Suggestions for capacitor charging bank for coilgun?

Question

Im building a coilgun and I need to charge the caps, which run at 400 volts.

Does anyone know where I can buy a step up transformer with a

120 v. primary and a 400 volt secondary online?

I also tried using a full-wave voltage multiplier but it didnt take and I dont know why. anyone have any suggestions. I think maybe the caps had too much capacitance. here's the link:

http://www.rmcybernetics.com/images/main/pyhsics/voltage_multiplier_schematic_diagram.jpg

Answer 1

I'm assuming the caps have a max rating of 400 volts?

That means anything over 400 volts will cause them to die, perhaps with smoke, so keep your voltage well below that. Remember that AC line voltage can fluctuate day by day and hour by hour. So I'd use 350 volts as a goal.

That means your transformer should have a 250 volts secondary, as the DC output is the peak voltage, which is 1.4 times the RMS voltage.

A voltage doubler should work OK, also.

If the caps are rated at 450 volts, then 400 is an OK operating voltage and you need a 280 volt transformer.

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