I had an idea for the longest time, now I have a working prototype

[daniam]

For a couple of years I had been kicking around the idea of a triggerless paintball marker, and all of the negative things about the idea: 1 safety, 2 practicality, 3 durability, 4 expense, 5 patents, and 6 tournament legality. I think that I may have found a solution. 1: still working on, but I have a viable solution, 2: very reliable, the normal marker functions are untouched and unchanged, this is a bolt-on, and its super cool and about 1 out of 3 players that I had let hold it loved the idea and I had to pry the marker back from them, 3: it is very durable, without anything external on the marker to be shot off or fouled, 4: the total expense in parts is under $15, 5: argh!!! smart parts patent could be read to include my idea in its language(from what I understand of it), not only that, but they seem to have patented a freaking mechanical trigger too!!!!!, and I don't have an extra 50k laying around to patent this idea even if they did not slide their patent past the patent office first, and 6: the marker will function normally as well as in the enhanced mode that I came up with, and as far as the tournament scene is concerned in my head, they only make up less than 1% of the paintball community. All the research that I've done has shown me that no one else has mentioned any thing close to my idea on the internet as of yet, so it might be an original so far (besides the very loosely worded smart parts patent). I have had this working for about 5 or 6 months, but I just moved about 3 months ago, (the expense of moving and paying a lawyer to get full custody of my son has all but drained my savings and expendable income) and have been too busy to try and promote this ( which is probably pointless thanks to the Gardners), and I have shown this to around 30 to 40 people so far (including a Lucky board rep, who didn't seem all that impressed with it), any ideas on how to proceed so far guys? I will try to post a video as soon as I figure out the right format my sanyo video phone runs for playback... any help with this is much appriciated.

[68magOwner]

I remember there being a "lazer trigger" thing offered a year or so ago, saw it demonstrated in a freestyle. The general consensis was, that, yeah, its cool to show off and mess with, but, no one really bought it. Its just not that much better than having a regular trigger, and seems more dangerous. This may or may not be your idea.

[takedown65]

what a coincidence today i just got the CAD done of my new trigger design and im taking it to a machinist tommorow.

But just keep going, if you really want to make this happen you can, my advise is right now call up a patent lawyer and get a free consulatation with them to look over if your idea infringes on smartparts patent, and if it doesnt you need to patent it, patents dont always take thousands of dollars, the cheapest way to do it would to get some books on patents and write it your self.

[warbeak2099]

Pics!

[daniam]

well all of the mod is discreet... meaning that its all internal, so no pics would help, but I do have a working marker right now. A friend of mine in S FL spent about 50k to patent his bunker system (and so little or no return on his investment), it looks like the mod can be done to any electro with minimal work on the marker and a little over $15 in parts, the hardest part will be to figure out the voltages in the respective trigger circuits in the respective markers boards, the current prototype I have working is a spyder electro, and an ion is next (my 11 year old son's, that I bought for $100, smart parts is the devil and gets no respect from me), but in theory any electro can be easily converted (my first prototype took about 10 minutes, quick and dirty). And the original triggering system will still work unaltered, this is a marker bolt on, not a new board or trigger. Any more feedback or interest is helpful.

[Papa_Smurf]

shouldn't it be triggered while your fingers are inside the trigger gaurd?

[Ruler_Mark]

how would one use this system in real play isntead of waiving thier hand on the side of the trigger frame?

[Lomarandil]

Hmm.. I see what you are doing..

clever.. maybe not entirely practical.. is it very consistent about triggering the mechanism when your hand is over the same spot, or no? Tough to tell from the video.

Lo

[daniam]

well depending on how sensitive it is set, then it could be, again this is not a break beam system, or a touch pad trigger either

[Papa_Smurf]

motion sensor? How consistent can that be?

[Papa_Smurf]

Well then, it must be magic. does it not work by the trigger area?

[daniam]

kinda, the componets are inside the frame, but in theory could be located anywhere (I like the idea of the front grip) and no one has brought up safety concerns yet, but I already have that covered... I plan to install a safety like that on a military 1911 45acp handgun (where the web of your hand touches the back of your grip) so, no contact with that area on the marker and you shouldn't have any angry teammates throwing your marker onto the closest roof. Btw, it is magic

[thefool]

i think i see.

Your wearing something under that glove arnt you ;)

[zipity_Bop]

I don't see how this is an improvement on anything. what is the point in having a triggerless paintball gun? you just modded something thats already in effect to make it pointless.

[temps]

The wearing of the glove makes me think its an a magnet sensor with a magnet or magnets in the glove.

[Papa_Smurf]

i think i see.

Your wearing something under that glove arnt you ;)


Two points. I didn't think about that.

