Lane

There is an update; the lawsuit has been amended with some details about how the ATF is trying to block 100% of the evidence from the administrative record in the case. Including the witnesses whom actually reviewed the FRT-15 trigger. I would be somewhat surprised if any sitting judge would put up with any of that. As if they can wish away actual records; "pretending" they weren't received or read (then later documented as irrelevant)? I want to believe. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flmd.392523/gov.uscourts.flmd.392523.32.0.pdf

Starting off small. Four in parallel. Did my first firings. Tried a bunch of times at lower voltages. This last time I fired with clip leads at ~200V. The arc when clipping on to the coil wire is already getting close to blinding (going to need welding goggles soon). Ultimately, I decided it's time to scale up, so the four pack becomes eight. Also made a small series bank that's charging up near 1,000V (gets really slow around 800V, and I'm only reading 900V on that last image). No problem, that's the next real upgrade; to improve charging speed of higher voltage and capacitance banks. The SCRs for triggering are all rated for 1,000V or more, so that's an important milestone -- I can actually start pushing them towards the limits right away. Aware that some of my wiring might be holding me back at the moment (to thin to supply peak currents). One step at a time. Probably wind a few more test coils and see how it goes before switching over to SCR triggering. Going to need thicker wire, and appropriate connectors to employ the SCRs for the most part. Though I guess I can start off with some stranded wire simply screwed in. It might also worth trying to build my own glass trigatron soon, and figure out roughly what gap length I need in air (at a given voltage). Then work towards filling other gasses.

Pictures: Old capacitor charger (electric flyswatter); looks like it got banged around a bit. It's arcing on the negative terminal. This also answers my question about an arc pulse causing computer/microcontroller problems. Just messing with this on my desk was enough to reset my USB mouse and keyboard repeatedly... So isolation is going to be a must for triggers near an arc discharge. Original "final" design. It was just a single one of those SCRs that allowed enough current to flow through the coil and break a window with that setup. 20 ga coil there is wax potted over a brass barrel. Not sure the specs on that, probably 6 turns wide, and maybe 10-12 turns tall. I'll try to get a measure on it later; but it's too small to really do much with on this project. Pile of new SCRs and the old for size/style comparison. The screw terminals probably make a pretty big difference in pulse current; pretty sure I could weld connectors to those blade terminals without trying too hard. And a few photoflash capacitors. A layout of the new barrels with test coils, along side the other old and new components (sorry for bad lighting). USPS small flat rate box with 100 capacitors on end. Not quite full, but more than 3/4s. There are four more bags of 100 not shown; and that might not be all I need depending on how things work out (might need a few more to make the numbers work out with series/parallel string counts). Just need to fix the arcing (remove the old capacitor) and set it up to charge some new test capacitor banks. Then I'll be ready to fire test coils with clip leads, and start moving towards the same with SCR triggering. My original setup used to be fired with a household light switch, but between arcing the contacts, and everything else; it was never able to supply impressive current. I suspect even clip lead triggering will be lackluster in comparison to either style SCR. Ultimately that capacitor charger will be rebuilt from the ground up to support much faster charging, as well as higher voltages. Though; I was just looking around, and apparently you can get much higher voltage electric flyswatters. I will probably do so; even if only to kill bugs. There's one on amazon for less than $20 with 4,200V charger in it; seems to do 1000:1 off of a standard lithium battery voltage, and is even USB rechargeable. Did a bit of reading about high powered rail guns. Seems like liquifying (or at least partially liquifying) the projectile is helpful in terms of getting it to slide smoothly under the pressure required to get good electrical contact with the rails?

