Arcflash Labs' EMG-01B Handheld Gauss Pistol
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.ค. 2024
- utreon.com/c/forgottenweapons/
/ forgottenweapons
Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! shop.forgottenweapons.com
The EMG-01B is a small portable rail gun made by Arcflash Labs. Introduced in 2017, it can throw magnetic dowel pins approximately 1/4" x 3/4" (6mm x 19mm) at about 150 fps (45m/s). It does this with a series of 8 capacitors and electromagnetic coils, and holds 18 projectiles in its magazines. Generating just under 5J of energy per shot, the EMG-01 is similar to a BB gun, and it was this lack of power that led to development of the GR-1 Anvil.
Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
6281 N. Oracle 36270
Tucson, AZ 85740
Full auto was substantially higher rate of fire than I expected.
Yeah, I was kind of expecting it to take as long to reach a full charge as the rifle version, which in retrospect I shouldn't have been. Fewer capacitors means they charge faster I guess.
@@israelhexen8851 th-cam.com/channels/x6mFsb0nwagLErSyldYMhA.html
yeah he really underplayed it
We have achieved FULLER AUTO
sorta reminded me of the Grease Gun cyclic rate, just chugging along
waiting for ian to review a “Phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.”
my thought too!
April 1 is almost here...
"Just what you see here, pal."
Probably start with 20 watt
I just want him to review da oozi nien milameda
"As a firearms expert I spent years studying mechanical engineering."
"Well now you need to study electrical engineering too."
"Bloody hell!!"
I love the fact that it simply exists and works. This could be nothing more than a quirky gadget or the ancestor of a whole new range of weapons. Who can say?
@@Tounushi Very well put. We will see how our technology advances in the future - the concept is promising, but our tech isn't quite where it's at to be ruggedized for proper combat. Hopefully, we never have to use them for that, but it's wishful thinking.
@@Tounushi actually multiple militaries the world over has been testing various types of electromagnetic guns for many years now.
(Edit) lol sorry for my hasty response I only read the first part of your comment!
Once it can super heat projectiles and launch em faster than bullets I think it's gonna be a scary thing
i dont see this technology just disappearing
@@aegyobot1923 I honestly believe a more traditional spring air powered rifle is the way of the future... All this electromagnetic stuff is super cool, but it's also incredibly resource heavy, and just plain heavy .. maybe if someone figured out how to make magnets out of plastic?
It makes sense for something like a ship mounted artillery where there's basically unlimited electric power available...
You know we all expect a backup gun match with this now, right?
th-cam.com/channels/x6mFsb0nwagLErSyldYMhA.html
would be tough to find an ankle holster for this one...
I don't think it has the power to knock down targets. It has half the muzzle velocity of a paintball gun. The more powerful, rifle-sized one was potentially underpowered even for a BUG match.
@@Nerdnumberone the MASSEVELY heavier projectile might disagree with you
I think he tried that already.
I love these gauss weapons, will be great to look back on these in even ten years, let alone twenty and see what technology brings
For $1200 it's a piece of history.
Like buying an old M1895 Colt-Browning potato digger back in 1900.
@@maxkronader5225 This thing would be more like going back to the first Chinese peasant to stuff black powder into some bamboo with a rock and light it on fire. When the Browning of electromagnetism shows up, you’ll know it.
I couldn't find any specific data for capacitors, but Li-ion batteries energy density (actually specific energy) double about every 10 years. If we assume that capacitors double at the same rate and that translates to muzzle energy, then it'll take about 43 years for the 100J of the GR-1 to match an AK-47 at 2000J.
But it'll still be as heavy as the GR-1, so add a few years to match the Ak-47 in weight.
If anyone knows how fast capacitor technology actually improves, let me know and I will adjust the estimate.
@@Matt-xc6sp true lol
@@Embassy_of_Jupiter it's probably going to be faster, a lot of nations are actually looking into electromagnetic weaponry, as well as major companies trying to overcome the shortcomings of current battery tech. I'd say no more than 20 years and we'll have it.
Getting closer to being able to down some Supermutants at long range.
That magazine spring is also called a constant force spring. It requires a constant amount of force to uncoil it, and will provide a constant amount of force to coil it back up.
As opposed to a standard coil spring that requires ever increasing amounts of force to compress it, and provides less and less force as it decompresses.
Interesting....I didn't know that, true we live and learn.
yeah, a lot of 3d printed nerf magazines use that type of spring in them. as well as the official drum mags. the cool thing about how these springs are used is that one type of spring may be used for any length of magazine up to the spring's full length. extensions to an existing magazine are also really easy since the spring is kept up top.
I know a few quadstack mags that need these...
Don't Sterling mags use that type of spring?
@@themagitechie9955 in a nerf gun, having a magazine spring deform the darts could be a problem. The darts themselves weigh almost nothing. In a real gun, the ever increasing weight of a stack of rounds in the magazine would eventually overcome the springs ability to lift them.
Soon we'll have Ian reviewing lasguns, melta weapons and plasma rifles.
FOR THE EMPRAH
And HE SHALL KNOW NO FEAR doing it!
FOR THE EMPEROR
Tech Priests uncovering this ancient STC in 40 000 years will be very happy
@@mariosebastiani3214 Except for those that come from the Foundries of Elbonia. Even (if not especially) the Cult Mechanicus is wary of anything coming out of that place.
