Halo Poll. Problems or everything ok?

[Restola]

Some strange threads have been popping up about people having trouble with their halos, or seeing little or no difference between that and their revys. i was just interested in collecting some info about people's experiences with their halos.

[jurassic]

A Retro valved warped hyperframed super bolted plastic nubbined Haloed minimag had me grinning from ear to ear. Though you don't want to let the Halo run low. Around 15 to 20 balls left and it began to misfeed. But this was noted early in its development. But still no chops when set to hyper mode. It was heart stopping fast. Emptied a hopper of Marballizer in a skinny New York minute. Finally something to keep up with a warped mag. Though the Halo is going to make a big difference in my paint bill. :D :D :D

[alf]

halo + warp + emag + superbolt + marbs = HAPPY ALF

no problems WHATSOEVER with my halo...i even got the ON SEQUENCE down !! :)

[Doobie]

I played with it again today and I STILL like...I Like A LOT! (The on sequence is so easy i'm shocked anyone even complains about it.):D :D :D :D

[Load SM5]

I have no problems with it on my gun at all. On my warp it does'nt seem to want to feed. Balls seem to be getting stuckhalfway out of the bottom of the feed tube and not wanting to drop into the warp. Can't figure that one out.

[MAGS own YOU]

How many batteries does the halo take?

[Load SM5]

6 AA's

[alf]

load,

i dont have that problem...i did, however have to loosen the warp shells in order to put the halo in snugly...

do your guys' halos say HALO on the little gem (is that what its called??) sticker?...i have seen some that just say paintball...

[Load SM5]

I have to loosen mine a bit too but I can't believe that cranking the Warp shells back down would pinch the extra tough warp feed tube down enough to keep balls from going through. I did try loosening the shells a bit with no effect.

The gems say HALO on one side and Paintball on the other.

[jurassic]

I received the new cap from Odyssey, but have not put it on. I'll wait for the WAS bearing kit to be released and do it all at once. I know!! I am a shameless gadget freak. Both of the gems say Halo on my hopper. S/N 2774. Maybe Odyssey will send me the paintball gem.;)
Hockey: Canadians are ahead 2 to 1 2nd period. BOOOO!! No wait!! USA just scored!!!!!!:D :D :D

[hitech]

Here are the two posts I made about a friend of mine halo:

A friend of mine was chopping like crazy with his brand new Angel LCD and Halo. When he replaced it with a 12v revvy the chopping stopped.


He determined the problem. When he took it apart he found some "burs" (left over from casting?) that had cut some of the paintballs. After removing the "burs" and cleaning things up it appears to be working fine (350 rounds as fast as he can shoot without a break).

[magic55]

i guess i'll be the first one to say i hate it and wish i never bought it. it suks bigtime. i have broken balls, had jams, misfeeds, and it just doesn't work like its made out to. right now its on my counter filled with paint. i'm sending it back soon. here are a couple pics

[Vil3]

hmmm ive noticed it does sometimes break balls cuz it feeds so friggne fast-but u can get things to help that already... i voted every penny worth.. U CANNOT CHOP by overshooting and that means alot-only complaint i have is they made the neck too damn large and it doesn't fit in elbows or most vert feeds

[magic55]

does anyone know how to make a file smaller so i can put it up. i have another pic of my halo of the inside that is filled with paint. i can' stand this thing, its heavy and sucks really bad, it doesn't keep up when i fire and i have alot of missfires, no chops but my matrix never chops anyways.

[a_malfunction]

My teammate got a halo and was using it in a tourney this weekend.... in the tie-breaker game, his halo went down.... it wouldn't feed at all.... the game went downhill from there :( Ive never seen anyone get that mad at a hopper before! It didnt perform to anyone's expectations. He is thinking about getting rid of it.

