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Lots of electrolytics...
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From: Bill Lemieux [SMTP:gomez-at-netherworld-dot-com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 1998 2:49 PM
To: Tesla List
Subject: Re: Lots of electrolytics...
Scott Cutler wrote:
> This is a bit off topic, but I hope you guys won't mind too much. Does anybody
> have any ideas as to what I can do with several hundred 350v, 160 uF
> electrolytic capacitors?
_Any_ ideas? You could string them together to make Christmas tree
decorations
suitable for any mad scientist household...
> I got them from a bunch of disposable flash cameras.
> Each one stores nearly 10 joules, a signifcant amount of energy. Theoretically,
> 100 of these will send a paper clip at Mach 4! I'd really like to build a
> coilgun or railgun; anybody think this is viable? Any other ideas?
Capacitors in general are not ideal for railguns, but can be used if:
-their self-inductance and ESR is low enough- electrolytic photoflash
caps are not.
-their voltage is very high and their capacitance is relatively low-
again, not.
For railguns, you want very fast, very high voltage,
fast-pulse-discharge duty caps.
You might be able to build a small single-coil EML by putting a bunch of
them in
series, but you'll have to hand match them for capacitance- which ever
unit has
the last capacitance sees the highest voltage, and since electrolytics
can vary
wildly, you'll want to watch out for that. When one cap in a series
string goes,
they usually all go in rapid succession, sometimes with excitingly
dangerous
results.
Multi-coil EMLs are a pain in the ass- complex, and require careful
design, fast, low-jitter position sensing electronics, and so on. I
don't recommend them to
the amateur.
-Gomez
--
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