I'd love a p90-style coilgun that shoots ball bearings.... Cheap accurate ammo, long barrel, high capacity and lots of space for batteries and capacitors.
Good luck with that
you could have long barrel in any form factor with a coil gun.
I dunno if it would have lots of space for batteries and capacitors to make it more than indoor target practice gun though.
@@SonsOfLorgar loading a spring or shooting an ejector device or something like that would make more sense for ball bearings probably.
would make for a rifle still I guess too? like a crossbow thats just electrically loaded. or loaded with a motor then giving extra boost on the way out?
E-Gun
P90 style coilgun? Try looking into the E-shotgun. It fires metal discs instead of bearings.
I think it's so cool that the tech has advanced enough for you to make a mostly serious examination of it.
th-cam.com/channels/x6mFsb0nwagLErSyldYMhA.html
Hey Ian, I wanna say thank you, you made My day today! I was the guy digging through Serbian helmets at priority one surplus, and I definitely didn’t expect that. Thanks again, I wish id of had more time but that was still awesome!
In all my years of playing Mech Warrior, Cyberpunk, etc. I never thought I would actually see someone do a review of a commercially available "gauss" weapon in my lifetime.
th-cam.com/channels/x6mFsb0nwagLErSyldYMhA.html
My Accelerators are better in terms of speed and efficiencyth-cam.com/channels/x6mFsb0nwagLErSyldYMhA.html
It's not gauss, it's a coil gun, and they're 200~ years old! They weren't commercially available simply because no one really wanted them, being expensive, rather weak, and very dangerous for the user in case of failure (which means breakage, or simply getting wet!)
I feel like there should maybe be a physical interlock to prevent connecting the battery while the switch is set to "on".
I had a 22LR magazine that used the same coil mechanism in it. Was very easy to load and worked flawlessly as the pressure it presented stayed the same throughout its travel. So each cartridge I put in it felt the same even when I put the last round in it. It fed without any problems whatsoever and never failed to function properly. It held 25 rounds too :)
Commented this same thing in another video, but I really wonder how combat using railguns / coil guns will sound and feel like in the semi far/far future.
There's barely any sound to the mass driver itself, except maybe the capacitors charging if coil guns are used. How they'll sound decades or centuries from from today is just pure guessing.
But since there's no muzzle report from gunpowder, I'd assume it's just supersonic cracks of the metal slugs flying over your head at insane fire rates and injured people shouting & screaming, with the odd explosions here and there. And drones buzzing. And sounds of some technology we don't yet have/use/know of.
Maybe some kind of electric discharge sound from the railguns, like an arc welding flash and boom from the projectile friction and welding?
I literally just watched your deleted save horror video and then clicked on to this video, crazy to see you here
Best guess, probably the sounds of sparks coming off of a stun gun, which could probably be suppressed even further with sound proofing materials.
I'd wager that in the next decade or so, these gauss weapons will be completely silent in operation.
i'm thinking XCOM-like pew pew pew noises, but hey, reality...
EM sensor arrays will be very useful to detect these electric guns in the future. Maybe future squads will have dedicated sensor soldiers?
once theyre faster theyre probably just gonna sound like a snap in the air
Today, they are in Nerf territory. But when you see how quickly computers, drones, tablets, etc developped once the market and the usage were identified, you could foresee full power coil guns within 5-10 years. That's the key question really: what would be the overwhelming advantage of this tech over air or powder ? What would be the usage for which they would be vastly superior? Very curious to see where this is heading.
The journey to fallout style gauss rifles will be long while this gun is a step in the right direction
They seem quieter compared to air or powder. May have less recoil too. Those seem like a couple of good advantages right there.
Space weaponry
I'm expecting very low ammo prices since the bullets are literally just metal
I wonder if you wouldn't see significant performance improvements by combining caseless ammunition with the electromagnetic accellerator principle. A small and easily contained propellant charge for the initial accelleration and then followed by accellerating it to it's full potential with electromagnetism. That's definitely a way to bridging the gap to a future where room temperature super-conductors is commonplace.
This looks like somethings traight out of 40k, just slap some skulls and an Opus Mechanicum and you can start equipping your Skitarii legions.
Really does
Or it is just a T'au Handgun....for their mechs. Or it could be used my Space Marines.
The omnissiah approves
Looks like a volkite gun of the horus heresy.
All it needs is a Purity seal on the body.
If plugging in the battery with the switch to "on" would be catastrophic, why not put an interlock wired to those two pip-pins that hold on the battery cover? Probably throw in a latching relay that opens if the battery cover is removed making it necessary to switch it on after the cover is replaced.
The electric safety on this thing is attrocious, in addition to the obvious problem with the switch you mentioned, there's also the non-insulated crips that hold the fuse.
And lastly, the battery connector is recessed, meaning you can't get a grip on the battery plug and thus have to pull on the cable disconnect the battery by, which is an absolute no-go on these kind of high capacity/amperage LiPo batteries.
The XT60 connector used has a rather tight fit, and if the soldering isn't perfect you could pull the cables out of the plug ending up with unisolated cables touching each other. And believe me, shorting those batteries is a very, very bad idea, as they hold quite some voltage even when "empty" (at least 20V with the battery used in this video.
I have a good deal of experience with those batts and high power circuitry from building race quadcopters, and wouldn't touch this dangerous toy with a ten foot pole.