Used to work for someone who would often mention, "you could be hit by a bus today". Rather morbid I suppose; and his intent was to get technical people to work together. Mostly so that if any one person left; there would still be some understanding of intricacies. Also; in the right environment, collaboration can spur more appropriate solutions to the same problem. At the end of the day though; I can't be sure I'll actually be here tomorrow. Might as well have a good time exploring while I am able. And as I mentioned before; it's something I actually started building up while I was in college taking electricity and magnetism courses. I might as well finish what I started... This is a rather important thing to notice... I worked with a graduate student in the physics department in college, whom I didn't even particularly like... But he would spout off little quips here and there; and for good reason. One time he mentioned that he often subbed g=1 when working on complex problems. Not book problems, but trying to find solutions for unsolved physics problems. The reasoning here is it can be subbed back in later, and makes the calculations easier. This is done for a lot of different reasons though; and is often required to take a problem beyond a road block. The problem needs to be restructured from the "textbook version" to one that tries to maximize every other type of input, or minimize all types of loss. Setting static values, and ranges let you do a bunch of quick brain math problems, to seek out a new realm of testing. Same as setting g=1; once you hit a limit, you can set it static and keep working the problem to maximize everything else. Finding one of those limits while building a railgun is the same thing. A significant milestone for sure! One thing that I absolutely hated about college physics. All the math was a pencil and paper; had to show all the steps . No special calculators. No formula cheat sheets. You had to know everything, and be able to do all the math in your head (assuming you know your times tables). Then write it out on a piece of paper long form. While I struggled like hell with that at that time; I really do appreciate it now. I didn't have a good handle on calculus before I started, so that was actually a challenge taking tests back then. I've come to a new hurdle. What... If any; chance do I have using a microcontroller, if I'm going to be blowing off a 20kV capacitor bank at the muzzle end of the gun? There might be some trigger wiring out that far with at least semi-direct connection to the chip. Do I need to get silly with isolation (I think so)? At this level though; I'm willing to tough it out. What "grade" EMP with fry its own gun driver chip? Since nobody replied with P90 mag details. I designed a new projectile. Maybe even cheaper to build; but only useful for testing from what I can tell. Shiiit for magnetic coupling given the small diameter tip. Only marginally lighter though; @ 121grains in weight. It can't be faster; but it might save me from blowing a trigatron on the first shot. It also means; I can ABSOLUTELY buy any FN P90 magazine for this build. And use it.

Started building... While I was waiting for things to show up in the mail, I pulled down a few more disposable camera flash modules I had laying around (from the last time I messed with a coil gun). Five more photoflash capacitors, and some tiny (unusable) step-up transformers, transistors, etc. I don't think a flyback from a TV or computer monitor is out of line in a capacitor charger for the actual lightning gun. But then it hit me; when I was looking at the flash tube connections on the circuit boards. That camera flash IS a TRIGATRON. The flash tube itself is; the whole thing is designed to bang a fuckin trigatron. The circuit design should be a breeze for scaling up that part of the build... And initial testing can be done by using a bunch of flash tubes in series/parallel until I know the parameters necessary to build my own for higher current applications. I did the dirty deed tonight. Wound a 14 ga coil. Assuming no other losses (which is unrealistic) it could draw 32 megawatts at 990 volts. Yeah; 33,000A. No way that's going to be an SCR triggered coil, so I might as well start messing with these xenon (?) filled tubes. I'm guessing argon is TONS better in terms of an actually useful high current trigatron. I will need to put these in a cardboard box to operate. I will not be shocked at all if the explode on the first shot. In fact. Some trigatrons are designed to be one shot only (not an ideal design parameter here, but noted). Capacitors showed up, and; they are kind of big. I knew that though, I bought them surplus for a huge discount. That was the only reason this project made sense. Mocked up some "modules" to see what kind of volume I need to contend with. This is gonna be a fat boy for sure. Anyway. The first shot is close to reality. Still waiting on SCRs in the mail, so I might as well test a big bad INSANE current, or at least super high voltage (lower current) on the 14 ga wire coil (and a trigatron). Wiring up a few small capacitor banks it should give me a decent idea what I can look forward to. Also gives me a chance to calibrate a way to measure current peaks and pulse length (at smaller scales, and prepare for things an order of magnitude larger), as well as setup the Lab Radar for short range use again. A BB gun is a good pre-flight check for that part. I did operate a 1 meter long carbon fiber test barrel as a blow gun with a 123 grain projectile. It shot quite a bit low, but did make it across the room with some force. I'll try to measure that speed too once I get going here. The projectile fit, and and barrel smoothness are superior to anything else I've ever tried before. Picked up some powdered graphite lube to keep the barrel nice during initial testing (seemed to have some inside already). I simply don't know how the carbon fiber will do with eddy currents (suspect it will be better than brass; probably worse than acrylic). Will post up some pictures later on. Currently in testing mode, and need to organize to show off those things in a logical way. A test rig with a 40" barrel is certainly a sight to see. Excess barrel length isn't useful in this project though, so it will get chopped. I bought two; so it won't be long before I start drilling, slotting, and ultimately cutting down to a more reasonable barrel length. STILL want to know about loading P90 mags backwards. The 1 10-round magazine I was going to buy disappeared. And I don't want to commit to buying quite yet if I can't use it right away. I might end up 3D printing that part if the commercial product isn't going to work.

