Electromagnetic Rail Launcher

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  • čas přidán 27. 10. 2021
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  • Věda a technologie

Komentáře • 3,9K

  • @integza
    @integza Před 2 lety +7410

    "Aircraft Launcher" , thats a freaking gun Tom, a cool gun though

    • @P8FPV
      @P8FPV Před 2 lety +227

      You should be making vids not watching them 😉😉👌

    • @cvvoorst
      @cvvoorst Před 2 lety +86

      Maybe a launch system for your future rockets?

    • @davidarchbald2206
      @davidarchbald2206 Před 2 lety +96

      @Integza It would probably destroy tomatos!

    • @neodidi
      @neodidi Před 2 lety +14

      Was about to say same

    • @RaimarLunardi
      @RaimarLunardi Před 2 lety +58

      Rail gun it is then!

  • @smartereveryday
    @smartereveryday Před 2 lety +2442

    I love your channel so much. When I was a kid I tried to make a maglev track in my room. This makes me feel the same childlike wonder.

    • @brandonclements7875
      @brandonclements7875 Před 2 lety +11

      I feel The same way, i never made a whole track before but i have made coils from wrapping wires i stripped off a transformer around a small tube like a straw and flinging small metal rods through it.

    • @mateosegura1520
      @mateosegura1520 Před 2 lety +36

      I love how tight the Maker/Engineering CZcams space is. Knowing all of my favourite channels are all fans of eachother and enjoy these videos as much as I do makes it even better.

    • @filipponegrini4528
      @filipponegrini4528 Před 2 lety +4

      Hey Destin! It looks like both you and Tom tend to like blowing up stuff with DIY guns... But Tom is risking it all doing it inside. Lucky it's not a gallon of mayonnaise ahah🤪

    • @eurybaric
      @eurybaric Před 2 lety +1

      @@mateosegura1520 Seriously! :D

    • @esnevip
      @esnevip Před 2 lety +3

      You're still a kid Destin!

  • @doomyboi
    @doomyboi Před 2 lety +16

    5:13 That look of betrayal, staring directly into the camera. That cheese stick trusted you.

  • @bens383
    @bens383 Před 2 lety +30

    You know this is how particle accelerators work? Like the large Hadron collider. The particles are attracted by large electromagnets which then switch to repel the particle away - arranged in a circle this allows the particle to be accelerated to some insane speeds, before they smash it into another particle really fast because why not 🤷‍♂️

    • @bens383
      @bens383 Před 2 lety +4

      @@alicenulla5264 just yeets it across the universe at nearly the speed of light 😆

  • @Nighthawkinlight
    @Nighthawkinlight Před 2 lety +440

    Nice work on those slomo shots in this one

    • @Pooopers
      @Pooopers Před 2 lety

      who you calling slomo

    • @steprockmedia
      @steprockmedia Před 2 lety +3

      The shot where there was a beetle in slow motion really captured it! Couldn't have planned it better.

    • @StrikeEagIe
      @StrikeEagIe Před 2 lety

      Yo im early

    • @Mark-dl9ph
      @Mark-dl9ph Před 2 lety +3

      when you and your sibling are supposed to be asleep czcams.com/video/RXqP7l3TXHA/video.html

    • @direct89
      @direct89 Před 2 lety

      He should put a lamp on the subject to reduce the noise

  • @JoelCreates
    @JoelCreates Před 2 lety +647

    Tom: "Your turn little one"
    Coil: "Are you winding me up?"

    • @StrikeEagIe
      @StrikeEagIe Před 2 lety +1

      Hmm

    • @ABC-rh7zc
      @ABC-rh7zc Před 2 lety +21

      That's it! I'm calling the coppers!

    • @markp5726
      @markp5726 Před 2 lety +8

      Tom: "That depends, are you attracted or repelled?"

    • @786ALHAQ
      @786ALHAQ Před 2 lety

      yes, cause i m attracted to you

    • @triplus198
      @triplus198 Před měsícem

      Joel?!

  • @MrJdsenior
    @MrJdsenior Před 2 lety

    Nice job. And as an EE, excellent description for the layman.
    And then the inner child comes to the surface, which was fun to watch.

  • @genexxer1
    @genexxer1 Před 2 lety

    I love your video editing. The footage caught some interesting angles and content!

  • @PlasmaChannel
    @PlasmaChannel Před 2 lety +2155

    Those jet sounds are fire, Tom. You’ve literally made a rail plane. Love it.

    • @JjMn1000
      @JjMn1000 Před 2 lety +1

      Yes

    • @remlya
      @remlya Před 2 lety +5

      Any reason why you included the word literally when there’s nothing unclear about saying “you’ve made a rail plane.” Literally is just meaningless filler and you’re overusing and misusing the word.

    • @syndan9245
      @syndan9245 Před 2 lety +30

      @@remlya you are literally angry aren't you?

    • @theyeetus1428
      @theyeetus1428 Před 2 lety +20

      @@remlya Any reason why you included the word meaningless when there’s nothing unclear about saying “Literally is just filler" Meaningless is just filler and you’re being redundant.

    • @Mark-dl9ph
      @Mark-dl9ph Před 2 lety +3

      when you and your sibling are supposed to be asleep czcams.com/video/RXqP7l3TXHA/video.html

  • @acrylicmarlin6356
    @acrylicmarlin6356 Před 2 lety +351

    Tom: "Aircraft Launcher"
    Everyone else: "Railgun"

    • @mrcourgette6275
      @mrcourgette6275 Před 2 lety +32

      its a coil gun not rail gun

    • @Blazeww
      @Blazeww Před 2 lety +1

      Just need thicker wire and Mo Powa 👶.
      Slap a barrel on with a covering for looks.
      Can call it an ElectroRifle.