Wow, next you'll be wanting a proper case for all the off the shelf electronics to go in. Not some crude 3d printed abortion.
This thing is a crude, poorly designed mess. There are better ones being made in people's houses on TH-cam.
@@macsmith2013 Also the exposed caps, the metal on the top of the caps which is negative, which is at the bottom of the gun is being gripped. All you have to do is touch both the bottom of the cap and find a positive and you'll get zapped...which will cause your hand to squeeze while it could be on the trigger.
Also it looks like there's an exposed MOV on the left side..which is pretty close to your face if you were to put that up to aim down sights. That MOV is there in case there is a dangerous spike in voltage, when that happens the MOV physically blows up. That's what they put in surge protectors. Fuse is for current, MOV is for voltage.
I'm sure if we spent more time we'd find much more. That is not a bad proof of concept or early prototype but that should NOT be in Customer's hands. It's a lawsuit waiting to happen.
@@macsmith2013 : So, XT60 connectors aren't crimped I suppose? That is bad design.
"we fired the whole bullet. That's 65% more bullet per bullet" -Gun Jesus
The wiring of the coils is thicker than I expected, but it makes sense after considering just how much current you're trying to push through it. By a similar token, there doesn't appear to be a lot of windings. I work with generators, so I'm used to seeing huge masses of copper wire coiled up in blocks. But this is a very low energy gun, so the field windings don't have to be so great in number.
I wonder how effective drilling air "channels" in the projectiles would be at stabilizing them. For a coilgun, you don't want engraved rifling. Friction makes the gun have to work harder and lose energy. There's also no chamber pressure, because the propulsive force is front loaded, so there's no point in having an obturating projectile. The only other ways to potentially stabilize it are to magnetically impart spin, or to rely on drag force once it leaves the barrel. The latter is the ideal choice, because it's less complex to implement and doesn't require an additional system.
For future models, it would be interesting if the frame around the barrel could incorporate the Lewis Gun's forced air cooling design to control the temperature.
There's no muzzle blast for Lewis cooling. Since it's already electric, you could add a fan trivially.
The number of turns is low in the coil because the input voltage is low. More turns equals more resistance which means you need higher voltage to drive the same amount of power.
On Ian's last video, he was talking about how the muzzle device uses forced cooling even without firing the gun once the temperature gets high enough. I believe he said it happens when the device is over 400 Fahrenheit.
For stabalizing the projectile its not that hard to build 3phase current asynchon motor around the "chamber" with the projectile being the rotor and getting spun up befor the shot. Imo from a technology perspective, these commercial available coil guns are very primitive and disappointing.
Using round ball ammo... do it like they do for golf balls. Dimples. Not sure how it would work for conical projectiles.
It's like looking at a prop for a Fallout movie, it's so cool that something like this exists, even at a primitive stage.
I mean there is a series coming out April 2024. There's also hope for this sort of technology to advance in 5 or less years
When I was 12 I made a gun out of lego technic, that fired a flat cog projectile, propelled by a geared up round cog, through a smooth square bore. It even had the motor button in the trigger position, and cable management. This reminded me of that. My gun didn't have a magazine though, I had to load it manually every time, and it took a while.
It's so clunky, rudimentary and awesome! Wires and coils sticking out like off the shelf hardware store parts assembled by an engineer in their garage. Wish I had a time machine to see what this will evolve into in 100 years.
In addendum it needs fin stabilized discarding sabot rounds.
The thing I most like about all this is how Ian get so excited with this toy the same way he gets excited about really old stuff.
As an electronic tech, I find it concerning that the capacitors are exposed as a hand rail.
Capacitors can explode violently.
It's a prototype, that's why components are exposed
Engineering degree 😉
An actual lethal version of this would look radically different 😂
If they explode... would a hand guard even help you in that case? I feel like either way you're going to suffer a pretty serious injury.
@@PrinceSilvermane Depends. I wouldn't use something brittle like printed plastic and shape it in a way to stear the force away from the user without rupturing the cover. Rather easily done, but it wouldn't "look so cool", which is clearly the priority for the hacks who threw this together.
@@philcooper9225 CAlling this a prototype is like calling the release version of Cyberpunk2077 a beta.
true for the level of quality, but it's the commercial product they're charging money for.
Well in worst case scenario it will only spew out super hot electrolyte directly into your hand.
I'd like to see a cannon sized one, firing 2" rods, and when you charge it, the streetlights in your neighborhood dim...
The same thing happens when I turn on my amplifier.
@@AtheistOrphan Back in the 90s, I had a 7 bay hard drive tower that sounded like a 747 when you started it up...lol. Each drive had 9 platters and weighed about 15 pounds each...
Ian forgot to mention - the *reason* for the coil spring magazine is to provide equal spring tension, regardless of the number of rounds loaded.
Honestly, I think it is a superior design than the coil springs found in most modern magazines.
An instructor here collects news articles of people killed by BB’s and pellets. It is a good reminder for the kids and especially the firearms “experts” that disregard safety because “its just a bb gun.”
The amount of people who think airguns or even .22s are a toy is freaking scary.
Weird, we used to shoot each other with bb guns frequently...