[alf]

load,

i had the same problem you did (yesterday in my backyard)...shooting stars...VERY same setup that fed a case of marbs flawlessly...one star was stuck at the top of the warp, and wouldnt clear the feedneck...priming the warp, or shaking the hopper of course didnt work...

i wonder what thats all about...

jurassic - when is the bearing kit available?

vil3 - i think they made it large so that you can sand it to fit

[Restola]

wow so far the poll only shows a 2:1 positive ratio... i dont think that sounds very appealing for a $115 hopper.

[MicroB]

I had nothing but good things to say about it when I first got it. No problems for the first case of marbs everything after that nothing but trouble. It makes soup inside the hopper. It never fails to break a ball on the inlet to the feed neck, smashes ball between paddles and inlet. Double feeds my vert feed micro rt the ball detent is not strong enough to stop the ball from being forced forward, cuasing another ball to drop 1/2 way into the breach. Real problem in rapid fire as my detent will not return fast enough to stop the next ball in line. Very noticable after you shoot a string rapidly almost guarnteed to break next shot fired. I understand this is a problem with my gun and its detent but, this hoppers force feed nature cause the problem. My halo actually forced itself out of my vert feed with a stack of balls. Have no trouble with x-board revvy or rico. Halo works terrific on my power feed e-mag except when it chops internally (all the time). Have tried all kinds of paint now with the same result. I would like this hopper to work for me. The design is the best looking in the industry. I would like to utilze its performance if I could get it to work properly and stop breaking paint. I have taken it apart and found nothing to be the cause of my problems. For therse reasons I voted "wish had never bought".

Thx, B

[DjGruv]

I love it. Nothing is perfect, especially the rev.

[dmonahan]

They are great targets. Much easy to hit than a Rev or R2k. I shot out 2 palyer at the Pan Am this weekend who had them. :D

[Doobie]

I still have not chopped a single ball inside of the HALO. I have been shooting mostly Diablo blaze and midnight. Like I said before, I still like. For those having problems, you should get in touch with the HALO people and see what their customer service is like. If it is anything like AGD they will probably make things right. If you do send it in or get in touch with them, let us know your results here.

[Ghost Stalker]

I personally dont own one but two people on my team own them. The first one they bought was DOA. Then after about 2 weeks of play the lid broke in half causing them to have to replace it. They are huge and make alot of sound. Also we noticed no significant difference in feeding the balls into our guns when we used them. Sure they feed the balls really fast but can you actually pull the trigger that fast? I can't.... But if you put it on fullauto then the full extent of the hopper comes into play.
But most fields wont let you use full auto.

So what is the point of a hopper that feeds 14+ balls a second when you will very seldom shoot that fast with your marker. Also when a ball busts in that thing it proved to be very hard to clean out and then put back togeather. We weren't too impressed with it.

[Load SM5]

The idea behind the HALO from what I understood is that it does'nt just feed fast, it feeds reliably. Instead of flinging balls all over the inside of the hopper it actually sorts them and flings them down the feed tube. I played agian with my HALO and with the exception of one mysterious broken ball in the hopper itself it fed great.

[magic55]

i refuse to ever use it again. i'd rather use a regular hopper. it maybe just be a defect but mine doesn't feed reliably like someone said. i had many misfires and it just pissed me off how bad it preformed. its rediculas to have to worry about your hopper chopping durring a game. thats the reason i got my gun, so i could get away from chops but with the halo it made it pointless. i use my nice reliable old 12vt xboard rev. its smaller, lighter, and feeds "better"

[Bwaites]

New products usually have a few teething problems, remember the Superbolt?

But my experience has been exceptional. I have played several times now, First time with new Allstar and Slamball, second with Power Ball, third with new Allstar.

Put about a half case of each through each time. I had a single Power Ball break up in the hopper, but the paint was very high in the front of the hopper, so I expect it was broken when I put it in and I just missed it. It did not cause any problems, and it just kept going.

This was the first time I have played in months without chops or breaks in the barrel. It didn't matter how fast I shot, I couldn't do anything wrong!

