Mass drivers/MAC cannons

Whilst cruising the interwebs, I found this. Clickity

It made me think about mass drivers and MAC cannons. Will there be a defined length, will they have ammunition that can be loaded into magazines, ect.

According to Mac, the blocks for a mass driver can be stacked as long as you like. I assume power will scale with length. Rounds have to be manually built in the gun.

According to him, but it, like most other things, are up for debate.

(necro) Will they require a capacitor bank to fire?

I assume so. That's how all current magnetic weapons work in both my dimension and yours.

Hehe..send a saboteur to reverse the polarity of the dreadnought's capacitator banks.

Tiel wrote:

Hehe..send a saboteur to reverse the polarity of the dreadnought's capacitator banks.

Capacitors arent magnets... -_-

But they have magnets in them. I think.

As far as I know the whole railgun mechanic is that energized magnets propel a projectile to high speeds.

And wikipedia says a mass driver is an 'electro magnetic catapult', and MAC cannon stands for Magnetic Accelerated Cannon, both of which use magnetic coils to make the round go superspeed, so I'm pretty sure those capacitators are the magnets or at least have something to do with the magnets.

Tiel wrote:

But they have magnets in them. I think.

As far as I know the whole railgun mechanic is that energized magnets propel a projectile to high speeds.

And wikipedia says a mass driver is an 'electro magnetic catapult', and MAC cannon stands for Magnetic Accelerated Cannon, both of which use magnetic coils to make the round go superspeed, so I'm pretty sure those capacitators are the magnets or at least have something to do with the magnets.

Capacitors are like fancy batteries, only they discharge the electricity as fast as possible. The electricity flows through wires to bars/coil(s) of a magnetic metal, which become electromagnets and pull the projectile through the barrel. Think of mag-lev trains.

ACH0225 wrote:

Tiel wrote:

But they have magnets in them. I think.

As far as I know the whole railgun mechanic is that energized magnets propel a projectile to high speeds.

And wikipedia says a mass driver is an 'electro magnetic catapult', and MAC cannon stands for Magnetic Accelerated Cannon, both of which use magnetic coils to make the round go superspeed, so I'm pretty sure those capacitators are the magnets or at least have something to do with the magnets.

Capacitors are like fancy batteries, only they discharge the electricity as fast as possible. The electricity flows through wires to bars/coil(s) of a magnetic metal, which become electromagnets and pull the projectile through the barrel. Think of mag-lev trains.

Turn the current around, by say, connecting the red to black wires, and it will fire backwards.

Keon wrote:

ACH0225 wrote:

Tiel wrote:

But they have magnets in them. I think.

As far as I know the whole railgun mechanic is that energized magnets propel a projectile to high speeds.

And wikipedia says a mass driver is an 'electro magnetic catapult', and MAC cannon stands for Magnetic Accelerated Cannon, both of which use magnetic coils to make the round go superspeed, so I'm pretty sure those capacitators are the magnets or at least have something to do with the magnets.

Capacitors are like fancy batteries, only they discharge the electricity as fast as possible. The electricity flows through wires to bars/coil(s) of a magnetic metal, which become electromagnets and pull the projectile through the barrel. Think of mag-lev trains.

Turn the current around, by say, connecting the red to black wires, and it will fire backwards.

No it won't..... It just won't fire.

Yeah it will, current will flow backwards, causing reverse polarity magnetic field. The magnetic projectile will interact causing it to be propelled the other way.

Only if the projectile is in the middle of the barrel...

Tiel wrote:

But they have magnets in them. I think.

As far as I know the whole railgun mechanic is that energized magnets propel a projectile to high speeds.

And wikipedia says a mass driver is an 'electro magnetic catapult', and MAC cannon stands for Magnetic Accelerated Cannon, both of which use magnetic coils to make the round go superspeed, so I'm pretty sure those capacitators are the magnets or at least have something to do with the magnets.

The MACs in the mod will most likely be coilguns. Coilguns are basically just a barrel with wire wrapped around it in one or more coils. when electricity flows through a coil, it makes an electromagnet, pulling a ferrous projectile to it. When the projectile is halfway through the coil, it shuts off and the next one turns on. Electromagnets on this scale need enormous amounts of energy to pass through them very quickly, so electricity has to be dumped into capacitors, which discharge into the cannon.

Railguns work on a different principle entirely, using two conductive rails. electricity flows through one rail, through a projectile into the other rail. The projectile is pulled by the magnetic field created by the two rails. i think. i don't know that much about railguns.

catsonmeth wrote:

Tiel wrote:

But they have magnets in them. I think.

As far as I know the whole railgun mechanic is that energized magnets propel a projectile to high speeds.