I had to laugh when I saw the battery, its the exact same type I would've plugged into one of my old RC planes, definitely shows how early in development these are. I expect someday in the future we could see magazines with built in batteries so you can top off your ammo and charge at the same time, along with a mag release that doubles as a discharge button to simplify operation.
Or at least batteries with a hard solid plug, meaning you don't need to fiddle with a wire, but just SLAM that battery pack in.
I handle this kind of batteries in my hobby (racing drones) as well and found it a particulary bad design to have a recessed connector forcing you to unplug the batt by pulling on the cables! WTF were they thinking? Handling this thing seems more dangerous than getting shot with it.
Loving the HobbyKing XT60 plug haha.
IMHO a COTS battery pack is a great setup for these period. The only addition to it is to put it in a case that can be swapped faster. But not charging the customer for proprietary batteries. These hobby battery packs are fantastic for power delivery and ability to replace it. Just an XT90 connector inside a case with hard mounted pins would be the best case.
While theoreticaly possible to have a 'combined mag' so to speak, it has to many drawbacks to be practical. Though a battery with a proper qucikvhange connector will likely be there in the future. A few drawbacks of combining them:
1) both batteries and magazines are quite heavy and make a significant chunck of the total weight of the loaded 'gun'. Splitting them up allows for much more even weight distribution. While you could have all the weight in one chunck, your benefits are small and you likely loose to much in balancing the weapon.
2) Batteries emit a suprising amount of heat when charging or dicharging quickly (which gauss weapon batteries will obviously aim to do). You'll want some kind kf heat dispersing shroud or similar on it in thr future, which is easier to do when nkt combining it with a mag that doesn't require coling at all.
3) Any modern battery of noticebale capacity is made from adding multiple indivdual battery cells. An easy way to get more power bandwith for a battery is to use more cells, as your power bandwith scales roughly linear with the cell amount.
In turn that also means to an extend you will end up with a fairly high capacity battery for a minimum usefull power bandwith for a gauss weapon. Your magazine capacity is likely to be much lower than your battery capacity for a realod of each, so combining them runs into obvious problems there
Jorg Sprave's work on repeating, clip-fed crossbows could be applicable here. Put tiny, plastic fins on the bolts and spiral-cut the guide tube (barrel) and see what happens.
Shouldn't change the cost of manufacturing the weapon that much, but the cost for the bolts will increase substantially.
Thankfully, the weapon would be able to fire either, but I think you'd need unique mags
This gun and the GR-1 will be prized exhibits in a firearms museum someday.
I love how straight out of the 80s it looks. Makes the child in me very happy. Yes I'm old, lol.
Child of the 80’s, old, 🤣😂🤣
@@charlesmckinley29th-cam.com/channels/x6mFsb0nwagLErSyldYMhA.html
@@charlesmckinley29 42 years ago is old man
@@charlesmckinley29 I know I know, my dad laughs at the idea of me being old too, but then my 13 year old kid makes hella fun of me for being old, so there you go.
@@jamesallred460 your dad vs. 13 y.o. 🤣😂🤣
Tell them to move out and save the world while they still know everything. You will get a lot smarter in a few years.
Coilgun R&D still has a ways to go in matching the power and efficiency of conventional ballistics, but it's still a cool concept. Just the realization that electromagnetic firearms, which were a sci-fi dream in the 90s and 00s, are actually real and available on the market today...it's a testament to the times we live in and a sign of things to come.
Wow that was actually a pretty decent rate of fire, given that it's having to charge all those capacitors each time. And the battery depletion was fairly reasonable too. Impressive!
This looks so much like a Warhammer 40k gun
th-cam.com/channels/x6mFsb0nwagLErSyldYMhA.html
nah, AT-43 would be closer aesthetics-wise.
@@abnerdoon4902 the what now?
@@aegis6185 Just search AT-43 UNA, if you see a bunch of space UN peacekeepers, then you got the right one.
That magazine spring is a constant-force spring. Only the coiled part can exert force on the follower so its force doesn't change much as it is wound/unwound. They're used on motor brushes a lot, so that you don't have to choose between over-stiff force on new brushes or over-weak force on old ones.
I look forward to seeing how it improves over time. Ideally starting with a way to make the battery cover impossible to remove while it's on, since messing with it in that way is so catastrophic!
I love that Ian is super passionate about firearms history, yet will still look at cool stuff like this. Granted, who knows. This could be they next development decades from now.
I just wanted to say that magazine spring design is actually really smart because that is a constant force spring in there, meaning you shouldn't have to deal with issues of the last few rounds being a pain to load in or anything like that
I wonder if a bulpup design would be better for this type of weapon considering the long barrel length on this “pistol”. Would look awesome too as a bonus
Make the LH rod on the battery pack longer; long enought to prod the switch into the 'discharge' position before the battery connects. Interlocked safety.
Good idea!
And that's just one of at least 4-5 serious security risks in this thing that could easily be solved if the priority was something else than "look cool".
Witnessing the next step in firearms. It's a big technological leap, and it's great to see Ian be excited about it.
15 years ago these had to be plugged in for an hour to get a few shots. The fact that you can full auto a 16 round magazine is a pretty impressive improvement. Keep in mind, it took centuries for guns to go from metal poles and huge cannons that fired stones into something even resembling what we could consider a firearm. This will remain a "toy" for probably that long, but graphine capacitors could eliminate the need for a battery and dramatically increase velocity.