By the way, my superbolt has worked very well also.

I shoot an emag, with CP barrels.

Bill

[21caballer]

first day= steel paint, 1 case, absolutly worked fine no problems at all. very happy.
second day= attitude field paint, 1/2 case, worked fine. very happy.
third day= attitude fp, 1/2 case, worked fine. not one jam or break or anything up to this point.
first game of panam in phoenix= 3rd marb, jammed. could not get it un jammed. I tried for about 5 min while i was still alive. finally reduced to loading 5 balls at a time into the powerfeed. a ball ended up getting chopped in the gate while i was attempting to clear it.

i don't know what i am going to do with it know. i don't think i can afford to keep a hopper that i don't trust. plus if it does get jammed it just does not feed at all. i like how fast it feeds. i really cut down on my chopping, infact i don't think i had one.

i think i am going to have to sell it.

[billmi]

Mine has been performing flawlessly - but some problems I've head of from HALO owners, and from the HALO designer.

Some black shelled paintballs are not very reflective to infra red light, and some downright absorb IR with no reflection. With black shelled paint there can be a problem with the HALO over-driving the paint and breaking it (I notice the paint in the pic in this thread has a black shell on half of it).

Closed bolt paintguns offer less ball drop time than open bolt - on closed bolt paintguns it is best to lock out the HALO's ball detent.

On vertical feed necks, without a positive pressure system like the Warp, and waiting for a gap in the ball stack to activate the loader (which the HALO does) there can be feed problems caused by balls bobbling back up the feed tube. It doesn't matter if you have blowback or not, there is a mechanical interaction of the bolt on the bottom of the ball. I tested a prototype HALO on the same test stand as the WARPIG Ballistic Labs loader lineup last fall and could not get the same feed rates as Odyssey could achieve on a powerfed e-mag - I believe this is why. A powerfeed takes care of the bobble issue, and I believe the gated feed WDP is putting on the IR3 probably will as well. However, the bobble only seems to be a real issue with the HALO over 13 bps, so in real world semiauto use, it's probably not a problem anyone will ever see.

Also some of the problems I've heard of are related to assembly errors. There should be a spring, and a plastic tab that looks like a strip or zip-tie sticking out of the wall of the catch-cup inside. If either of these are missing, you will likely have problems with jams and or breaks.

I've seen a number of HALOs in use at Mardi Gras Open and Pan Am Phoenix, all running well.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills

[torment]

my HALO has been working great on my RT pro so far. worth the investment.

[PhantomX]

I can say for sure they will be hard on any black shell paint! The Halo was causing the black and gold Blaze paint I was shooting (Trying to that is) to almost double feed. That extra push down caused by the Halo not seeing the black shell caused a chop about every 2nd or 3rd ball.

Before anyone gets on the paint/barrel waggon I will say that the Diablo paint was very fresh. 30 Balls tested at between 8-22 drops before breaking. The Barrels were a 12' Boomy and a Freak using .689 and .687. The Boomstick and the .689 freak allowed this forced feed and chop issue. The .687 insert for the Freak stopped the problem. Or so I thought....

After finishing for the day and thinking all was well I took my Halo of the Mag and BEHOLD! The ball in the chamber had a large dent in it from the force of the balls on top of it!

The next day I was at the Odyssey web site and read about the black shell issue...

Also, my Halo came without the detent parts in it! I don't know if I need them or not but a $100+ loader should come with all its marbles!

Over all I think its a good loader. It needs to have some weight trimmed of it and these little function issues need to be ironed out. I can stand the weight...but missing parts and being picky about paint shell color is a no no!:cool:

[manike]

I have to just re-iterate to NOT use any paint with black in the shell. I've had problems with victory and zap which were half black half shell and marballisers that had black in the shell.