And wikipedia says a mass driver is an 'electro magnetic catapult', and MAC cannon stands for Magnetic Accelerated Cannon, both of which use magnetic coils to make the round go superspeed, so I'm pretty sure those capacitators are the magnets or at least have something to do with the magnets.

The MACs in the mod will most likely be coilguns. Coilguns are basically just a barrel with wire wrapped around it in one or more coils. when electricity flows through a coil, it makes an electromagnet, pulling a ferrous projectile to it. When the projectile is halfway through the coil, it shuts off and the next one turns on. Electromagnets on this scale need enormous amounts of energy to pass through them very quickly, so electricity has to be dumped into capacitors, which discharge into the cannon.

Railguns work on a different principle entirely, using two conductive rails. electricity flows through one rail, through a projectile into the other rail. The projectile is pulled by the magnetic field created by the two rails. i think. i don't know that much about railguns.

Rail guns are like coilguns, they just have separate capacitor banks for each rail.

ACH0225 wrote:

catsonmeth wrote:

Tiel wrote:

But they have magnets in them. I think.

As far as I know the whole railgun mechanic is that energized magnets propel a projectile to high speeds.

And wikipedia says a mass driver is an 'electro magnetic catapult', and MAC cannon stands for Magnetic Accelerated Cannon, both of which use magnetic coils to make the round go superspeed, so I'm pretty sure those capacitators are the magnets or at least have something to do with the magnets.

The MACs in the mod will most likely be coilguns. Coilguns are basically just a barrel with wire wrapped around it in one or more coils. when electricity flows through a coil, it makes an electromagnet, pulling a ferrous projectile to it. When the projectile is halfway through the coil, it shuts off and the next one turns on. Electromagnets on this scale need enormous amounts of energy to pass through them very quickly, so electricity has to be dumped into capacitors, which discharge into the cannon.

Railguns work on a different principle entirely, using two conductive rails. electricity flows through one rail, through a projectile into the other rail. The projectile is pulled by the magnetic field created by the two rails. i think. i don't know that much about railguns.

Rail guns are like coilguns, they just have separate capacitor banks for each rail.

One wikipedia visit later... a railgun is made up of two rails and an armature. an electric current moves through one rail, through the armature in the projectile, and to the other rail, creating a circuit. the circuit makes an electromagnetic field, which influences the projectile and causes it to move through the barrel and towards the target. only one bank of capacitors is needed for both of these. i think it would be easier to operate a coilgun rather than a railgun on this scale, i think the efficiency of a railgun decreases with size and a coilgun would become more feasible, anyway.

I agree. Coils are superior to rails, and I beleive we should begin a Coup de Eta't upon the rail government.

How bout we just station some dudes with slingshots?

Keon wrote:

How bout we just station some dudes with slingshots?

Space slingshots. For space.

Or better yet, slingshot a slingshotter.

Keon wrote:

Or better yet, slingshot a slingshotter.

For a slingshoting slingshoter?!?! Your insane!!

In the mod I'm betting on using rail guns, as a coil gun is stupidly difficult to make with 1m^3 blocks. And although the efficiency of a rail gun decreases with length (largely due to friction), with a sufficient current the round can be accelerated infinitely. Gaussian guns are a pain because you have to recalibrate the coils after every shot, since the recoil puts them out of alignment. Explains why Garrus spends all that time calibrating.

Avenger_7 wrote:

In the mod I'm betting on using rail guns, as a coil gun is stupidly difficult to make with 1m^3 blocks.

hm.. I thought the turrets would be entities, cause if there made of blocks then they would be, 1 very large, and 2 harder to make.

Burnttoaster wrote:

Avenger_7 wrote:

In the mod I'm betting on using rail guns, as a coil gun is stupidly difficult to make with 1m^3 blocks.

hm.. I thought the turrets would be entities, cause if there made of blocks then they would be, 1 very large, and 2 harder to make.

I think small turrets will be 1x1x1 entities, but I'm also hoping for massive 40-meter batteries, like the ones on an ImpStar, to use against capital ships. Those might be blocks.

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

Burnttoaster wrote:

Avenger_7 wrote:

In the mod I'm betting on using rail guns, as a coil gun is stupidly difficult to make with 1m^3 blocks.

hm.. I thought the turrets would be entities, cause if there made of blocks then they would be, 1 very large, and 2 harder to make.

I think small turrets will be 1x1x1 entities, but I'm also hoping for massive 40-meter batteries, like the ones on an ImpStar, to use against capital ships. Those might be blocks.

I think this is about the massive, ship-length accelerators that are in Halo, Mass Effect et al.