This is why I ask about the P90 mag loading backwards. These projectiles would need to be a full cartridge width/diameter on both ends, and have no neck. Loading a P90 mag with one in each direction is also proof. Do the feed lips ONLY present a problem (or any problem at all)? That's the easiest fix of any.

Had some time to sleep on my project. I'm still mentally preparing for the initial trials which could possibly begin as early as tomorrow. I have some old coils in various forms laying around; but I do still need to order magnet wire. Just not sure exactly how far to go with it, thinking 12 gauge isn't out of the question at all (I can use regular jacketed wire to figure that out in the mean time). That trigatron coil gun was pretty unique, I haven't found much like it. I also can't find decent trigatrons for sale. I'm not a master of lampworking by any means, but it may be possible to fabricate a few. They are very simple devices. Really interesting; is they support extreme voltage and current, and they make a flash when the operate. No need for Chinese made LEDs to make your electric gun look cool; high voltage discharge that's functional is a lot more Sci-Fi anyway... While reading about them, it became apparent that they don't NEED to contain argon gas; air works too with a larger gap, even mineral oil is an option. They can even operate outside of a glass tube, as contacts in free air (bad idea here). I did spec this project with SCRs (otherwise known as thyristors), as that's what most people use for this type of triggering. I have some on the way, and a few on hand already. The ones I have a rather large, and have an unknown maximum pulse current (no real datasheet). They certainly work somewhere north of 400A@1,000V; wouldn't know for sure without blowing one up with a meter attached. Found some more on closeout with an actual datasheet too. They are smaller; yet support pulses of at least 1,800A@1,800V. That should be fine for early coil stages at least. The trigatron(s) would have to be at the muzzle end to fire one or more final coils at extremely high voltage, and virtually unlimited current based on electrode gap, bank voltage, coil resistance, and dielectric material. Images: The ONLY trigatron I can find for sale; not enough power for my project. Argon gas is available for preserving wine; which could be used to fill a home-made trigatron (may need to make my own; especially if I want it to be glass and make a nice flash). An x-ray view of the P90 magazine from World of Guns, and the field stripped (since x-ray is confusing there). And a rough cut prototype projectile weighing in at 123.36 grains. Final note; and the best news yet. I think the projectiles could fit in a stock P90 magazine. Seems like I can get a 10 round shipped to NY. The only question I have, is whether a P90 magazine has a restriction to loading the rounds backwards. Does it have a reduction in the round spinner for the smaller neck size so they can't spin in backwards (you'd need to load a few rounds to be sure)? Worst case, I'm guessing I could modify that part; but would certainly appreciate being able to use an off the shelf magazine.