It seems to work ok with these paints when not feeding into a gun but makes a mess when in actual use... :rolleyes:

manike

[Load SM5]

My HALO had worked perfectly until this weekend. It seems that when it really cold, the paint is really brittle, or worse, both, the HALO can spin hard enough to chop some paint. Then you have an entire hopper of worthless goo.

[sifu01]

During all my tesing in my basement, I never chopped a ball with around 700 shots. As soon as I got to the field, I couldn't stop chopping paint. I got a 68 p/f Mag that is about 7 years old. I tried eveything I could to get it right. I discovered that the powerfeed plug I had was the 'old' style that is a little too flat in the curve. I replaced it with a plus that actually is more angled than curved. After that, I had no more misfeeds or chops. The HALO force feeds the balls and they were getting pinched against the flat part of the p/f plug.
Overall I really like it.

[Cliffio]

Originally posted by sifu01
The HALO force feeds

no it doesnt

[ZeroXtreme]

The HALO does "force feed" in a certain way, when the motor does not stop spinning, the paddle on the cone pushes the balls into the feed neck, and if there is resistance, it is strong enough to actually break balls.

Try this, put your finger into the feed neck from the bottom, while the HALO is off, and pour balls into it. Then turn it on, you will feel exactly how hard it pushes the balls into the feed neck. It sort of hurts.

I've noticed that it does not work well with vertical feeds. My friend was having all sort of problems with his Bushmaster2000.
I tried it on my Powerfeed E-Mag, and these problems did not come out, except for sometimes breaking balls in the hopper itself.

[sifu01]

I know I'm right. I own one. It does not shut off until it meets resistance in the staging parts of the hopper. So....

[Cliffio]

i was joking

[Muzikman]

The halo is not force fed. If it was, it would not be allowed in NPPL events. It simply lines the balls up before going down the feed neck.

[manike]

Originally posted by Muzikman
The halo is not force fed. If it was, it would not be allowed in NPPL events. It simply lines the balls up before going down the feed neck.

The HALO is absolutley positively definitely force feed under any sensible definitions of discussion of what force feed is. What it does though is get around the ASTM's definition of 'unallowable force feed' systems.

Which is, if it is turned upside down will it or will it not continue to feed... it doesn't and therefore it is allowed. When in the correct position (right way up) it is most definitely a force feed system IMHO.

manike

[kutter]

Having never used a HALO I cannot comment on what it does or does not do, but the article at http://www.warpig.com/paintball/technical/loaders/halo/review.shtml certainly characterizes it as force fed, using words like 'Drive wheel' and 'driven'.

But as always this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

[Hysperion]

ahhh so maybe I have been blaming my sfl for no reason and maybe it is the halo that is giving me my problems shooting outdoors...I think I'm gonna go back to putting a xboard rev with wicked mpeller back on top of the warp...

[pito189]

I just used my HALO for the first time this weekend and I absolutely loved it. I couldn't outshoot it to save my life. I went through about two hoppers trying too. The only problem I had was chopping paint in my cocker, the timing went out of whack ( :rolleyes: looooooong story). I chopped so much paint with my cocker that it was pooled inside the vertical feed when I took the HALO off, and the paint was up inside the feed neck. I was shooting 3 month old diablo with a black and yellow shell, and it was freezing out side. The paint was very brittle too, it was breaking from knee high every time I would drop one.

The negatives, the inside is very difficult to clean. There is about eleventy billion :p nooks and crannies for paint to get into. Odyssey is very vague with there directions on cleaning the HALO. They say use plexas glass cleaner for the outside of the HALO, but that you can just wipe off with a towel. What do you use for the inside?

Other than that I love it and cannot wait to play with it again. Maybe this time it won't be about 30 degrees. HA!

[Load SM5]

I have a WAS Turborev board and evil impeller on the way for my back-up Revy. I'll do some tests with it and the HALO and post the results on this thread.