    • @rusduderus
      @rusduderus Před 2 lety +5

      Surprised noone is calling it a gauss rifle, im used to this term more than railgun, from playing a lot of fallouts and stalkers!

    • @jmtx.
      @jmtx. Před 2 lety

      @@mrcourgette6275 - It's a rail gun - look up the difference.

    • @Shy_Abi
      @Shy_Abi Před 2 lety

      Correct

  • @Roe124
    @Roe124 Před rokem

    Love what you do man!!! Makes me even more motivated to finish my electrical engineering degree

  • @thetruthexperiment
    @thetruthexperiment Před 2 lety +4

    A linear line?!?!? Admit it, you just wanted to say linear to sound smart.

  • @GadgetAddict
    @GadgetAddict Před 2 lety +250

    I'm glad I stayed untill the end. Seeing those planes being launched was awesome!

    • @Beakerzor
      @Beakerzor Před 2 lety +6

      the video really took flight at the end

  • @kevinvermeer9011
    @kevinvermeer9011 Před 2 lety +209

    6:42 - Housefly bogey has entered our airspace, interceptor aircraft launched! It would be neat to see an LED on each coil (over the MOSFET output, ~5mA wouldn't matter to the coils) and/or on the Hall effect output. With the high-speed camera, you could see all the timing.

    • @fdocasanova1
      @fdocasanova1 Před 2 lety +2

      that was a very fast housefly bogey

    • @alec1575
      @alec1575 Před 2 lety +3

      Lol i wondered who else saw it

    • @mr2ben
      @mr2ben Před 2 lety +2

      Was coming here to see if anyone else noticed the fly!

    • @henrymallett6847
      @henrymallett6847 Před 2 lety

      @@mr2ben Yup me too!!

  • @impirikal8123
    @impirikal8123 Před 2 lety

    That hotdog slow-mo was exactly what I needed today! keep up the content!

  • @patrickoconnor2181
    @patrickoconnor2181 Před 2 lety +4

    4:36
    Tell me you're at a spar, without telling me you're at a spar

  • @Project-Air
    @Project-Air Před 2 lety +429

    Just when I thought your videos couldn't get much better, you go ahead and weaponise a sausage

    • @StrikeEagIe
      @StrikeEagIe Před 2 lety +3

      It caught me off gaurd

    • @jyvben1520
      @jyvben1520 Před 2 lety

      @@StrikeEagIe (edited) wanted to add a typo, nice, what were you guarding ?

    • @StrikeEagIe
      @StrikeEagIe Před 2 lety +1

      @@jyvben1520 Dude are you okay? It’s just a typo.

    • @jyvben1520
      @jyvben1520 Před 2 lety

      @@StrikeEagIe youtube is also educational, anyone can make a mistake, correcting it is not a crime.

    • @StrikeEagIe
      @StrikeEagIe Před 2 lety

      @@jyvben1520 No dude, I made one small typo and you are getting all worked up about it

  • @joepie221
    @joepie221 Před 2 lety +1106

    Always excellent videos. Bonus material......Slow motion bee captured at 6:44 in the background, racing the plane at take off.

  • @epicwheelz
    @epicwheelz Před 2 lety

    absolutely beautiful slow motion shots

  • @bwest6275
    @bwest6275 Před 2 lety

    This was so cool, really amazing project!

  • @ruki25
    @ruki25 Před 2 lety +640

    I'm pretty sure that despite having a rail, this is technically a Gauss-gun or Coil-gun. The title of Coil aircraft launcher is correct. If you had connected a bar across two rails that had a current through them then you'd have a true "Rail-gun."

    • @najwafitri9798
      @najwafitri9798 Před 2 lety +16

      S.E.M.L
      (Supersonic electro magnet launcher)

    • @pcenero
      @pcenero Před 2 lety +27

      another difference between the two is that rail guns tend to destroy itself due to friction, while coil guns (probably) could be designed to last longer if the projectile isn't in contact with the track

    • @misterturkturkle
      @misterturkturkle Před 2 lety +38

      This is a Gauss
      The difference between gauss and coil is that coil is a single magnet pair, gauss uses a series for additional acceleration and force

    • @oompalumpus699
      @oompalumpus699 Před 2 lety +9

      YT does not like the 'G' word.

    • @misterturkturkle
      @misterturkturkle Před 2 lety +3

      @@oompalumpus699 Zimmerman St. Charles is dead

  • @siberx4
    @siberx4 Před 2 lety +161

    In addition to flipping the magnet polarity halfway through to increase the force applied by each magnet, you can also vary the timing between each sensor detection and the coil activation to improve the output.
    Since the payload speed varies dramatically along the rail, the optimum delay between sled detection and coil activation will also vary. Conveniently, you can use the time difference between the previous two detections to get an estimate of the current velocity of the sled, so you can actually make this time offset dynamic relative to the mass of your payload with no additional hardware.
    Some people commented to instead vary the spacing between each coil, but that's just wasting rail space and acceleration distance (not to mention the optimum spacing would vary with payload mass). You have such a good idea of the position and velocity of your sled with the sensor setup that keeping the coils closely packed and varying the timing will give better results.
    Also note that as suggested by some others, optical sensors might be more tolerant to the substantial magnetic field you're dealing with in case you find you're getting spurious/early triggers due to the field from the previous coils going off, which might be a bigger problem once you're flipping the polarity.

    • @eurybaric
      @eurybaric Před 2 lety +4

      he's using hall effect to trigger the mosfet so the activation would be consistant with the position of the sled, no matter what speed. Am i misunderstanding your comment?