This is NOT an AR platform gun/rifle. No need to read further if you don't care about electric guns. They are universally un-impressive given the current state of technology. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I did try to fit this design into an AR platform rifle in my mind; many times. I couldn't find any way to "want" the projectile, or anything else useful to live in the mag well. The forward position of the bolt face is not useful here either. The only way I see this working is similar to the p90 design. Which follows with a few more design constraints. That flippy magazine is a helpful cue. Most electric guns are built front heavy because of the storage requirements. Electronically fired projectiles need to come from the back of the gun; much like many pistol designs. Ideally; from the butt stock, and following a long barrel. Nothing I've seen yet deals with rifling. Even the GR-1 (Gauss Rifle) does not bother to spin projectiles. There are a number of ways to accomplish this without much (or any) sacrifice. I've seen the "motor spins up a projectile" design a few times in my research. That's a fine idea. Feathers. I think I have a solution there already that better still. The big issue is pulse length, and "grab" so as not to induce any suck-back. Spinning a projectile is secondary (or not addressed at all) in most coil gun designs I've looked at. The further out coils though; should not at all match the coils at the grip/butt stock end. No way to get real power or speed if you don't get stupid on the muzzle end. The way to start this is to look at single coil velocity, and then add a second coil; ideally far away, and have optical triggers to present data about that travel time. An external and internal chrono can give the final word (both will be used in this case). Then start adding more. One thing that really triggered me was some ultra-high-quality designs using aluminum projectiles. I'm not sure what the voltage or current crossover is in that respect. What crazy numbers are required for aluminum projectiles to be useful? This video is of a really different design. A single stage bench mount with 1,000,000A surge. Really. Single stage, unknown (right now; will calculate later)... Single stage 35mm aluminum projectile. Yeah; foreign language. But that argon filled trigatron might be the key here. Seems like it could be smaller. Also; maybe using an external induction coil; but no idea how to manipulate that "through" an acceleration coil. Much to learn... Also this abstract. I need to be in the 1km/s range at the least in a handheld. 3km/s would be amazing: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/195657

Never heard of it, man. Looks like a lot of that video came from the video game. You can get it on Android and Apple devices, as well as Steam for PC and Mac, etc. I've never purchased any of the packages. But if you play the quiz every hour to identify guns you get points. It was SUPER helpful for me in terms of understanding the build of an AK for example. It lets you manipulate and disassemble/reassemble firearms in 3D. It's nice to be able to "play with" guns I can't have or don't currently own. Or just to inspect the inner workings of a large number of firearms.

Here is a link to the actual product page with a few more details about the commercial product. https://arcflashlabs.com/product/gr-1-anvil/ As I mentioned earlier; I've decided to try and exceed that performance here in my basement. Looks like the important parts for initial testing will be here around Monday. I'll start a build log elsewhere. The initial design just happens to be a .308-ish build. I can buy arrow tips that are 100 grains for reasonably cheap (and have a bunch on hand already). My initial goal will be maximizing speed. Have not seen many designs that really "care" about the nuances of accelerating a projectile progressively along a distance. The coils near the tip of the barrel need to be spaced further apart, and suffer from other losses as well (if they are all the same as the early firing coils). My hypothesis here is; that using a totally different coil, at very high voltages (and spaced further apart) will allow for significant gains in the muzzle velocity. Still trying to figure out how to rifle the barrel in a useful way. Friction is the enemy in a launcher that has no gas pressure behind the projectile. Thinking about a carbon fiber set of "fins" on the tail of the projectile in this case. Seems like they might benefit from being boat tailed as well, which is another advantage of the arrow point steel projectile (and there are still more benefits to consider). This will be my last post before the build log begins.

I'm not as certain they will succeed in banning a forced reset trigger in this case. Anyone that read through the lawsuit, or reply to the cease and desist would have noticed; there is another trigger that the ATF apparently did already approve with this function. That trigger appears to be available, and even costs less at the moment. Only problem is, when I went to check out with one (from a computer in New York State); it said they didn't support any payment options for my state. Not super shocking; I bet they think it's questionably legal here. https://firearmsystems.net/product/tac-con-3mr It's almost as if the ATF is acting like the New York State attorney general, sending out threatening letters that have no force of law behind them. They think (and are often correct) that threatening people with a lawsuit is enough to change behaviors. Notice the ATF didn't raid Rare Breed and collect their customer data by force (yet)? They simply asked for help; hoping Rare Breed would comply, and help the ATF find all the triggers already sold? Really?!

Do you play the game; World of Guns?

I'm not prepared to build a rail gun. Still have no idea what the ATF thinks of electric guns. Saw some with HUGE power cables attached from the 1960s and even earlier. Some even full auto. Found the parts I used in testing coil gun nearly a decade ago now; while I was still in school. Decided to re-invest in the initial outcome in a huge way. Just not even impressed by the results on the GR-1 given the technology available. Also... I'm aware that building anything might result in this (video from ArcFlash labs from 8 years ago). Starting a fire is a likely outcome in any initial HV coil gun build.