[oneshot]

I have not really used my halo , yet, I get to use it next weekend at practice, have run some paint through it works great so far, I will report back after I play with it.:D

[Cliffio]

i just ordered one, but i am think im gonna keep my x-board revy will all this talk about problems

my revy might be brass eagle but it never has problems

[sifu01]

Make sure if you have p/f,that you get the latest p/f plug!
Its always a good idea to have a backup hopper anyway.

[raehl]

Right now my HALO is non-functional in a plastic bag. I was hoping someone would be at Skyball to fix it, but no luck there. I will say that it stopped working after I disassembled it to clean paint out,and I originally put the black square "circuit board cover" with the push button in upside-down, and I think I may have broken off the LED light. Not sure if that's why it isn't working or not.

While it *WAS* still working, I broke a couple balls, but it was year-old paint that was doing 1 on the drop test. Other than that, worked great feeding into my warp feed. Worked great for a teammate on his Matrix. And it DEFINITELY feeds better than a revy. I can watch my teammate easily outshoot his revy (because it's transparent) but he can't outshoot the HALO. I think the warp feed helps with anyo potential breakage, because when the WF pushes, there's a nice long stream of paintballs it's pushing into that can compress.

It's actually lower profile on the WF than other hoppers (not as tall). I did need to sand down the feed neck to allow it to fit tightly in the warp feed. (I think having the waarp feed not all the way closed caused some feeding problems with the WF.)

Oh, one thing I *WILL* say - I think the feed neck of the halo is TOO narrow. I understand that the original philosophy was to reduce ball boggle, but if you get a large paintball in there, it can jam, or as happened to me, when I brokeone, the broken goop around an intact ball was enough to get the ball stuck inthe narrow feed neck and pretty much leave me screwed for a game. IF a ball breaks i the hopper, at least let me shoot horrendously innacurate paint for the rest of the game, don't prevent me from shooting at all, ya know? Can't even bunker anyone then....

So anone know where you can pick up replacement boards for the HALO?

Thanks,
Chris

[pito189]

Well here it is after sanding the neck so that it will sit all the way into my feed neck. Not ONE singel problem. It was awesome. Not one chopped ball all day long. No broken balls inside the hopper today either.

It was very wet today though, and towards the end of the day it started raining. I wasn't to sure about playing with it in all the wetness, but it preformed fine. On one occasion after a very long run to the other teams 45, and a 10 yard slide that ending with me knocking the bunker over. I was lying in the mud trying to make myself as small as possible and keep my HALO out of the puddle I was laying in. It still worked quite nicely.

I think it feeds the balls so hard, and so quickly that you can actually shoot with the gun at a very steep angle.

Negative about the wet games. The electronics are right at the back of the hopper and there are many seems that water could get into. Even when you push the buttom it has the potential to let water in. Walking to the field or back from it you are pointing the gun down and rain is falling right onto the back of the hopper.

I think that Odyssey should come up with a different on/off switch. Some kind of toggle switch like the revvy or I don't know just I don't really like the one button.

Is there going to be an LCD screen coming out for the back of the HALO anytime soon? I have read things about it but never anything official.

[sifu01]

I emailed someone at Odyssey before the HALO was released asking if an LCD board will be an option. I did see a video demo from Odyssey that had the LCD on it. They said they are working on the upgrade and it will most likely be available. No price info and this is all before Brass Eagle decided to file lawsuit for patent infringment.

[Kneedragger]

Originally posted by manike
I have to just re-iterate to NOT use any paint with black in the shell. I've had problems with victory and zap which were half black half shell and marballisers that had black in the shell.

It seems to work ok with these paints when not feeding into a gun but makes a mess when in actual use... :rolleyes:

manike

You can see in the picture that magic55 posted he was using black shelled paint. Apparently he never read the manual.

[manike]

Trouble is most manufacturers make paint with black in the shell. Most paint I have access to here tends to be half shelled with black or a dark colour that the Halo doesn't like. To be honest I've been unable to really use mine as each time I have tried it has made a mess of the balls inside it. I haven't gotten around to cleaning it out after the last time...

