Real Quake Railgun

Reddit’s “NSA_Listbot” wanted to make the railgun from Quake a reality, so he decided to 3D-print the gun. “The railgun uses 6 300J, 350V, 5500uF capacitors which combined weigh 20lbs and can deliver >1050V and 1.8kJ of energy to the projectile. Capacitors are first wired in parallel with flexible busbars inside of a 3d-printed housing. The frame includes the emergency discharge SCR, power resistor and button to discharge any leftover energy in the caps after a shot,” said its creator. Continue reading for two more videos, pictures and additional information.

“The railgun’s electronics are based around an Arduino Uno R3 which monitors the capacitor voltage, amperage, temperature and battery voltage to ensure even charging and operation. The electronics are housed in a 3d-printed ABS case. The 12V LiPo battery is first stepped up to 120V using a micro-inverter, then stepped up to 1550V through a transformer before being rectified. The high voltage rectifier gets quite hot so a heatsink was mounted on the outside,” adds the creator.

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A technology, gadget and video game enthusiast that loves covering the latest industry news. Favorite trade show? Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.