Awesome New Trigger Idea!!! Have A Look!

[spyder_technician]

I know a lot of people have been playing around with using lasers or light beams to trigger the firing mechanisms on electronic markers. I also know that what I did was small potatoes and probably isn't that new. But, it is sweet.

I was trying to figure out how to take the sensor off of a revvy and mod it to trip the noid on my e-spyder. I couldn't really do it as easily as I thought I could so I just quit. As I was re-attaching my microswitch my old ricochet caught my eye and visions djust shot through me. If you're familiar with ricochets, you know they use the bend sensors to detect the motion of the balls through the feedneck. It is basically a small, thin strip of plastic that is very flexible. When it bends, electric current flows through it and it triggers whatever it is you want it to (hence the name - bend sensor). A rolling paintball is more than enough to trip the hopper so a slight flick of the finger is all it takes to roll this thing out. It took me a total of 5 minutes to get this thing wired to my board and working, but almost an hour to figure out how to position this thing on my frame. A little dremel work (on the switch, not frame), some glue, and slick fingers and I had it up and going.

What surprised me about the finished product was how stable it was. I thought it would be enirely too sensitive and go haywire on everything in my room. It turns out that it is very, very docile. But, it is a caged animal. Because it only takes a flick, it can be fired on both the forward and backward motions. It is sorta like a turbo mode. It is extremely fast. Period. Even though it is still no better than a lightweight microswitch, it seems to be easier to maintain a constant rate of fire. Where as superlight, fast microswitches can create sporratic burst when "walked", this setup is less likely to fire and bursts and gives you a cleam stream of shots. Of course, I highly doubt this is even close to being tourney legal, or even legal at some fields. It is, however, very cool to look at.

Here are the only pics I have right now. Hopefully I'll get some of me playing with it at my field this weekend.

One last thing... It does seem to have a very bad side effect. The gun tends to fire every time you turn it on. That is, when you hit the on switch... it shoots one out. As far as I can see there's no way to stop this (besides common sense and maybe a barrel cover). Oh yeah, Don't do this if you think you might mess something up on your gun. And if you do mess something up or possibly hurt yourself, don't blame me. Do this modification at your own risk.

PICS!!!
www.geocities.com/ausi_dog/Trigger.html

[Bad_Dog]

cool idea!

I like the fact that you didnt ruin your espyder, and it seems quite interesting how it works... you need to get some vids of that think up and running!

[spyder_technician]

Its real easy to make and use. Its really just like walking a trigger with just one finger. Yeah, thats it. Just imagine walking your trigger with just one finger and thats about how this thing is. I did find a cheat on this thing, though. If you touch that little plastic part with a piece of metal... watch out. It goes insane when it comes in contact with metal. I guess when the metal makes contact with whatever electronics are printed on the platic it acts like the sensor has been tripped multiple times. Just one thing I've noticed about it.

BTW, that whole paragraph about it being more consistent than an average trigger, well that was just me getting a little over excited. It was like 3:00 AM and I was just goinf crazy. It is just that same as any other trigger. If you use it right, it acts right. I guess it is just easier to train yourself to be better at this type of trigger. The newbiest of noobs could learn how to rock this trigger within a minute or two. I'll keep this pist going as I find out some positives and negatives of this setup.


OK I added some new pics since the last ones were viewed too many times. These should work out a lot better.

[OysterBoy]

You could mostlikely make this into a trigger.A FAST trigger... Mount it vertically , at the top of the inside of the frame, then use something not metallic (Thin plastic card comes to mind.) to fill it out, in the shape of a regular trigger. Now you've got a 'regular' trigger, only with a shorter 'pull', yes?

[spyder_technician]

Thats a good idea. Actually, as someone else pointed out to me and as I've noticed myself, the switch completes its circuit when it is at normal resting position. It actually doesn't fire when you bend it, it fires when you bend it and release it to its normal postion. I guess if you did that trigger idea, the "trigger" would be mounted so that it was always bent, then when you pull it, it would straighten out and fire. Then it wouldn't be much better than a normal trigger. I guess. Unless you made it so that the "trigger" could be flicked back and forth to make it more reactive.

[OysterBoy]

No, see that reactivity is what would make it fast. Have the trigger the way it is, with a little space in between the trigger and the back of the frame. Just lightly walking would do the trick. The main thing is, don't get caught up in single thoughts, for example, the fact it doesn't complet the circuit until it is at rest should NOT be taken into account for your trigger design, as either way it is doing what is should be..

[Duck Hunt]

Site's no longer working, I'd like to see pics of this!!!

Sean

[spyder_technician]

AAHHHHH!!!!! I can't seem to find a good hosting site. Well, I do have this on three forums and I think they're getting used too much. I guess you have to wait. I used to have the best site (izerop.com), but they crashed. They didn't have any restrictions. Oh well, sorry. I'm to tired to mess with them anymore. Maybe I'll redo them later on tonight.


TRY THE LINK, I THINK THATS WORKING NOW.

[Ltfuzz]

use www.photobucket.com

[vf-xx]

Images

http://members.cox.net/novaprime/spydertrigger1.JPG

http://members.cox.net/novaprime/spydertrigger2.JPG

if someone can tell me how to force an image size I'll post these directly. Until then, here are links.

*warning BIG picts*

[dyeguy65]

think you can post pics with the grips off? id like to see how you did this. i ahve some ideas of my own. thnx in advance.

[spyder_technician]

Actually, I already un-did it. It was extremely easy to do, don't worry about any complicated mounting process that I might have used. I could have shown you a pic of the inside, but it would have looked pretty much the same. In fact I even mounted the bend sensor right where the microswitch usually goes.

This first attempt was extremely successful. More succesful than even I thought it would be. However it did give me some problems. Since I didn't want to solder any of the wires on the sensor, I had some problems with the contacts. I didn't want to do anything remotely permanent to my chrome e-frame (so hard to come by) so I basically used glue. It worked fine, but every now and then the gun would fire on its own because the electrical contacts kept shifting. As of now, this is my only marker and I have to play this weekend. I didn't want to show up at my field with a gun that keeps firing on its own. Very very soon I plan to get a used e-frame to do a more permanent (much better) modification to. When that happens I'll post back here.

DyeGuy: If you look at the pic, its exactly as shown. All I did to mount it was cram the sensor right where it is, and glue it in place. Also, the bottom pin that holds the microswitch was used to provide a little additional support. So, if you plan to do it, just cram and glue... and post (back on this forum.

[dyeguy65]

lol. ok. thnx for the tip. and good luck with your permanent mod.