A slow-moving projectile aimed at a suspended target is fired at the same time that the target is released and allowed to free-fall. The projectile hits the target since, despite its horizontal velocity, it falls at the same accelerated rate as the target.
Setup
The main components are stored in a box in shelf M1. They consist of a spring gun, photogate, an electromagnet, a control box, and an ethernet cable that connects the box to the electromagnet. To set up:
- clamp spring gun base at one end of the table
- mount the electromagnet on a rod at the other end of the table, ensuring that it lies in the same line as the spring gun (a simple two-rod assembly should suffice)
- mount photogate to the gun chassis using the bolt in the photogate and the hole in front of the barrel; ensure that projectile trajectory crosses photogate LED and that the photogate is as close as possible to the barrel (so that when fired, both the ball and the target are released at the same time)
- connect photogate to control box
- connect electromagnet to control box using ethernet cable and ensuring that this cable is not in the way of the target
- mount target on electromagnet - ensure that the magnet is in contact with the fat lip and that target side is in front of both screws on box
- aim the gun precisely to the center of the target (an easy way to do this is by measuring the horizontal distance from output of gun to the target, as well as the relative height of target with respect to the gun output; the angle is just the arctangent)
- insert ball into barrel using the rod in the box (make sure electromagnet is unarmed)
- arm box and fire and perform any alignments as needed
PIRA DCS 1D60.32