I’m just waiting for him review a bolter at this rate.
he's probably reviewed a gyrojet carbine.
@@badideagenerator2315 th-cam.com/video/W3IiWjdbUZg/w-d-xo.html
Stuff like this can be seriously enhanced through reducing the resistance in the coils, and possibly getting the electrical energy running solely through them instead of reliance on capacitors, saving them for use in enhancing the rate of fire. Cryocooling and superconductor technology would be the way to go in that case, particularly materials that can be brought below curie point via liquid nitrogen or air. I could even think of a way for copper coils to be used instead for emulating ‘rifling’ using a long helical coil that acts like a three phase motor.
A lot of the higher temp superconductors that can be made into coils are super brittle, which would present issues if it was going to be treated like any other weapon. That's by no means impossible to overcome, but it's absolutely impossible to overcome at low volume. You'd also have to think about the cooling, which would have to be pretty substantial if it isn't just a total loss LN2 system. That would be possible, but you'd also have to regularly re-up with LN2. You're probably going to see superconductors used in a machine gun role long before it's feasible to use in service rifles should militaries go down that route.
I think the biggest short term improvement to be made is moving to induction projectiles, which could look a lot like a shotgun shell with a wadding with copper wound around it. That gets you a big improvement on efficiency right off the bat. It's also worth considering that the force imparted on the projectile is proportional to the current through the projectile times the magnetic flux the projectile can support, while the losses are proportional to the current. Almost all coil guns firing ferromagnetic projectiles are saturating them, so you only benefit from increases in the current in the coil, but if you used induction projectiles, you could increase both parts of the force equation by adding more current. There are also copper losses in the projectile, but those are small compared to the actual stator coils because they can have both low resistance and impedance while still generating excellent flux.
I'm also curious if there's a way to pot large numbers of super capacitors into a single unit as they tend to have very low max voltages. They would have way too low energy density to be used as a battery and they'd have too much internal resistance to replace the normal capacitors, but they could be used to create a buffer to allow high volumes of fire for short periods at usable muzzle energies.
"Phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range."
‘Only what you see pal’
That magazine spring is called a clock spring. I have an old Ramline SIG P226 magazine that uses one. It holds 1 or 2 more rounds than standard because there's no space needed beneath the follower.
I absolutely love that Im not the only one who gets giddy about seeing this kind of stuff! Fing awesome!
I like that the tech is making its first little steps, it's great that you're helping to document the beginnings. Honestly, I think it'll be a decade at least before significant power and accuracy comes about, but that's to be expected with what is essentially a new field. As ammo prices continue to skyrocket and regulations become more annoying, I can see a number of neat new technologies coming about, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes. Got a pet project of that nature myself, though my lack of spare time isn't helping me do much about it.
This looks a lot more fun to shoot than the bigger anvil model
I love how excited and genuinely happy you get firing and reviewing odd and obscure weapons.
I hope you are having a great year!
Ian, would you consider doing a video going over the fundamental differences between a "typical" rail gun vs a Gauss weapon?
_RAIL EROSION_ vs inductance being a nuisance.
Coils are great at increasing the velocity of a projectile. Not so great at starting the projectile.
So i wonder what an air/coilgun hybrid rifle could do. Just add one of those CO2 cartridges into the magazine and use it as the initial starter of your projectiles.
And in the longer future, this could either be laughed at because it never went anywhere or because we have 1 trillion ft-lbs coilguns. But either way, this is an important first step.
coilcrossbow lol
If you are adding co2, then you are already killing the concept. You already have fully electric bb/pellet/airsoft guns that use a geared motor to compress a piston, and achieve high velocity. These Gauss guns are more of a "proof of concept".
The solenoid is there to start the projectile
A faster poke from the solenoid would help a lot. You can probably do it with an electrically driven cam shaft synchronized with the capacitors. With a kinda long stroke on the cam shaft and it’ll give the dowels a good push to zip along to the coils
The projectile could be accelerated in a cyclotron before launching it through linear barrel.
I could see the Hs510 with the dot disabled being perfect for this.
That or other circle dot clones.
Big 65moa circle is what I run on shotguns.
3am here in Australia, on the couch trying to get my newborn to settle, Ian's soothing voice and accurate descriptions serving as a lullaby.
Thank you Ian!
nice semi toys, with some protective gear and foam on the "ammo" it could be a cool futuristic AS/paintball variant, maybe with a built in hit detector in the protective gear, making the sensitive areas non hit targets, so even reduce the reason to shoot for them. like lasertags, but with actual working "weapons"
th-cam.com/channels/x6mFsb0nwagLErSyldYMhA.html
I would not want to have such a large capacitors against my hands when shooting with no insulation in between. They have zero cover apart from their own casing and are susceptible to get damaged and thus be very dangerous.
"Take care, do not modify without training. This can kill you and it will hurt the entire time you are dying "
What are you scared of? 24V?
@@ZozoleonLego The capacitors get charged to a few hundred volts. But this still isn't a big safety risk.
EDIT: It's just ~24V 😅
@@-Tris- probably not when fully intact, but as I said there's nothing to cover them from damage. Capacitors' own casing is not supposed to be particularly hit or scratch resistant and will get damaged easily. It doesn't need to be a big leak in the insulation for the high voltages to jump through.
