils (if there's only two) so that'll help a bit. you'll probably want copper magnet wire for the rest, because of its lower resistance.
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How much power do I need?
