Railgun

introduction

This is an arduino nano powered hand held rail gun that runs on a 24V (12vx2) battery thats somewhat simple to use
this took me more than it should have since i'm generally learning cad (around 9 hours)
24v battery should be charged with crocodile clips as its hooked up via relay
system works on a 5V battery on the side that must be removed before charging
it has a cooldown of 5 seconds after every shot to avoid overheating the coils

how to use

load it up like a musket with the metal pellets they use for slingshots, aim at your target and press the trigger, it should make a loud ass beep as it shoots

what to use this for?

• NOT killing people
• shooting at soda cans
• killing tomatoes/ref

how it works

think of it like a 3 step motor, the power cycles between 3 coils in the gun barrel infront of the projectile pulling it forward
and then cycling to the next one right away

warning i am not legally accounted with any harm caused from this outside its intended use or during malfunction

tools you'll need

• soldering iron and solder
• superglue (bear with me)
• hot glue gun (bear with me here)
• acess to a 3d printer (you can use jlc3dp)

parts you'll need

• check out the bom (bill of materials) for more info
• order the pcb from jlcpcb.com using the gerber.rar in production files

how to build

software

setup steps:

• download arduino ide
• download the file in railgunsoftware
• run it with arduino ide
• attach your arduino nano to your pc
• press the checkmark on the top left and wait for it flash

printing

first set (or order) these parts to 3d print while you work on the hw:

• the main body with the cover
  
  
• the barrel (if your printer is too small you can split it into 2 and glue it together)
  
  note: ideally you should print the barrel laying down so its way more sturdy and doesn't break off
  

soldering

solder the components so it looks like this (arduino nano on the bottom)

now solder a wire to each of these

run said wires through here

and then solder them to the switch like so

next solder a 5v battery to the 5v pin on the nano (run the connection through here)

and (bear with me) hot glue it to the side
next grab the 3 relays and wire them to these (relay part pointing down from it)

run the cable through these

and (bear with me) hot glue them here

grab 2 12V batteries and wire them in series and then wire them here (- is down + is up) and make sure the wire is long enough for you to carry them in a bag

last step:
grab 3 of the longest copper wires you can find ideally 1.25mm and run the following equasion

the more wire you have the better just don't over do it
pass the 3 wires from the front through these two holes

solder said wires here

run [(your wire length) - 1612mm]/192.71786 on your calculator
the number you get is the amount of turns each coil gets, hope you got a lot of wire!!
do the amount of turns you got on these with the topmost wire you soldered to the diodes around these parts

drip down superglue onto each coil to both lock it in place and make sure it doesn't short out if the wax layer is burnt off due to usage
now after running it back through the same hole solder it to this part

repeat the above 2 more times for the other 2 wires (don't put the coils on top of eachother i meant put wire 2 on every 3rd spot without wire already starting from the 2nd)

qna

"why don't you hold stuff down with bolts?" gun explodes
"whys there no relay module in the demonstrations?" i could not for the life of me find one and i've spent too much on this project to make one

stuff for nerds

the schematic used you can find it in pcb

the pcb design wiring

demo links

• onshape 3d model
• pcb