At this power, .3% is bad. When i get a better projectile, and not silicon steel, it should work much better. The silicon steel is saturating, and isn't attracted to magnetic fields all that well. Another projectile same size, but made of steel, and "cored" with epoxy works much better, and thats still saturating.
BTW, the silicon steel is from a 1" sprinkler valve (the solenoid). As for the switch, the spark isn't much, but i will see if i can pick it up. Also, im working on getting 6 puck SCR's.
Coilgun effeciancy can go quite high. ~10% was reached with a single stage, SCR switched, that used magnetic flux linkage. Couple this to a multistage design, and use a diagonall halfbridge to recover energy,
the effeciancy would go quite high. Coilgun's have been made (by the military) that exceeded 50% at low power's. The main limiting factor is your budget. I am operating almost soley on company sponsoring, so i hope to atleast reach 5%.
Chrono Spikes
Tried to find random stuff like nails and bolts yet?
Should work too.
Should work too.
Yes, after i keep losing my 2 steel projectiles (cored and uncored) and silicon steel in the insulation =p