    • @eurybaric
      @eurybaric Před 2 lety

      Wait i think my question now is why is there a delay the higher the velocity?

    • @siberx4
      @siberx4 Před 2 lety +11

      @@eurybaric It's the opposite; there should be LESS delay the faster the projectile is moving. This all happens really fast (to us), we're talking milliseconds or microseconds. Ages to a digital circuit or microprocessor though.

    • @amhaendrayes7322
      @amhaendrayes7322 Před 2 lety +1

      Optical sensor would make sense.

    • @siberx4
      @siberx4 Před 2 lety +2

      @@eurybaric This would only be true if the entire circuit from hall effect detection to coil reaching full current happens instantaneously, and if the hall effect sensor is spaced at the exact appropriate distance from the coil to maximze energy transfer. In all other scenarios, there will be some time offsets involved which means the optimum activation time will vary with sled velocity.
      Imagine he tests and finds he gets the most acceleration from a single coil by activating it 5 milliseconds after hall effect detection at a given initial starting velocity. This means optimum position is whatever distance the sled travels in 5ms after the sensor at initial velocity is the ideal spacing, but for the next coil that delay will be lower because the sled will travel more distance in the same time (since it's moving faster after the first push). This is the variable delay he'll need to account for to get optimum output from the whole rail; the time for the sled to travel a bit from the sensor to the optimum activation point minus whatever lag exists in his sensing/driving circuits and coil.

  • @mgrantom
    @mgrantom Před 2 lety

    Really cool! I could hang out at Micro Center all day.

  • @themorningstar3254
    @themorningstar3254 Před rokem

    I imagined a model roller coaster using this design and you did it. AWESOME 3000!

  • @somebodyoutofgermany250
    @somebodyoutofgermany250 Před 2 lety +153

    Military: Noooo, You can‘t just have a railgun at home.
    Tom: Haha, Paperplane launcher goes brrrrrr

    • @youkofoxy
      @youkofoxy Před 2 lety +16

      Small correction, it's a coilgun.
      The difference is like between a robot and a mech.
      In a coilgun you have coils.
      In a railgun the projectile is the coil.

  • @woowooNeedsFaith
    @woowooNeedsFaith Před 2 lety +80

    6:41 - It flies as fast as a fly in the middle of the screen. How did you do that? How did you manage to teach a fly to fly along your paper plane?

    • @bmxscape
      @bmxscape Před 2 lety +7

      that fly must be going 11m/s

    • @onglogman
      @onglogman Před 2 lety +12

      heavy air traffic that day

    • @NicksStuff
      @NicksStuff Před 2 lety +2

      With the help of Microcenter!

    • @Squilliam-Fancyson
      @Squilliam-Fancyson Před 2 lety +4

      magnetic fly i guess

    • @tornadokat
      @tornadokat Před 2 lety +4

      We missed the start where the fly is like "You wanna go, bro? Ya, you wanna?! C'mon let's go!!!"

  • @general5104
    @general5104 Před 2 lety

    VERY INTERESTING !!!
    You may not realize this, but high speed rail lines are just starting to use this Principle to pull/shove monorail cars to their destinations. I studied this principle in tech college in the late 1980's. The coils are only hot in one area, where the train is.
    Thank you for making your prototype. It was very good !

  • @loganofnorth880
    @loganofnorth880 Před 2 lety

    Probably your best vid yet!

  • @murrayhorn8817
    @murrayhorn8817 Před 2 lety +59

    Tom, put an Led next to (electrically accross) each coil. It would be cool to see them switch on in slow motion.

    • @jmikronis7376
      @jmikronis7376 Před 2 lety +1

      Yep. For all the geeks, so says Captain Obvious.

    • @bloogaming8827
      @bloogaming8827 Před 2 lety +3

      This is a great idea! It’ll help with making sure they’re all timed properly for maximum acceleration too!

  • @LuxesBR
    @LuxesBR Před 2 lety +8

    The sound effects at 1:45 got you a like and a sub!

  • @mzw685
    @mzw685 Před 2 lety +92

    I would love to see more of the build and design and engineering process as opposed to the hot dog launching personally, though neither part can stand on its own. They are both important.

  • @HesOracle
    @HesOracle Před 2 lety

    you explaining it makes it seem so easy

  • @wilfredswinkels
    @wilfredswinkels Před 2 lety +211

    Tom, have you considered the eddy currents generated by the moving magnets above the Al rail? Even at that distance it will cause some losses. Great Video (as always :-) CU in the next one.

    • @DaimyoD0
      @DaimyoD0 Před 2 lety +20

      Yeah I was also wondering if he spent any time tuning the configuration, so to speak. At least on video, he made it seem like he fabricated the first arrangement he thought of. But I imagine he could use experimentation to find the best location to place the Hall Effect sensor, to get as much acceleration from the electromagnet as possible. Too short a duration, and you're leaving potential acceleration on the table, too long, and the electromagnet will hold on to the sled for a moment and slow it down. There must be a sweet spot. He may have already used math or iterative design to find the sweet spot and just didn't include that in the video though.

    • @Abigail-hu5wf
      @Abigail-hu5wf Před 2 lety +4

      @@DaimyoD0 If he moves the HE sensor too far back, it'll start to actuate when the PREVIOUS magnet is running, though. Which I suppose is the advantage of using Al guiderails.

    • @XYZY64
      @XYZY64 Před 2 lety +4

      I'm being simplistic. But while your coils are attracting the magnet sled, can you also detect the passing sled by each coil & reverse the DC polarity of the specific coil to REPEL the magnet sled to increase the acceleration of the sled?

    • @benjaminmiller3620
      @benjaminmiller3620 Před 2 lety +6

      @@XYZY64 Did you not watch to the end? That's his next design iteration.

