'Tis the season for a Gauss Cannon

[dracodraconis]

Source: Engadget

Just what everyone needs, a Gauss pistol. The GP-219 uses a micro-controller to precisely control the pulse shape, allowing you to fire steel projectiles from a pistol. Granted, the pack of batteries and capacitors probably makes the thing weigh a ton, but the pistol is effective and silent. The future is being made today.

Comments

[wetdryvac.livejournal.com]

Cor, that's nicely compact, that.

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

I suspect it will show up in our role-playing game, now that we know such a beast exists. I also suspect that someone, somewhere, will have posted plans, and probably the PIC coding for the pulse synchronization (which is the challenging part IMO).

[wetdryvac.livejournal.com]

*grins*

As long as the material being fired is massive enough, a CDS or light interrupt circuit works. Pretty simple to build, and the switching for how long each coil stays active is pretty straightforward too. Typically, however, something like this has a meter or more in barrel length - and that only maybe punches through a #10 can on a good day.

I believe there are videos of the longer pipe models kicking about on youtube.

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've built delay timers in university. Can be done completely in analog with materials available at Radio Shack. The one I built controlled the stepping motion of a robot for a Robotics class. Same idea; carry a pulse along, each one triggering the next.

[ancalagon-tb.livejournal.com]

Interesting...

Obviously, this means that with a bit more research, "decent" gauss weaponry could be made for people. The question is however, could they eventually outperform current firearms? Apart from the fact that this is silent, how is it inherently better than a normal pistol?

Oh, and I just realized that this is Gauss tech, not a rail gun... I thought rail guns were further along?

[samhaine.livejournal.com]

Silent is a big plus for certain uses; add to that no powder residue and no rifling, and it might become very attractive to criminals. Especially if you can make it from circuitry, batteries, and tools available for legit uses, it could be a black market weapon of choice in certain places.

From a more legit perspective, munitions for an extended campaign and are hard to produce in the field. If all you need is crates of ball bearings and a power source, you might be better off in many engagements; particularly if the bullets don't deform much on impact so you can recover them, wash them off, and use them again.

The real question is how efficient the energy transfer is. I've heard, in general, that the chemical energy produced by gunpowder is way more efficient than electricity for purposes of fast kinetic propulsion. The value might disappear if the means of producing the power, and the capacity of the gun, are inferior to a similarly encumbering traditional munitions setup.

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

As far as efficiency goes, conventional systems have this beat. The strength is in, as you noted, silence and the wide variety of things that can be launched. Makes them a good, cheap, "shoot and discard"-type device. There is also the intimidaton factor, it being a big, nasty-looking gun. The only problem is the energy required means you only get a few shots given the energy density of today's batteries.

In this campaign, my character has the weaponsmith skill and it is set in the near future. It is plausible for him to make one if he saw the need. Future power sources would also increase the number of shots it can take to something approaching today's handguns.

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

What they are currently working on implementing can be found here: http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,Soldiertech_RailGuns,,00.html

Also, here is a comparison of Gauss guns to Rail guns from HowStuffWorks.

"A coil gun (or Gauss gun) is an electromagnetic launcher that offers a few advantages over rail guns. The "barrel" of a coil gun is a series of copper coils. These coils are energized sequentially, setting up a traveling magnetic field on the inside of the barrel. This magnetic field attracts a ferromagnetic projectile down the barrel. Since the projectile of a coilgun floats in the barrel and never touches the coils, it suffers less wear and tear, and these guns are completely quiet. Coil guns have been demonstrated to supersonic velocities, but they are not as efficient or as capable as railguns."

Railgun mechanics can be found here: http://science.howstuffworks.com/rail-gun1.htm

and Coil gun mechanics here: http://www.coilgun.eclipse.co.uk/coilgun_basics_1.html