[Lomarandil]

Nevermind, removed to a PM

But a big advantage to not having a trigger would be removing the mechanical work needed in actually moving that trigger. Less work means less energy expended and potentially higher ROF (like that is what we really need, but still).

Lo

[daniam]

exactly, also the lower profile when snapshooting might be a little advantage? I have some other ideas to offshoot off of this system, but will need to get the logic blueprint of these boards to get it to work right. So does anyone like this so far, or should I give up my dreams of creating a paintball killer app?

[daniam]

I don't see how this is an improvement on anything. what is the point in having a triggerless paintball gun? you just modded something thats already in effect to make it pointless.
do you think there is a cool factor in any of this?

[thefool]

cool factor? Yes

worth doing? Yeah

Worth patenting? Hellz no.

[daniam]

Thanks fool.. my thoughts so far exactly..... I am thinking about pulling the vids in case I change my mind to cover my butt, but I dont think there is alot of $ to be had by this idea, I could be completely wrong??

[thefool]

i think you could sell ~50 before you got tired of doing the mods, people lost interest in the product at the given price point. But its a cool idea, especially for tricking people. Someone wears a ring under their glove, fires with no hands, hands the gun off to someone else = confusion

[Cash]

thats pretty sick it works like a holofect trigger but instead of the magnet being in the trigger and board sensor its in your gloves makes sense but i wouldnt make it so sensitive, seems like it activates to early like your fingers need to be closer to the sensor instead of so far away.

[daniam]

i think you could sell ~50 before you got tired of doing the mods, people lost interest in the product at the given price point. But its a cool idea, especially for tricking people. Someone wears a ring under their glove, fires with no hands, hands the gun off to someone else = confusion
price point? I didnt come up with one yet. It would have to vary on the complexity of the boards trigger circuit, as far as the cost in parts... relatively cheap, around $15. Now the workmanship.... hard to estimate, because a little bit of metalwork might be involved and I have no experience in that field, again depending on desired setup and marker type, but as far as producing produt, I don't see this in my future. I am pretty experienced at working on guns (I worked as a airsmith at a field for over 2 years), but I would be nervous as hell adding something like this to someones prid and joy.

[daniam]

thats pretty sick it works like a holofect trigger but instead of the magnet being in the trigger and board sensor its in your gloves makes sense but i wouldnt make it so sensitive, seems like it activates to early like your fingers need to be closer to the sensor instead of so far away.
The sensitivity is fairly adjustable in a manner of ways

[p8ntbal4me]

U know,.. u can get a really high ROF out of the setup you have if you put the magnets in the finger grooves of your trigger finger and moved the sensor to the underside of the trigger.

You can fan it like a normal trigger,... maybe even give players the trigger to pull for a familiar feel,.... but the sensors would do all the work.

[daniam]

the normal trigger still works in the set up, and the setup can be done in a manner of ways... I like the idea of making a front grip a trigger point personally, an insane ROF is very deffinitely possible, and keep in mind that this is a bolt-on, any enhanced modes in the marker will still work, this is just an add on to the trigger circuit, ramping, bust and full auto will still work, I can post more vids illustrating this point if requested.

[p8ntbal4me]

I did something like this (not for firing the marker though) to operate the settings in the marker rather than the trigger.

I tried a magnetic setup as well as an optical setup.

Good to tinker with,... the magnets were kinda hard to get just right. You had to becareful of the fields coliding and making it cycle/adjusting the settings beyond what you wanted.

Still a really cool thing to do.

What about your power draw? You going with 5v still like the HES or are you bumping down to 3.3v like the Eclipse Opto?

[daniam]

all stock from kingman

[daniam]

up

[questionful]

up
what are you selling?

[daniam]

what are you selling? my SOUL, joking, I am not selling anything, just trying to get feed back on a triggerless system that I designed

[zaqwert6]

With out a pic or diagram I can only speculate so . . .

A) Triggerless designs are not new , there have been a number of variations that have sprouted up over the years in various forms. ;)

2) They are generally all illegal for tourny play.

But kudos for trying something yourself. :cheers:

[ThePixelGuru]

Why? Not trying to be a pain, here, but why would I possibly want to fire my marker by waving at the side of my gripframe when I have a perfectly useable trigger?

Still cool, but I don't see any practical use.

[daniam]

I will repost more vids this weekend, when I have a chance to tune it a bit.

[rabidchihauhau]

Thanks fool.. my thoughts so far exactly..... I am thinking about pulling the vids in case I change my mind to cover my butt, but I dont think there is alot of $ to be had by this idea, I could be completely wrong??

I'd like to point out that making information on this concept and posting a video of it comes close to and maybe goes over the line of public disclosure. Publicly disclosing something prevents you from applying for a patent for it. Just FYI