    • @paulleimer1218
      @paulleimer1218 Před 2 lety +3

      The hardest part is switching that match Power quick enough. Also reversing the polarization of the coil has a pretty slow characteristic curve

  • @Jeremy-fy1sz
    @Jeremy-fy1sz Před 2 lety +58

    Slight modification for the launcher. Put a pin across it and cut a small hook into the bottom of the paper plane so you can pull it from IN front of the C of G. The old school whitewings catapults used something like that.

    • @yetanother9127
      @yetanother9127 Před 2 lety +5

      Not wholly dissimilar to the connecting bars used by real aircraft catapults. Now Tom just needs to devise an arrestor system . . .

    • @kingsizedmidget7294
      @kingsizedmidget7294 Před 2 lety +5

      I just experienced a ratatouille style flashback when I read "whitewings"

    • @benjaminf8526
      @benjaminf8526 Před 2 lety +5

      @@kingsizedmidget7294 I just experienced a ratatouille style flashback when I read "ratatouille"

    • @nintenalex
      @nintenalex Před 2 lety

      used to love those sets.

  • @donduck1176
    @donduck1176 Před 2 lety

    Instantly one of my favorite posts on yt. Thanks Tom.

  • @JaydLawrence
    @JaydLawrence Před 2 lety

    Great visualizations!

  • @tristanwegner
    @tristanwegner Před 2 lety +45

    I expect a lot of speed can be gained by modifying the timing. They Halleffect sensor together with the Mosfet and the electronic has a latency, which is the same for each module, but the speed increases along the rail, thus the later magnets tend to stay on longer than optimal

    • @yoted
      @yoted Před 2 lety +3

      As an addition to this, I wonder at what speed does the inductance of the coils start to matter as far as delaying the full application of the magnetic field. I would imagine faster than it’s currently going but perhaps it’s a consideration for larger/more turn coils (higher inductance) or faster linear motors.

    • @MetalheadAndNerd
      @MetalheadAndNerd Před 2 lety +1

      We can hear from the non-increasing frequency of the "brrrrrr" that there is no increase in speed as the object moves along. This means something must be wrong.

  • @3DPrinterAcademy
    @3DPrinterAcademy Před 2 lety +98

    Linear induction motors are insane!!

    • @fanman421
      @fanman421 Před 2 lety +6

      Just a minor Uhhhh there. This is not inducing current into the moving armature, therefore not an induction motor.

    • @jmikronis7376
      @jmikronis7376 Před 2 lety

      @@fanman421, you are correct.
      I don’t think today’s railguns operate in this fashion, as the projectile case is part of the motor in them. This is also why the gun doesn’t last long.

  • @omniscientcrab3428
    @omniscientcrab3428 Před rokem +3

    3:52 makes it look like the barrel of a railgun

  • @coreyepis3303
    @coreyepis3303 Před 2 lety

    From 6:41 - 6:48 you captured a fly or a bug of some sort in your slow motion footage, just above the bottom rail in your deck. You can see each individual wing beat and even It's shadow on the deck. I thought that was pretty cool, what are the chances of that! Dropped a sub for this epic footage and awesome inventions, keep it up Tom!

  • @ursa0607
    @ursa0607 Před 2 lety +103

    So now he has a Gauss Rifle. Sweet :)
    When are you launching your own spaceship? :D

    • @benholroyd5221
      @benholroyd5221 Před 2 lety

      It isn't a rifle. I'm not sure you'd want that if you're launching humans anyway.

    • @ursa0607
      @ursa0607 Před 2 lety

      @@benholroyd5221
      AFAIK the concept itself is called a Gauss Rifle, it does not have to be a weapon, just a mass driver that uses magnetic fields.
      As for launching humans, I have read that methods for orbital launch of cargo and people in this way are being investigated

    • @benholroyd5221
      @benholroyd5221 Před 2 lety +2

      @@ursa0607 I rifle imparts spin. This would just be a Gauss gun.

  • @gmanshackshack6822
    @gmanshackshack6822 Před 2 lety +55

    increase the distance between the coils logarithmically... Also you'd think an optical sensor would be less prone to interference than a Hall effect sensor in such a magnetically noisy environment.

    • @perjohansson8099
      @perjohansson8099 Před 2 lety +2

      why?

    • @schwuzi
      @schwuzi Před 2 lety +2

      @@perjohansson8099 WHY NOT?!

    • @johanngambolputty5351
      @johanngambolputty5351 Před 2 lety +9

      @@perjohansson8099 Complete guess, but as it moves faster, it would spend less time near each coil in the linear arangement

    • @gmanshackshack6822
      @gmanshackshack6822 Před 2 lety +6

      @@perjohansson8099 - to perhaps match the acceleration curve a little better

    • @lkytmryan
      @lkytmryan Před 2 lety +1

      @@perjohansson8099 The optical sensor wouldn't be affected at all but I don't know to what extent the hall effect sensors are a problem but they are affected,

  • @kounkieinc3714
    @kounkieinc3714 Před 2 lety

    I love the way you can explain it so easily never subscribed so fast

  • @rogerramjet9876
    @rogerramjet9876 Před 2 lety

    Nice Job Mate !
    A brilliant layman's 👏 description ideal for training

  • @bungalo50
    @bungalo50 Před 2 lety +26

    I love how everyone knows it's a railgun without him having to say the word even once lol

    • @dsdy1205
      @dsdy1205 Před 2 lety +3

      but it isn't though

    • @mandernachluca3774
      @mandernachluca3774 Před 2 lety +1

      Except it isn't.
      His launcher isn't even close to what the navy trials for their aircraft launchers.
      They basically use induction to make use of the same effect as railguns do.
      He only uses reluctance, possibly the weakest form of coil launchers ...