Here is a link to the (shorter) initial reply by Rare Breed's lawyers to the ATF's cease and desist letter. This document is only 3 pages to the lawsuit's 64 pages; but appears to cover many of the same points. https://theinfidel.co/blogs/news/rare-breed-triggers-response-letter-to-the-atf-cease-and-desist New York State law is pretty murky on the matter. There is a typographical error in the law for starters, and it still specifies "two ore more shots with single pull (of the trigger)". While Rare Breed won't sell them here, I'm not sure they are technically illegal; though I sure wouldn't want to test out the knowledge of the state police on the matter... I'll wait and see how this case works out first.

I read about this a few days ago. I am still not sure that the ATF really did determine them to be machine guns. The Rare Breed's lawyer's reply to the ATF's cease and desist was scathing. My current suspicion was that this happened without enough due process within the ATF to stand up in court. On the other hand... I'm not sure anyone has fought one of these to the end. I'm on the edge of my seat. My personal opinion is that a forced reset trigger can't possibly be a machine gun. One trigger pull; one bullet.

We also need to specify, that this is a Gauss gun; not a rail gun. The AFT definition might differ based on those nuances.

But; at a mere 275 FPS. Little more than a kick in the nuts.

A device that uses one ore more electromagnets, and a battery, to shoot steel projectiles. Space gun? Solar powered varmint pop gun? I'm not paying $3,375 to find out.

That's not bad; there was a picture (of the bare unit perhaps) in the first link...

This is pretty interesting; though the price to performance ratio is pretty harsh. Field and Stream says it's about as powerful as a .22 short. https://www.fieldandstream.com/guns/handheld-gauss-rifle-by-arcflash-labs-for-sale/ I actually built one of these (albeit not as large) back when I was studying physics at university. You can see pretty clearly what makes it work; a whole bunch of large high voltage capacitors. Really not that dissimilar to a camera flash circuit. I couldn't tell from this design if it was a single stage gun, or multi-stage. You can get significant gains by passing the projectile through multiple acceleration coils that trigger at a precise time. That time can either be estimated (and hard coded), or triggered by optical/magnetic sensors that watch the projectile motion as it travels down the barrel. I ended up setting my project aside once it broke a window while testing (it hadn't shown that kind of potential with previous tuning). Also; 20 pounds for Arcflash Labs model? Shooing a 12mm projectile; I wonder if this is a standard ball bearing (Field and Stream indicates it may well be a smooth bore)? Absolutely not interested in paying that kind of money, but it might be interesting to know a few more details. Is this really a quality product, or something that anybody could achieve in their basement with a bit of effort? My opinion; the Arcflash Labs GR-1 ANVIL sure does look funny; and I wouldn't trust that pistol grip to be exceptionally sturdy.

Or at least some kind of bait. Maybe good smelling fish, or bad smelling cabbage. Just feast on the local foliage.

I decided to make a half a batch of chili after seeing this pop up again. I didn't have the chipotle chili powder (seemed like a key ingredient); so I picked some up at the store. I also didn't have any Hunts fire roasted tomatoes; so I opted to roast my own on the gas stove burner. After roasting 6-7 decent size tomatoes; I realize it probably still wasn't enough, so I grabbed a can or Rotel (mild) tomatoes with chilies to help out. Might have to add my last tomato before it's done. Got the black beans going; and tasted the chili so far... I agree, that's a really kickass flavor profile! Even with a half batch, there is going to be quite a bit leftover I need to freeze or throw in the fridge.

That what I was thinking right away... Where is the fun in that?

Well that sounds worth looking into; thanks for the tip. I've been shooting almost exclusively irons lately (an ammo savings measure). I can hit my targets; but it takes me quite a while to acquire a target as it's not easy to point at even high contrast targets. I assume most people would shoot irons with glasses if that were the case?

Yep; but much worse than any of those. I can count 7 distinct target spots, and some of them more blurry than others. But a nice scope is crystal clear for me once adjusted. Is there still a distortion that I don't notice? Is there a benefit to an additional lens?