I also have the old lid. How can I get a new lid and the bearings etc. over here in England? Mine also came with one of the long casing screws missing. It work's without the screw but it would be nice to have it...

manike

[Doobie]

Manike,
Try e-mailing them through their web site. http://www.odysseypaintball.com/
They are great guys and might be able to help.

[manike]

Doobie, KneeDragger works for Odyssey which is why I was asking him here. But I will e-mail them via the site also thanks :)

manike

[nw2c2003]

Not long ago I purchased a new black teflon e-mag and at the same time a new agd warp. Well it had been a long time since I had played last and I knew my 9 volt revy wasnt going to be any good. So I asked a few people and got mixed answers on what to buy. I started with a 12 volt revy with x board installed and I was still chopping like mad. So I broke down and bought a halo I have chopped 1 ball since and that is after about 10 cases of paint. The only problem I have had is it will mysteriously turn itself off from time to time.

[Doobie]

after 20 min. it auto powers down. Might be a pain in big games.:(

[jurassic]

Have installed the WAS bearing kit and the new lid Odyssey sent out. Was not difficult but you will need some extra scotch tape to secure the wires before assembling the shells together, this is in the instructions but I used extra and it came out nice and tidy.:)
It was a little bit quieter, but still on the noisy side, but it really was not a problem before. Continues to work as advertised and with the Warp on the Hypered Retroed Minimag is silly easy to put out streams of paint!! Still no chops or barrel breaks!! Seen, Knocking on head!
Have purchased a 12v Revy with Warp hose cutout from Restola and will try that out later this week when it comes in. Will have donggie his money for the new Extreme Emag early next week!:D Hope to see it in April
and will try both setups on the Extreme to see which I like better. No C&C on the Mag, but gloss black is what I like and prefer.:cool:
One other thing, go to this web site and see what you think about the custom Jimmies and tank covers from Ron Stern.
http://www.ronnstern.com/store/bbb.htm

Looks like some really nice work. Have some on order.
Maybe we can have a special order for AO members on some barrel Jimmies, Tank covers, or Jerseys or whatever.:cool:

[Krazy Ivan]

I have not gotten to use one as of yet. However, I have seen a lot go down, and also talking to a friend that works at a local pro shop, he said that they can't send them back to National Paintball Supply (Distributor's) but to another location. Now they don't carry them in the first place, however for even them to get a memo on this, they have to have had some major problems in the inception. From what I heard of them though is that they have fixed most of the problems, and even are coming out with a new assembly to make it feed faster.

In theory of how I've heard it works however it seems to me to be just a hopper version of the Warp Feed system..

Correct me if I'm wrong, I would like to know what u guys think.

[sifu01]

I think that you know how to revive a near dead post. :)
I have no problems with my HALO but I do think that there are some realizations that the product could be improved. I do enjoy my HALO but my opponents do not.

[TransMan]

mine hasnt broke any paint i love it and i want a lcd screen for it

[pito189]

Still have not broken any paint in mine, and I love it. I would like an LCD screen too. Creamy LCD goodness...

Oh well I think I am going to dye my lid some color.

[openboater]

HALO, WARP, RTPRO
Day 1
team colors, broke paint in HALO, would not feed no matter what I did, paint ran into WARP and that $750 setup was useless for the rest of the day. relied on stock Mag without a single ball break in a case (RICKOCHET)

Day 2, Rick, WARP, RTPRO.
entire case, not a single problem.

I'm selling the HALO to a guy on our field.

The RICK has never let me down in the last year and I can afford the batteries (1 9v), not 6 AA. Plus I used to think the beep at 140 balls was a gimick, but now that I'm used to it I love it. And it agitates at turn-on, so if I ever had to, I could turnoff and turn-on and force an agitation.

The only think the halo agitates is me, when I think about the $99 and all that mess.