    • @dsdy1205
      @dsdy1205 Před 2 lety

      @@lumi_project a chicken is a bird. a duck is a bird. a duck is not a chicken.

    • @mandernachluca3774
      @mandernachluca3774 Před 2 lety

      @@lumi_project
      Yes, but in the video, he specifically talks about induction launchers (aircraft carrier and roller coaster booster).
      However he himselfe did not make the destinction between reluctance force (what he uses) and induced lorenz force (what the "real world" examples use).

    • @Kwitzats
      @Kwitzats Před 2 lety

      In a rail gun the is one loop of wire, in that the rails consists of the entirety of the circuit bridged by the sled. This device can be called many things but a rail gun is not one of them.

  • @suhassubbanna
    @suhassubbanna Před 2 lety +24

    A brilliant idea for the holidays. I’ll try to reverse the direction of the current repelling the magnet further.
    You could literally carry the whole setup in your back bag. I think it’ll be lots of fun with crazy engineers around me.

  • @omarh1881
    @omarh1881 Před 2 lety

    I really enjoy watching your channel, thank you

  • @gasturman
    @gasturman Před 2 lety

    More of this please!!! Nice work!

  • @yaminsiddiqui4690
    @yaminsiddiqui4690 Před 2 lety +6

    5:01 Tom.exe is not responding.

  • @BENZ007
    @BENZ007 Před 2 lety +91

    Great work. 👍

  • @Dave64track
    @Dave64track Před 2 lety

    Thats a great project brilliant launcher.

  • @thegreentv574
    @thegreentv574 Před 2 lety

    Absolutely brilliant love this channel great video

  • @Originus1
    @Originus1 Před 2 lety +324

    Hey Tom,
    did you checked how good you timed the coils? E.g. with your slow motion camera and an led per coil to show if its active? Since magnets are extremely strong close by, hitting the perfect spot to turn the spoils off seems very important.

    • @arantala
      @arantala Před 2 lety +55

      It's worth noting that the timing might also be different depending on the speed of the projectile, so the coils at the start of the rail might need different timing from the ones near the end. If this is the case, then the mass of the projectile will also affect the timing, especially farther along the track.

    • @kke
      @kke Před 2 lety +8

      @@arantala Perhaps optical sensors.

    • @isleguard
      @isleguard Před 2 lety +21

      One more thought, put a diode across the coils to help reduce the voltage during the collapse of the magnetic field after the voltage is turned off....you should also measure the timing between the collapse of the magnetic field and the start of the next power-on cycle of the next coil to appropriately space out the coils to maximize the velocity.

    • @shadowlord0162
      @shadowlord0162 Před 2 lety

      thats actually really smart

    • @jessicacon
      @jessicacon Před rokem

      work on your grammar man

  • @astrowanabe
    @astrowanabe Před 2 lety +118

    The first thing I thought of was using some sort of flip-flop and a second MOSFET per coil to reverse polarity as the sled passes. Also some sort of bearing for the sled (almost anything really). Glad you're going to be revising and improving! Looks cool!

  • @BobsTheBuild3r
    @BobsTheBuild3r Před 2 lety +2

    2:29 that solder job is amazing

  • @revolution545
    @revolution545 Před 2 lety +6

    1:40 instead of turning it off you could reverse the positive and negative charges so that the polarity of the magnetic field is reversed and pushes the magnet away

    • @davidboktor4743
      @davidboktor4743 Před 2 lety

      Thats a really good point. How would one be able to reverse the positive and negative charges?

    • @revolution545
      @revolution545 Před 2 lety

      @@davidboktor4743 i was thinking that if you have an alternating timed switch that turns on one connection, say positive end to it, then once the magnet is away, it turns on negative and repeats until its no longer needed

  • @eo3380
    @eo3380 Před 2 lety +19

    You might want to consider spacing out the coils progressively, and making them longer as they stretch further out!
    A similar thing is done with linear particle accelerators, where the accelerating electrodes become longer and longer so the particle is affected by them for the same amount of time as it accelerates:
    link to article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_particle_accelerator

  • @PulsedPower
    @PulsedPower Před 2 lety +14

    The real version (EMALS) made by General Atomics is a type of linear induction motor. So instead of pulling a permanent magnet armature like yours, they create an accelerating magnetic wave which accelerates an aluminum armature.
    Very cool demonstration!

    • @ikocheratcr
      @ikocheratcr Před 2 lety +2

      Like an squirrel cage induction motor, nice.

  • @azazzelx
    @azazzelx Před 2 lety +1

    lovely sight for a project

  • @Karmai9
    @Karmai9 Před rokem +2

    4:44 I swear this is an act of war

  • @lonewolfsstuck
    @lonewolfsstuck Před 2 lety +70

    In this episode of "Tom Stanton invents stuff" He makes a railgun!

    • @seanfager8063
      @seanfager8063 Před 2 lety +22

      Almost! A railgun has the thing being propelled as part of the electrical circuit. The slug closes the connection between the two rails at 90degrees from each, so there's three magnetic fields being made by the same electrical circuit. All three fields are generated simultaneously in series (series in the electrical sense, not the chronological one). The interaction between those three fields is what drives the electromagnetic slug down the rails.
      This is a gauss gun. The big advantage is being scalable without electrically welding your slug to the rails once you reach a certain amperage.

    • @SpiderPig7240
      @SpiderPig7240 Před 2 lety +10

      Rail guns actually work by a slightly different principle to this (it's pretty interesting and I highly suggest you look it up). What Tom's built is more similar to a coil gun I believe. Although a typical coil gun usually has the projectile travel through the middle of the coils tho so this is still pretty unique

    • @Sekir80
      @Sekir80 Před 2 lety

      it's a coilgun.