@@-Tris- There's a reason you don't mess with the PSU in a computer. A few hundred volts can be lethal if it passes through the wrong part of your body, and _incredibly_ painful even if it doesn't. A jolt from those capacitors at full charge could burn out the nerves in your hand and leave you with permanent scarring, assuming it doesn't find the path of least resistance to be through you into the ground.
What's worse though is that if one of those capacitors goes bad or gets damaged, it could actually explode.
The gun is surprisingly energy efficient for a gauss design. I'm impressed
Just FYI - they won't be able to introduce projectile spin with any iteration. These weapons work by maintaining a slight clearance between the projectile and launching bore. The magnets more or less self-center the projectile in the barrel. Any stabilization will have to be accomplished with the projectile weight/shape/velocity alone (the exception being a Flechette with angled fins?).
Looks like a prototype to me. The internals are open to inspection and sensors, and the parts are easily replaced, assembled from mostly from off-the-shelves components. It's a very well designed prototype. Archflash Labs isn't trying to show us what they could do, they are showing us what kind of people they have working on it. Everyone claims research and development is a top priority but their products shows it's the only priority.
At least they are no upscaling prototypes and throwing them into production (early Nuclear Reactors, I'm looking at you), and this does serve as a entry-level product for those wanting to familiarize themselves with the technology. As the product matures, we'll see more marketing options.
I think it's a smart approach to their marketting though. It's not sold as a replacement for more traditional firearms at this point, it's more of a funtional novelty.
My guess is when buying one of these, the computer programming to make it all work is more of what you're paying for than the mechanical components. Buying into the bleeding edge of technology is never cheap nor entirely refined. Think about early automobiles from the late 1800's. Little more than a small horse carriage with a crudely added engine and rudimentary steering - all for far more cost than a horse and buggy of the time.
I disagree on the "well designed" part. Regarding electric safety, this thing is a dangerous mightmare. The battery used in this video holds 25.2 Volts when charged (and still about 20 when discharged) and can easily deliver 100 amps, and you have to disconnect it by pulling on the cables instead of the connector, risking ripping the cables out and shorting them. And that's just one of 3-4 absolute no-gos I noticed at first glance.
I don't care if those hacks set themselves on fire with the sci-fi crap they slap together, but putting those in the hands of someone else to play with and risk their health is irresponsible.
@@macsmith2013 this. A lot of people on here calling this a prototype. You don't sell prototypes to the general public. It's a legal case waiting to happen.
I bet we could interest Elbonia in this: Tell them it is a 22nd century weapon
@#ForgottenWeapons this is such an awesome and informative channel. I’ve been watching for quite sometime, and always lookin’ forward to what you’ll bring out next! Great job to everyone involved to make this happen. 🤙🏼👌🏼 Companies will eventually perfect these handheld Gauss rifles, coilguns, railguns, etc…. when that happens, I’ll be checking here for the full breakdown. Hopefully sooner rather than later. 😅
Now you have two videos on the playlist, technically justifying its existence.
I would be really curious to see if this kind of system could be hybridized with conventional firearms to get an extremely high velocity projectile as compared to just loading a cartridge hotter than usual
🤔
Aren't most firearm projectiles non-ferrous?
Like the multibarrel Metal storm weapons that were the hot new thing years ago?
@@keegany4r176 yes. Though through lagering various metals I am sure it is possible
I could see these guns hybridized with pcp air rifles. It would be pretty cool.
I love the mag design. Someone should start making collapsable mags for fun. I hope they've patented it!
th-cam.com/channels/x6mFsb0nwagLErSyldYMhA.html
The coiled flat spring in the magazine is called a linear spring & its most common use is in tape measures
Great show as always
If you cut grooves in the back of the projectile and round the front to to compensate for weight you can make a mini dart style shape and add spin with the fin profile. Basically a tristed Phillips screw tip flying backwards
"You'll shoot your eye out, kid.” *A Christmas Story:2077*
Didn't parents said that to a boy when he ask for a .22 rifle?
@@1968gadgetyo Air-rifle with the built in sun-dial, if i'm recaling that right
I wonder. Could you mount the capacitors on the sides (effectively doubling the number you could feasibly put on the weapon), and create specially machined projectiles with fins to impart spin to the projectile? Could have the battery fit in the handguard like it does with the stock, would allow for a larger battery, have all the electronics up front.
Might require some trial and error and fancy engineering design to actually build it, but there is no physical reason why you can't stick the capacitors basicaly anywhere and everywhere on the gun.
As for adding fins, it is possible but you tend to want a slim diameter for a coilgun for a couple reasosn as far as I know. Although technically there is no hard reason why you couldn't go the classic gun route and add rifling to your projectile and the barrel to get a similar effect.
Two major improvements I can think of: first off, use fin-stabilized projectiles. Spin-stabilizing probably isn’t the best thing with these, as it presents wear and friction issues that you don’t really need to deal with, but there’s no real reason not to modify the shape of the projectile that I can think of.
Second is to have a fairly small battery in the gun that just is there to run the computer, and put the main battery in the magazine. The battery would likely need to be much smaller, but it also only need to handle 40 shots or so to be useful.
What every Gauss Gun lack is "Spiral Barrel". The spiral inner barrel gives the bullet powerful spinning inerta power. That spinning effect will gives strong friction needed to pierce the object easily.
