Coilgun3: Using a boost converter

In my last two videos I tried to show two different coil-gun circuits, one with an SCR-switch and another with a MOSFET-switch. One thing was common, that is charging a 4000 uF capacitor with 160V power supply. Or in other words storing sufficient energy in a capacitor so that once this stored energy is released in a coil part of the electrical energy is converted to the projectile-mechanical energy.  To get this high voltage I used a transformer, rectifier and capacitor. The overall power supply becomes bulky. Another very simple solution is there to achieve voltages above 100V, that is using a boost converter. I built such a converter with few components (…show…). We are already using a 12V power supply to drive the MOSFET, we can us similar 12V supply and convert it to higher voltage and can get rid of the transformer based bulky 160V supply. In this video, I’ll try to explain how you can make your own boost converter using a 555 timer IC and few more parts.