Boardless electro-pnuematic automag. Possible?

[rawbutter]

So, I have an idea for building an electro-pnuematic automag sans any kind of board. The problem is that I know zilch about electronics and all that. I managed to build my own pneumag easily enough, but that didn’t involve soldering and capacitors and stuff like that, so I could really use some feedback and direction on this.

I have been interested upgrading my pneumag with electronics for a while, but for some reason I didn’t think I could fit a battery and board and all that into the frame. I’ve also wanted to add eyes, but that can be quite a process as well.

So I thought of this design. (Pardon the crappy paint diagram.)



Basically, it’s a pneumag with an MPA piston pushing on the sear. LP air comes in from somewhere (probably through the rail). Instead of the trigger hitting an MSV valve, however, there is microswitch number 1 (MS1) taking the hit and eventually transferring a signal to the solenoid, which triggers the piston instead.

Now, I know for an electro pneumatic automag, you can’t just add a solenoid and a battery. You need a capacitor (for some reason I don’t fully understand), and you also need a board. The board controls things like dwell and ROF, which are both important. You also can’t have eyes without a board to know what to do with that signal. Dwell, though, seems to be the most important. Without it, there might be accidental contact, causing all sorts of problems.

Therefore, I thought of adding ANOTHER microswitch to the equation (labeled MS#2). This switch would be wired in parallel to the first (meaning that the marker won’t fire unless BOTH switches are activated). This switch would satisfy the requirements for dwell and eyes. When there is a ball in the breach pushing down on the switch, then the marker will fire when you pull the trigger. When the bolt is forward, firing the ball, you can technically fire the marker again (but that won’t matter). When the bolt comes back, though, and for the milliseconds it takes for anther ball to fall into the chamber, the marker won’t fire because that second microswitch isn’t triggered.

So…. Would this work? Or is there something I’m overlooking? Please help me out.

[leloup]

Assuming it all worked, one potential problem I see is that you have the loading ball activate your second switch. What if the ball breaks? All the paintball goo will gum up the switch, and you would have to disassemble the entire marker. When the bolt moves over the switch and you still have your finger on the trigger, it would also tell the ram to fire, wasting battery and creating unnecessary wear. It'd be like a little jack hammer going off in there every time it fired.

[bbotts77]

It's an interesting idea. However, MS#2 would get shredded by the bolt or bolt spring when the bold returns.

[leloup]

I don't think the bolt spring would influence, as the switch would be farther up, where the ball drops. The spring stops before that point.

[Frizzle Fry]

Maybe it could double as a ball detent

[Nanotech]

Electrical & computer engineer here. I'm busy and don't have time for a full breakdown, so the short answer is yes, but not with switches.

It has been done by an enterprising gentleman on here whose post I cannot manage to find. He built a circuit around a 555 timer, a very simple integrated circuit that produces a timed signal. This signal correlates to both the dwell and the ROF. Using a few resistors, capacitors, and a bit of math, the timer can control the solenoid. Eyes produce an analog (continuous 0-5v) signal, which once converted to digital (either 0 or 5v) can be used to shut off the timer when a ball is not chambered. All of this, using a trigger microswitch, MPA-3, and SY070, was built into a classic frame. Fully-auto only, IIRC, but a great sleeper.

tl;dr Yes, is do-able and has been done, but it does require some electronics knowhow. If you would like, I can lay out some more details later.

[kcombs9]

what frame do you have?

a cap is optional depending on the noid/board used.

A UTB is very small

if you don't want your LPR in the frame I see no reason you cant fit a battery and UTB in ANY frame.

Hill did a EP sleeper in a classic CF frame.

[TwilightG]

Electrical & computer engineer here. I'm busy and don't have time for a full breakdown, so the short answer is yes, but not with switches.

It has been done by an enterprising gentleman on here whose post I cannot manage to find. He built a circuit around a 555 timer, a very simple integrated circuit that produces a timed signal. This signal correlates to both the dwell and the ROF. Using a few resistors, capacitors, and a bit of math, the timer can control the solenoid. Eyes produce an analog (continuous 0-5v) signal, which once converted to digital (either 0 or 5v) can be used to shut off the timer when a ball is not chambered. All of this, using a trigger microswitch, MPA-3, and SY070, was built into a classic frame. Fully-auto only, IIRC, but a great sleeper.

tl;dr Yes, is do-able and has been done, but it does require some electronics knowhow. If you would like, I can lay out some more details later.

I believe this was done by Spider-TW. He has an even more extensive writeup on MCB (under the username Spider!)

sorry that I don't have any links to threads but it should be relatively easy to find.