Overview of the MA11 - General explanation of it's construction

Firing an electromagnetic rifle at a piece of plexiglas

Not as impressive as the plate firing but this was actually my first demo of the accelerator outside the basic test setup I had.

How that plate is doing

The plate is actually mostly bent. At the time of firing it was actually just taped on both sides to the target and then had a larger steel plate about 4" behind it. Based on the shape of the impact, I'd guess that it actually bent till the first place touched the back on and then the projectile pinched them. I wonder if we could have gotten penetration if it had been better mounted.

Firing an electromagnetic rifle at a random metal plate

It's done. Final speed is 70m/s

First off, you can see that the wave is showing 2.5ms. That's how long it took the projectile to pass 18cm. This puts the final speed at right around 70m/s. With a projectile weight of 9.5g that means we've got a destroy energy of 23.5J.

The machine is only running with 8 of it's total of 13 accelerator gates but frankly I'm just so done with it and all it's bullshit. I'll post a video to explain more, but just to give a few examples:

The lower digital display is supposed to measure the voltage on the capacitors. After several small explosions and major circuit shorts in the rest of the system, it flickers on and off. It can no longer take accurate readings near the machine's top voltage of 410V. Instead, I listen for the tone of the whine on the charger to change. If the voltage limit circuit in the charger ever goes out, the caps will over change, self-short and probably explode.

Every few weeks while working on it, the firing system will find a way to break. Maybe the EM noise will confuse the computer and it'll try firing while charging. The charger can handle extremely high amperage and it'll just overwhelm the firing circuit, heat fracturing the leads and blowing 4 of the gates all at the same time. Maybe the firing coil will find a way to short to the case, bringing the whole gun up to a deadly 400V with tens of thousands of amps behind it. It's always something. And not just some random thing. It's some dangerous shit.


I'll come back and narrate these pics more, post details, and make a video once I'm done with work (like for money work).

BTW: New hot look

The machine is much more modular now. It has to be given how often it burns itself out for various reasons. Notice that the firing circuits (the boards nearest the camera with yellow and black wires coming out are now set into packs of 4 circuits (instead of a single board with all of them). Similarly, the firing computer is more detachable and can be swapped out in a few minutes if it ever burns. A 3d-printed bracket holds it in place. Finally, notice the new shielded sensors from all the gates. This helps get the signals back in the right order even when the EM noise from firing is intense.

More penetration testing

The timing is getting really close an questionable. In the meantime, this is the results of a 62m/s firing. It's running on 7 magnets.

It's going up against maybe 0.8mm of steel. I think it'd get penetration with a more pointed munition. I'll make more ammo later this week.