    • @paulgray1318
      @paulgray1318 Před 2 lety +1

      No no, it's part 1 of his model of Cern.
      :)

  • @Pietro_Troschka
    @Pietro_Troschka Před 2 lety +26

    It would be interesting to put that in a loop, I wonder what the max speed would be

    • @Shreyam_io
      @Shreyam_io Před 2 lety +4

      i woud guess ,if you neglect the friction only thing is mosfet switching speed that is the limit

    • @LordDragox412
      @LordDragox412 Před 2 lety +1

      @@Shreyam_io Mmm, I love the smell of toasty mosfets!

    • @robinsparrow1618
      @robinsparrow1618 Před 2 lety +13

      that's just a regular motor with extra steps

    • @danl6634
      @danl6634 Před 2 lety +1

      I'd bet it's more likely the current/time relationship of the coils that can't turn on/ of instantly would be the limiting factor. MOSFETs can switch pretty darn fast, but the coils can't change current instantly.

    • @kathrynelrod5570
      @kathrynelrod5570 Před 2 lety +4

      you’ve invented a motor

  • @killersnake1901
    @killersnake1901 Před rokem +2

    alternative title : "I made an paper plane launcher" (6:00)
    (it was really cool btw)

  • @codycampbell1147
    @codycampbell1147 Před 2 lety

    this is my first video of yours ive watched but after watching it you gained one more subscriber for life

  • @Qui-9
    @Qui-9 Před 2 lety +22

    This is awesome! However I feel that once the magnet reaches a certain speed, which isn't far above that created by the first coil, the other coils have a much reduced contribution due to "back EMF" limiting the current drawn by them. What you need is a constant current driver for all the coils, using a high frequency switching power supply for efficiency, and a higher voltage supply, to force that current through the coils the sled is passing quickly. Or you could set up progressive banks of the coils supplied by higher voltage than the prior ones, though you definitely should make sure the sled doesn't get stuck, or that they still have the current-limiting failsafe.
    I hope I explained that we'll enough to visualize, I have a different, more electronic background.
    Cheers! 🍻

    • @greenaum
      @greenaum Před 2 lety +1

      I dunno, constant current implies higher and higher voltages for the later coils, and he's running it off a bank of supercaps, or megacaps or whatever they are. They only go up to something like 2.7 volts. I see your point though. Perhaps wiring later coils with thicker wire and fewer turns, so higher current that way? But then magnetic field is a function of the turns. There's surely some sweet spot somewhere but beyond me to think what it is. Perhaps just thicker wire, same turns, bigger spool, would be the right way.

    • @Qui-9
      @Qui-9 Před 2 lety

      @@greenaum yes you're right. You'd effectively add the 2.7V to whatever back EMF to get constant current, so yea, you couldn't do that with just these caps, that's the caveat. I agree with you 100% that to achieve a similar function would be to alter the coils instead of the voltage, it would just be a different E & I relationship.

  • @pvt.dicksimmons2225
    @pvt.dicksimmons2225 Před 2 lety +90

    "I made a paper airplane launcher"
    Shut up Tom, that's a coil gun.

    • @titanfallgamerwithnotitanf8187
      @titanfallgamerwithnotitanf8187 Před 2 lety +3

      CZcams doesn't like the word "gun" so that's a reason

    • @luthfiabraham
      @luthfiabraham Před 2 lety

      Noooo … he is just testing high speed on/off mosfet:p

    • @kyletaylor9212
      @kyletaylor9212 Před 2 lety +1

      more of a gauss rifle than a coil gun has it has sets of two coils instead of singular coils

    • @giin97
      @giin97 Před 2 lety

      @@kyletaylor9212 gauss gun and coil gun are two names for the same thing...

    • @drakenkoren5885
      @drakenkoren5885 Před 2 lety

      Leonard of Quirm

  • @FaZuQ
    @FaZuQ Před rokem +14

    You can shorten the rail by 2 times or leave it long (increase speed). By adding the function of changing polarity when the projectile leaves the coil

    • @_ruted
      @_ruted Před rokem

      Thats what came across my mind too

    • @totallynotpaul6211
      @totallynotpaul6211 Před rokem +3

      6:47 he quite literally says that in the video...

  • @CoIocho
    @CoIocho Před 2 lety

    Excellent content, keep it up!

  • @pyrokinetikrlz
    @pyrokinetikrlz Před 2 lety +46

    I would guess this setup is quite sensitive to the synchronization of the coils. If the next coil is turning on too slow, the payload will pass by before experiencing any additional force

    • @grimfpv292
      @grimfpv292 Před 2 lety +6

      I would increase the distance between the coils further down, so the magnets get more time to switch on.

    • @sgo9004
      @sgo9004 Před 2 lety +4

      @@grimfpv292 And pull the hall sensors back further too to trigger the coil earlier.

    • @jmikronis7376
      @jmikronis7376 Před 2 lety +1

      This is a thing for design engineers to solve.

    • @BarryAllen-no9nj
      @BarryAllen-no9nj Před 2 lety +1

      @@grimfpv292mosfets can switch on and off at speeds above 50kHz. This thing is way to slow for you to even consider increasing the spacing.

    • @grimfpv292
      @grimfpv292 Před 2 lety +2

      @@BarryAllen-no9nj It's not the MOSFET timing I'm concerned about, it is the time it takes for a coil to induce a magnetic field.