So hypothetically, how would you design gauss weapons for polar climates? On the one hand all that water would wreak havoc on your electronics, on the other the main hurdle for these seems to be heat and battery capacity, and nature might be kind enough to solve the heat issues.
Batteries would be messed up from the cold though. Would probably need some passive heating system.
... or an active heating system. A well-insulated, heated battery compartment wouldn't consume _too_ much energy.
But battery capacity is negatively affected by a lower temp...
th-cam.com/channels/x6mFsb0nwagLErSyldYMhA.html
@@AdamantLightLP th-cam.com/channels/x6mFsb0nwagLErSyldYMhA.html
I wonder if spherical projectiles would help accuracy. Seems like without the gyroscopic spin the projectiles are tumbling around too much
No idea if they'd be more accurate, but spherical is bad for coil acceleration. You want a certain minimum length of your projectile for that.
Though if we ever get to actuall physicall propellant based gun levels of power, there is no hard reason why they couldn't just add rifling to provide the gyro stabilisation.
@@reappermen - gotcha, but seems like the rifling would create drag against the bore which it seems they’re trying to avoid. Maybe a hollow projectile with some kind of propellor/ turbine blades in the hollowed out side could create some spin?? Will be interesting to see what solutions come up
@@o8o8das yeah, the drag is the indeed the reason there's no rifling. But fjture, more powerfull version could probably deal with that.
Fins are an option to get stability after leaving the barrel, but they take up extra space, which might also cause problema, especialy in the magazine.
Another option might be to have a coil in the 'chamber' of the gun that has different magnetic fields to give the projectile itself a more or less strong gyroscopic spinright from the start. After all, they got the know how to deal with coils, and it would fit in the same knowledge bracket for field repairs and maintenance. Only question is how much of the spin survives the acceleration, but I suspect that's just a question of tuning.
The way you went seemlessly from 'This is a deadly weapon, treat it with respect' to gleeful kid in a candy store reminds me of how I am with swords :D
Great content! Glad someone is willing to make something such as this!
They need to design two electrodes at the muzzle and a switch to redirect the current to the electrodes if someone is getting too close. Basically, these electro magnetic guns have the potential to always have built in bayonets.
Maybe you can mount a Taser X26 into where the bayonet would be attached?
@@wookieblaster Better yet. A Zip .22 so that Zip .22 Operators can take the fight to the future!
Unless you're going to fry them to death on one full battery, that's not how being electrocuted works... stun guns are junk, and only have an effect during the connection you won't be able to maintain and don't discharge enough power to do anything worthwhile. A good way to give someone a tiny shock right before you get stabbed though.
@@TheBigQQ69420 But that's exactly what I wanted it to work, to give them a burn. If you discharge all the power in one go it's less like a taser and more like an arc welder.
We are seeing the next innovation in firearms technology. I'd say revolution, but only time will tell if gauss weapons are just a fancy toy or a genuine game changer like the self-contained cartridge.
th-cam.com/channels/x6mFsb0nwagLErSyldYMhA.html
They are a genuine game changer. Gauss weapons don't have any velocity or fire rate limits except how quickly you can get the coils to cycle, however gunpowder can't get a projectile going much faster than 1500m/s and need the spent case to be ejected before the next can be loaded. Gauss weapons and ammo also have the potential to be lighter than firearms in the same role. We just need to make the supercapacitors smaller and finish optimizing the coils.
The US Navy is even prototyping new deck guns using mass accelerators like this one. Those larger guns are currently more practical, since the power can be provided directly at the required voltage by the reactor/turbine without needing to be scaled into supercapacitors from a Li-Po battery.
@@GremlinSciences I agree and disagree at the same time. Everything you said is true, but it's more about the fact that these things are *possible,* they have yet to be seen in large scale practical use. Only time will tell if they live up to what they can be
There is no innovation in these except better marketing. Nothing that wasn't possible 20 years ago. We would need far better high voltage capacitors if you want to see any true advancement of the technology.
We are waiting on materials science to deliver electric power density on the order of gunpowder, as well as magnetic coils that are strong without being heavy.
Plus some way to stabilize the projectiles, but I'd argue that is a solved problem.
Add low the giggle switch worked and made Gun Jesus giggle with mirth as he declared it" thats just really cool. But he cautioned his follower "You will put your eye with it."
Thanks for the demonstration Ian, I'm sure it will be come a powerful wepons in the future.
Would love to see magnetic weapons go farther and become anti-armor weapons.
No recoil, no smoke trail of any kind, perfect for ambushing BTRs and BMPs, or ambushing in general.
Hmm, a modern version of the WW2 PIAT.
A longer ranged version with a delayed-fused rocket? (Still to much smoke trail?)
th-cam.com/channels/x6mFsb0nwagLErSyldYMhA.html
They have recoil. If you want to get rid of it, you would need to shoot out the same amount of energy to the opposite side like real recoilless rifles do.
Isn't it already my magnetically charged munitions isn't there like a weapon that is like High velocity built by the military uses magnetically charged rounds still in the prototype phase.
@@mikecampos1193 Im not sure what you mean by magnetically charged, the military investigated rail guns tho. Those can be very powerful, what prevents them being fielded atm is those rails burn out and only allow for a few shots befor needing to be replaced.
“Handheld” appears to be a bit subjective lol
How? It's held in the hands.
