amp be used to power a mass driver launcher?

[mrjoeyjiffy 10+ year member]

yeah this doesnt have much to do with car audio, well it kind of does. A buddy of mine and I were considering doing a fun project by creating a mass driver to launch cantelopes and such, the idea is basically the same as a speaker but instead of a cone there are rails for a magnet/platform to slide on, i made a quick crappy sketch up of this if you want to see what i mean.

http://infinityreinforcing.com/massdriverprototype.jpg

my question is though, to power the electro magnet i was thinking of using my subwoofer amplifier and just playing a 40 hz tone at a loud volume for just a second to give the electromagnet a burst of energy to push the other magnet away and launch whatever item i have on the platform.

In theory this sounds correct to me, but am i missing something here? will the sub amp work to give me a short burst of power?

p.s. i know the sketchup is rough it is just to give a general idea of what i plan to do.

Click to read more...

 

[mrjoeyjiffy 10+ year member]

cmon someone here has got to know enough about the internals of a subwoofer to know if this will work or not.

 

[standbackimapro 10+ year member]

i think it may work, its pretty much the same way the voice coil works, sliding up and down but i dono how much force itll create

 

[squeak12 10+ year member]

I'd try to use DC not AC. Its going to oscillate with AC, where DC will just push out and stay.

 

[williambrea 10+ year member]

yes your going to need DC power

 

[bonesninja 5,000+ posts]

9 volt battery

 

[SPLEclipse 10+ year member]

use whatever you planned to run the amp with to run the magnet. i seriously doubt this will work well though. you need some hardcore shit to get any force. and easier idea would be to have two magnets w/ oppisite poles facing each other, use a wench to tighten them together, and a release mechanism to release the wench. dangerous shit though. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[mrjoeyjiffy 10+ year member]

well im using a yellow top in the back of my tahoe to power the amp, you think that would provide a better burst of power?

 

[sexiewasd 10+ year member]

Try a capacitor array, dangerous **** though, be careful.

http://hackaday.com/2008/09/20/24kj-capacitor-bank/

 

[mrjoeyjiffy 10+ year member]

i had thought about a capacitor bank, but thats a little out of my price range.

 

[Gebrochen 10+ year member]

Not going to work. At best you'll just elevate the projectile above the magnetic field and wobble there. You need something like a rail gun with progressively switched magnetic fields to get any decent amount of acceleration.

A better powersource than your amplifier would be a wall plug with the AC going through a bridge rectifier to make it DC.

 

[mrjoeyjiffy 10+ year member]

so even with my rebuilt alt/second batt im not going to have enough juice to accomplish anything?

 

[Gebrochen 10+ year member]

Using a car amp to do this isn't the best choice. A 240V 20A socket will give you 4800W of DC using a rectifier like this. 2400WRMS on 120V.

http://cgi.ebay.com/DIODE-BRIDGE-RECTIFIER-model-KBPC5006-50A-600V_W0QQitemZ270296584741QQcmdZViewItemQQptZBI_Electronic_Components?hash=item270296584741&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318

Just make sure you never touch anything plugged in, because 120/240V DC is possibly lethal. Connecting the rectifier is as simple as wiring the AC to 2 pins and the coil to the other 2.

 

[schrummy 10+ year member]

i say to get this thing to move, use a cap bank, be carful and dont shock your self

personaly i would go with air pressure to do this but using magnets would be pretty cool to see.

 

[bass-aholic 10+ year member]

a car battery is your best bet. a capacitor bank big enough for what you want would just blow the coil apart. i doubt what your trying to do is gonna work. look into rail guns.