  • @TRabbit1970
    @TRabbit1970 Před 2 lety +9

    If you decelerate the sled at the end, you can recover some of the energy you used to accelerate it in the first place. Check out the energy required, and it opens up some cool ideals for reducing fuel requirements for launching aircraft and rockets.

  • @crazynedry5085
    @crazynedry5085 Před 2 lety

    Thats a really cool railgun :)

  • @isaaclux2128
    @isaaclux2128 Před 2 lety +6

    When you make Mk.2 of this you should make a spring stopper to catch the sled. Maybe you could even create a magnetic levitating sled for low friction.

    • @muhammedshamiltp9143
      @muhammedshamiltp9143 Před 2 lety

      If you make a make a magnetic levitated sled, wouldn't it interfere with the magnetic field of the coil?

  • @mmhmnms
    @mmhmnms Před 2 lety +4

    I've watched this 3 times today and every time I'm still impressed by your smooth segue into the sponsored content

  • @ToddTevlin
    @ToddTevlin Před 2 lety +32

    I love that the slow mo capture also caught a bee in the background flying parallel to the fence at 6:42.

  • @jps99
    @jps99 Před 2 lety

    Great project!

  • @billwindham214
    @billwindham214 Před 2 lety +1

    I really had fun watching this. My brain was telling me different ways that I could use the launcher if I built one also. Great work Tom!

  • @dariodalcin5177
    @dariodalcin5177 Před 2 lety +12

    Trying to get the coil current to zero instantly is gonna probably fry the mosfets in the long run

    • @The007dinosaur
      @The007dinosaur Před 2 lety +1

      Yup, deffo, but might be worth looking at how bidirectional ESCs for quadcopters handle that same problem? There must be some good ways of mitigating it

    • @danl6634
      @danl6634 Před 2 lety

      ESC circuits often both switch a little late when there is some back EMF to keep the current down, and they can shunt the excess current to the next set of coils too. But they're mostly designed to dissipate the heat, and they can put out a lot of heat for big ones.

    • @kitesforfuture577
      @kitesforfuture577 Před 2 lety

      with 4 mosfets per coil (pointing in and out at both ends of the coil) you can control the current direction. and using the internal diodes of the mosfets and leaving one mosfet still ON, you can ensure that current can continue flowing in a circle through the coil.

    • @TomOConnor-BlobOpera
      @TomOConnor-BlobOpera Před 2 lety

      Eh. Mosfets are cheap. Let em fry!

  • @boredgrass
    @boredgrass Před 2 lety +5

    It is always something special to make a plane fly! This video made me wonder if the paper plane folding experts among your viewers might not have ideas for models that are able to remain longer in the sled, i.e get a greater acceleration.

  • @SupremacyBTD
    @SupremacyBTD Před 2 lety

    Really cool project

  • @aadhiimrana3771
    @aadhiimrana3771 Před rokem +5

    Hey Tom, awesome video. Just had a small question. Won't the hall sensor also sense the magnetic field due to the change in current in the previous coil causing a change in flux in the other coil in the pair due to mutual inductance? So basically, each coil is slightly repelling the magnetic sled. So then, the speed calculation is not really accurate.

  • @idriwzrd
    @idriwzrd Před 2 lety +18

    I'm a little surprised you didn't make a self-releasing hook to tow the plane from the nose for better takeoff/flight performance.

  • @sebastianuhl
    @sebastianuhl Před 2 lety +9

    Great project! Maybe put a led parallel to the coil so we can see in the slow-mo when it gets activated and when it shuts of. Could be helpful to tune the timing too

  • @bzqp2
    @bzqp2 Před rokem

    The airplane shots were amazing.

  • @kubak3381
    @kubak3381 Před 2 lety +2

    This is by far the best homemade project I've ever seen... and I've seen a lot

  • @BeautyOfGaia
    @BeautyOfGaia Před 2 lety +5

    Tom, that was so far the most interesting video I have watched on you channel. I would love to see a real Concorde (of course a model) starting from your rails!

  • @ruthjoy7147
    @ruthjoy7147 Před 2 lety +4

    well done😁 you made a electro magnetic rail gun 4:00

  • @ashton7981
    @ashton7981 Před 2 měsíci

    Linear induction motors are also used on the Skytrain (Vancouver's light rail system). So thousands of people use rails guns to get to from work everyday

  • @anthonymanning4680
    @anthonymanning4680 Před 2 lety

    Love when I’m watching a random video on youtube and just happen to see videos of the skyrocket

  • @garethsmith7628
    @garethsmith7628 Před 2 lety +29

    why aren't the magnets spaced out further as you go towards the end?
    and have you thought about somehow taking the back emf generated from each coil as the field collapses whem you de-energise and using that to boost the power to the next coil?

    • @YSPACElabs
      @YSPACElabs Před 2 lety +2

      The back emf would probably be handled by some flyback diodes (or snubber)(maybe with resistors to reduce the current running through the diode) (maybe the diodes just weren't mentioned in the video) or just mosfets that can handle a huge voltage spike. It may also be possible that the coils do not produce much bemf for reasons like eddy currents (but it does seem that they produce a lot of bemf because of the large, fat arcs that occurred when Tom disconnected the coil from the supercaps).

    • @sdfxcvblank5756
      @sdfxcvblank5756 Před 2 lety +1

      His technology is limited so he can only get the mosfet to turn on so quickly of the projectile gets faster he doesn't have the equipment to match that faster speed therefore spacing it out keeps it in sync in theory

    • @maybeitsnotsuchagoodidea490
      @maybeitsnotsuchagoodidea490 Před 2 lety +2

      Because that reduces the efficiency in terms of acceleration per rail length. Rather than increasing spacing, you simply decrease timing between electromagnets as the cart progresses.