Handheld with two hands
Gonna have to have Kentucky Ballistic wrists to one hand that thing.
Holy shit. I lived long enough to see a coil gun hit the market! Neat how quiet
As always, your vids always make my mornings a bit better.
I wonder if you wouldn't see significant performance improvements by combining caseless ammunition with the electromagnetic accellerator principle. A small and easily contained propellant charge for the initial accelleration and then followed by accellerating it to it's full potential with electromagnetism.
Imagine a G11, but even more complicated.
Probably not. The reason for the current low speed of the projectiles is due to how much power the capacitors can hold (and therefore impart on the projectile) and any charge high enough to speed the projectile up (rather than slowing it down) from the speed the propellant charge imparts would work just as well without the propellant charge, especially since the benefit of a coil gun is that you don't need to deal with a chemical propellant and the mess that leaves behind in the internals.
These coil guns use optical gates for precise timing and a chemical propellant would relatively quickly foul those and render the gun inoperable.
@@RvEijndhoven Well, it just makes sense from a physics point of view. It takes exactly 4 times less energy to accelarate a certain mass to a certain velocity if the mass is already moving at half the target velocity compared to starting from a stand-still.
To your 2nd point on using optical sensors, well, that's just a problem with this first generation setup. There's several ways you can directly detect or infer the derivative location of a moving magnetic mass. In all honesty optical sesnors seems like a neanderthal solution but it's simple to do with what you have access to as a small company doing low volume experiemental builds.
@@SaturnusDK Yeah, but the amount of energy a propellant charge would impart on the dowel before it hits the field of the first coil is less than the energy imparted by the current solenoid.
Because the energy imparted by gas pressure from a chemical propellant builds up gradually (too). That's why lengthening the barrel of a rifle tends to increase accuracy, by increasing the time the space between the breach end and the bullet is pressurized and therefore how long the propellant can impart energy on the bullet and thus increase its muzzle velocity and the flatness of its trajectory.
As for the optical gates being the 'neanderthal' solution: They're really not.
The neanderthal solution would be two simple wires in the barrel that trigger the linked capacitor when the bullet completes the circuit. Which they didn't use because a. the constant electromagnetic discharges, but also b. because repeated firing would bend, break or wear down those wires much faster than the optical gates they currently use, which are actually a very elegant solution.
@@RvEijndhoven The correct way of sensing the projectile location is to monitor the discharge of the capacitor each coil is connected to. Log their bahaviour in different ambient conditions. As a magnetic mass moves through a coil it will impart a signature on the discharge curve of the capacitor then you only need to know the length of the projectile to know its approximate location at all times. You can then pin point the exact location by measuring the magnetic flux induced pilot waves on the adjacent coils.
Wow! Carl Friedrich Gauß would be proud. 😎👍
I am always impressed with how well spoken Ian is and his incredibly accurate vocabulary.
The sound of this on full auto is pleasing to the soul. Thanks Ian!
Magnetic projectiles. Should be fairly easy for a magnetic field to deflect them from the target. Shield technology needs to be developed in tandem with the guns 😀
This technology is doomed by the simple fact that it's too dangerous and delicate to put in the hands of your average knucklehead. Even if/when they manage to get the rate of fire, power, and accuracy up to firearm levels, it's not going to catch on if you need an electrical engineering degree in order to take it apart to service it without frying it and/or yourself.
That's because it's a new thing, I doubt everyone was happy about guns replacing swords and bows in warfare
Every day we get closer to my hopes to see a functional Gundam...
The "Wright Flyer" of the electric weapon world?
It's hilarious when the studious and knowledgeable Ian transforms to a giggling nerd.
We are actually witnessing the beginning of a new era of warfare, and ngl I’m kinda curious to see how it turns out. But am also terrified of the possibilities they can bring.
As an electronics technician who did play around with building these befor, i find these commercial available ones very disappointing. They have nothing in them that wasn't possible when i did them 20 years ago. They are more refined and faster shooting then what i build, but my focus wasn't on that anyway. There is so much more that could be done with the technology, like spin stabalized projectiles, its not that hard to building a 3-phase current asynchron motor arount the "chamber" with the projectile being the rotor for example. But unless there is a vast improvement in capacitors, or you are willing to haul a huge capacitor bank that takes forever to charge up around, they will remain weak toys :(
Well I hope one day they build them strong enough to punch through power armor or a synth head.
Or even some basic weight and drag stabilization on the projectiles would help. Perhaps moving the center of gravity forward with a lead filled cavity in the nose and some material removed from the tail to create basic fins.
bro go do it
Never figured I would see a working hand held coil gun in my life time...loved that stuff as a kid!
The electrical work is amazing
As far as a specific projectile I could see a design patterned similar to the Remington sabot slug. Wasp waisted with a flare at the back.
I would say that the fundamental limitation on this technology is NOT in charging circuits but in capacitors (there are no high capacity, high voltage caps), the resistance of copper coils, and the limitations of fast switching circuits for very high current and voltage.
Can't wait to see this video pop off like the other one. Cool tech going on here.
The biggest problem I see with coilguns is that the electromagnet only pulls the projectile *in*. If there is any current flowing in the coil after the dowel pin reaches the center of the coil, the electromagnet will actually slow the projectile down. Inducing a field in a non-magnetic projectile could be a better way to do this, but takes a very different design.