User:Kit.heckman/enes100/ENES-100/Project 3

CDIO Page
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_Drive

Week 1 Narrative
I began by playing catchup. I needed to learn how to read circuit diagrams and understand the fundamentals of a rail gun, then get the complete history of the project up to this point. I learned the way a coil gun works is by attracting an object to a coil with magnetic force, then turning off the coil allowing the object to move freely again, carrying it with forward momentum either into another coil or out of the barrel of the gun. The power source is low in voltage, but very high in amperage.

My First Task
Having gotten caught up on the project history and preliminary information, I'll put work into researching the coil gun specifically.

Week 2 Narrative
It was an exciting week. We got the coil we needed, and begun research on an alternative method involving and electronic stapler. That method involves cracking the plastic off a stapler like an oyster and using the coil and circuit board to fire metal projectiles instead of just staples. By this point, the stapler method became far more inciting than using the coil we had ordered, so we began planning for the coil gun and shopping for a stapler. By the end of the week we had a functioning coil gun, but without the structure of a gun, just the tube and circuit board.

My Second Task
While other members of the team went shopping for parts, I needed to research the circuit board and other information about the coil gun.

Week 3 Narrative
I started analyzing the circuit board that came with the stapler. Meanwhile, Josh had assembled the rest of the gun and gotten a metal lever attached to the circuit board to function as the switch instead of the original lever.

My Third Task
Find Slingshot BBs that are 3/8ths of an inch.