  • @c567591
    @c567591 Před 2 lety +7

    Some thoughts: You might be able to get more acceleration with different timings, also having 1 or 2 ahead of the sled on may have some boost as well. If you put some optical sensors across rail at the end and a U shaped thing for the sensors a bit out from the end that the opto sensors can give a real time speed indication.

  • @silverywingsagain
    @silverywingsagain Před 2 lety +16

    I've been working on a circuit like this for a while and i think it can be done without the hall effect sensors. If you use each coil as an analog input for a microcontroller, you will get an induced voltage on the input as the bullet/sled approaches the coil. As soon as you do, switch it to an output and apply current through a mosfet for a fixed period, then switch back to input. Repeat for each coil. This would give you the ability to launch ferromagnetic metals as well as magnets.

    • @bharattanwar5047
      @bharattanwar5047 Před 2 lety +1

      So, bro did u complete yours.

    • @silverywingsagain
      @silverywingsagain Před 2 lety +1

      @@bharattanwar5047 No, I work on a lot of circuits in simulation on and off. I'd like to build it but it's not my top project. I have had a think about it though, and Ive decided that a hybrid approach might be good to start, both a microcontroller with some SPI ADCs and hall effect sensors so that I can get a timing curve for how the coils are triggered. Then the hall effect sensors could be disabled and the known timings could be used. Having that data would let you make some very fine adjustments to the mechanism.

    • @bharattanwar5047
      @bharattanwar5047 Před 2 lety +1

      @@silverywingsagain i am not able to understand electrical circuit because Tom didn't explain it. That's why i asked u 😅.

  • @nathansilver4736
    @nathansilver4736 Před rokem

    That reminded me of the Flightdeck!
    Cool proof of concepts.
    Cheer's!!

  • @haydonwolfe7536
    @haydonwolfe7536 Před 2 lety +3

    0:21 Hey thats Kennywood!! Where’s my 412 gang at!

  • @SpectrumDIY
    @SpectrumDIY Před 2 lety +19

    You would post this perfectly in time to finish up the Colin furze solar-mowar 😅 cheers for the share!

    • @DogeToshiBakaMoto
      @DogeToshiBakaMoto Před 2 lety

      ikr

    • @AmorDeae
      @AmorDeae Před 2 lety +1

      except this is not nearly powerful enough to be dangerous, not for Colin at least. [0.015kg*(11m/s)^] /2 = 0.9J muzzle energy. Some permitted airsoft guns go over 5J.

  • @calebmolenda9588
    @calebmolenda9588 Před 2 lety

    I just watched your most recent video about optimizing the rail before this one (by mistake because I missed this one), and it actually made this video more enjoyable! This has always been such a fascinating subject to me, thank you for the amazing video and education.

  • @krunal8415
    @krunal8415 Před 2 lety

    Excellent information....👍

  • @mattl7144
    @mattl7144 Před 2 lety +11

    Love the videos, Tom. You've reignited my interest for engineering!

    • @mohammedalshrief532
      @mohammedalshrief532 Před 2 lety

      Machine learning pid power full iron stationczcams.com/video/KXNRlJPkWIkc/video.htmlsed24nmb

  • @mr1enrollment
    @mr1enrollment Před 2 lety +54

    Tom: I suspect that if you also complete the magnetic circuit, (possibly by a 'C' loop of steel under each magnet pair), your total flux density will increase. Fun project BTW.

    • @jackmclane1826
      @jackmclane1826 Před 2 lety +3

      True. But it will also increase the inductance of the coil and will reduce the speed the current rises... this can backfire!

    • @mr1enrollment
      @mr1enrollment Před 2 lety +3

      @@jackmclane1826 that is correct. and that is what calculation and/or testing will reveal.
      considering that the gap is mostly open with a high reluctance - the increase in inductance may not be a problem. I have not designed such a system, so I am going on intuition. (that also can back fire) note also as a for instance: stepper motors, or servos do have relatively tight magnetic circuits with very small gaps. they seem to work. and yes this is all hand waving. a real motors dude would probably be able to say yes or no with more accuracy. but anyway i'll stand with my first comment. being wrong is not a big deal, it is a way to learn.

    • @jackmclane1826
      @jackmclane1826 Před 2 lety +2

      @@mr1enrollment I'd also try it... the idea is good, but I don't have a clear gut feeling for it right now. It leans towards that switching speed in the end is crucial when you want to really launch something. Not when you want to launch a paper plane at a couple of meters per second, of course... ;) It could even come to the point that an iron core is detrimental due to HF losses. (Thought of it: When you want to launch something at 100m/s that means switching speed in the kHz range is necessary. Don't get close to it with any iron. Maybe a stack of very thin sheets may work. But with massive iron you just make an induction heater and no coil gun... ;) )
      My first change would be to invert polarity of the coil when the magnet has passed to push it away. This can also backfire into magic smoke when done wrong... ;) This would effectively half the time that is available for current rise.
      Very interesting device. I think I put one of these setups on my own experiment list. ;) My first guess would be to move to a lower impedance setting. Thicker wire, less windings but more current meaning lower inductance as no. of windings go squared into inductance.

    • @mr1enrollment
      @mr1enrollment Před 2 lety

      @@jackmclane1826 let me know when your video is up

    • @jackmclane1826
      @jackmclane1826 Před 2 lety

      @@mr1enrollment I'm not making videos. I'm not allowed to film where I do that kind of nonsense... (and I'm not too keen on publicity).

  • @Racemuiss
    @Racemuiss Před 2 lety

    This is why i love youtube.. u got a new subscriber

  • @Saudiprince
    @Saudiprince Před 2 lety

    This really helped me out, for my Science test. THANK YOU MAN!'