Disposable camera coilgun

A tutorial explaining how to build your own coilgun from some disposable camera's flash circuits.

It doesn't require much money (if any), but you need some basic soldering skills and electronics knowledge to finish it successfully...

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask me!

Step 1: Getting the parts

What do you need

- About 5 disposable cameras (used) with flash circuit (you can probably get them for free at your local photo-store if you ask nice)

- A soldering iron

- Some wire

- A plastic ballpoint-pen, ink tube removed so you only keep the hard outer plastic tube

- A light-switch

- Electrical insulation tape

- Plenty of enameled magnet wire (ca. 0,5mm diameter)

- Some soldering skills and some electronic knowledge

Comments

[wotherspoon]

for some reason when ever i connect my copper coil to the ends of the flash tubes it shorts out my circuit, any idea's why?
using enamelled copper with a 1mm diameter.

[fire_fly21]

question? is it muzzle loaded, is it a chamber load of sorts?

[hameemahmed]

Disposable cameras are not really so much available where I live so is there any alternative to a disposable camera circuit? or maybe u can give me some other circuit schematic i can use as a charging mechanism? Thanks

[Liam.great98]

I'm going to make this some day when I can get enough disposable cameras.

[StandingRobotNextToMenus]

I don't get it, how does it charge?

[Liam.great98]

Inside the camera, when you hold down the button for flash, it charges the capacitor. Snce tou added a few more it might take longer to charge but it charges them all at once. Then when you press the take-picture button it discharges the capacitors to the flash. Little does it know the flash has been replaced with a coil.

[resistanceisfutileiflessthan1ohm]

nice idea, i assume you could load it before charging, just incase something were to go wrong and it fired whilst you were pushing the projectile in. i guess you ought to test which direction the projectile comes out in before you finally assemble it..

[jdorne]

Tell me, is there any way I could use a 2.5V 55F (they are 55F) capacitor in this? I have 2 of these capacitors. I'm just wondering if they could be used for anything related to this project.

[alexanderall]

I dont think that useing them would be possible for this project as the ones in disposable cameras are 250v~400v.

[jason10kv]

It's working!!!!!!!!!!!
I smashed up a window glass by it!!!!!!!
superb performance!!!!! I am just impressed.

[padmanabhapsimha]

why don't you build a boost converter? it is more efficient than a camera charging circuit. It just requires some basic knowledge of electronics. really effective too. it charged my12000 MFD capacitor to 63 volts in just 20 seconds. yeah it is 12000 micro farads. works better than a 120 to 480 micro farad cap (single 120 or 4*120 in parallel) charged to 400 volts. you can also build a simple power cutoff system so that you need not disconnect the battery from the circuit. you can control this entire system using just two 555 timers. One for the charger and one for the trigger. it will be better if you replace the relay with a solid state switch like an SCR, triac or a thyristor. mine is capable of switching 800 volts , 260 amps of current. There is also no danger of any welding of contacts. It also reduces the power loss by 30 to 40 percent

[jason10kv]

I will try it,just give me the circuit schematic.

[xmitman]

Hi padmanabhapsimha,

What SCR part number did you use?

[padmanabhapsimha]

my prototype used a TYN616

[padmanabhapsimha]

i used a 'NTE5519' . You can use any SCR or triac with a surge current rating of 600 amps. you can usually overshoot this rating if your cap discharge time is lower than 16 milliseconds

[PSYCHOMADD]

Where can i buy some soldering skills and electronic knowlege.

[electronicfreak22]

When you say attach them in parallel,(I'm not very good with electronics)does that mean attach the (-) sign to the (-) sign on the other capacitor? Thanks

[sverige]

If you need high current, you would wire them in parallel, positive to positive.
If you need high voltage, you will need to wire them in series, positve to negative

[AlfonsVH]

That's correct!

[alvin9861]

I'm using an old paintball gun for kicking the round stock to the coil. I took out the guns barrel and made a new barrel with my coil on it . I use an auto ignition coil for my power source w/out caps. It does very well w/out the caps and can fire rapidly w/out constant charging.

[positr_n]

what do you use to power the ignition coil?

[jbussé]

+32 number that ought to be BELGIUM !! hallo mede bewoner van het regeringsloze land :D

[AlfonsVH]

Aangename kennismaking lotgenoot!

[diy_bloke]

Hoe lang nog, gewaardeerde zuiderburen?

[AlfonsVH]

Ik heb er geen idee meer van...

[diy_bloke]

Di Rupo ook niet meer :-)

[Electronics Man]

Do the capacitors have to have the same rating if I wire them in parallel? I have 2 80uf, and 4 160uf but they have different voltage ratings. Can I use all of them together?

[LeelaKrishna]

yes

[Articas]

do i have to leave the flash bulb in the camera circut

[LeelaKrishna]

no you have to take it out

[R.A.T.M]

how do i know wich way it fires

[firefletcher]

Aim it at your face and fire it. You'll soon find out.

[cherwa]

do you have to put the capacitors in order from biggest to smallest? or can they be the same size?

[penguin27388]

no, it dosn't matter in parralell the capaciter volts/uf are added together

[vbexpressrocker]

No, in parallel the capacitance of the capacitors are added, not the voltage.
In series, the capacitors voltages are added together, and the capacitance is taken away from each other.

[leven]

If you need to ask that, you should not try this.. the 300 volts cap would have no trouble killing you.. so read up a bit on basic electronics and you will now the answer, and how not to kill yourself.

[LeelaKrishna]

I tazed my self atleast 300 times with just one capacitor of 330v and hey i'm still here It just hurts like hell for about 2 mins

[badideasrus]

i care to disagree. 300 volts means crap if the amperage is super low.... like a flash camera's cap is. besides, volts don't kill, amps do.

[usb key]

A diagram would have been nice

[R.A.T.M]

pleas help if i have the coil coring the hole pen but 1 1/2 inch n the front