selecting the right board

[wjr]

I'm getting a Rainmaker in a trade, and I plan on modding/tinkering with it. One of the things that I want to upgrade on it is the board. According to what I've read, the only aftermarket board that will work on it is the Morlock board. I don't really want to spend $120 on a board. I know that there must be other boards out there that will work.

Here's an animation of how the rainmaker works. As you can see, the ram controls the bolt and recocks the nelson valve. The ram is controlled by a four way valve.

http://www.zdspb.com/media/tech/animations/rainmaker.gif

I could be completely wrong here, but could an Ion board not be used? The Ion uses a four way solenoid, right?

[ZapTheMad]

One of the t-boards will work if you can get it to fit. Anything with an adjustable dwell should work.

*edit* Take it back. You gotta fire a solenoid too right?

[temps]

I'm not sure on the details of the ion board and I'm too tired to read through the posts to find the info.. but I know detailed info about the noid is posted in this thread. Hope this helps.

[wjr]

One of the t-boards will work if you can get it to fit. Anything with an adjustable dwell should work.

*edit* Take it back. You gotta fire a solenoid too right?

I would assume that you mean that it has to fire a second solenoid. And no, only one solenoid needs to be fired.


That means an Ion board should work then, right?

[ZapTheMad]

Yes, I mean 2 solenoids.

One solenoid/valve controls the ram. This is where adjustable dwell is needed. You need to control how long the ram gets air on the cocking side. If the ram "dwell" is not long enough, it won't fully cock, or worse, blend paint. The Ion solenoid doesn't fit this job description due to it's 3-way operation. The ram needs to have a 4 way valve. Two outputs that switch to exhaust ports when actuated (just like a cocker). When the ram gets pressure on one side, it is exhausting on the other side. With an Ion solenoid valve, you only get exhaust on one side. However, you may be able to modify an Ion board by replacing the solenoid (like the ones used on cockers) if the voltage matches up.

But the ram only cocks the gun. How is the sear tripped? If it also has a solenoid (I'm not familiar with the Rainmaker guts) you will need a board that also supports that function.

*edit* I remembered this site and found the link. You may find some useful things here.

http://www.madhacker.org/painmaker.htm

[stonersr26]

Basically the solenoid controls the ram which is connected to the bolt and hammer, when you pull the trigger the solenoid starts to close the ram which closes the bolt, as the bolt is closing there is a part that releases the hammer which goes on to open the Nelson based valve. It's hard to explain but it is fairly simple. As far as a board I would think any board that can control a 4 way solenoid would work. Other than that I'm not much help, sorry.

[wjr]

Basically the solenoid controls the ram which is connected to the bolt and hammer, when you pull the trigger the solenoid starts to close the ram which closes the bolt, as the bolt is closing there is a part that releases the hammer which goes on to open the Nelson based valve. It's hard to explain but it is fairly simple. As far as a board I would think any board that can control a 4 way solenoid would work. Other than that I'm not much help, sorry.

Thats what I figured from the animation.


I'll be sure and post my results in a few weeks when I try putting the new board in.

[FinchMan]

yeah, the rainmaker is like a pneumatically cycled sterling with an auto-trigger.

[BigEvil]

Well, since you cant get MiniMorlocks anymore, lets see what you need.

If there are two solenoids, you need something that can work with an Ecocker. Im pretty sure that Scenario Dreams has a T-board for it, so off of the top of my head that should do the trick if this is the case.

If its one noid, any other board where you can control the dwell should do.

[ZapTheMad]

I get it!

I did a little more research on the Rainmaker. The sear is tripped on the forward stroke of the ram. I didn't notice the firing pin on the animation. Esssentially, its a blow forward design with a reveresed striker. Very cool!

An Ion board should work if the voltage is correct for your solenoid valve. I think most solenoid valves are 6 volts. I think Lucky sells Ion boards without solenoids. You should be able to wire your stock solenoid into this.

A Spyder T-Board should also work, they are fairly cheap. Just make sure you get one that has dwell adjustment. One of the Raven Primal boards would be perfect since it's an electro pneumatic design. The Primal works kind of like like a Timmy.

The cool thing about both these boards is you can add eyes!

[wjr]

I'll probably end up buying a stock ion board and remove the noid myself. They're dirt cheap, the dwell can be adjusted, they can use eyes, and they have a few firing modes (not that I really need them).

Thanks for all of the help.

[Jeetish]

The problem with using just any board with the rainmaker is that the dwell. Now even with adjustable dwell you might not be able to make the dwell long enough. The average dwell for a rainmaker is 45ms. I looked at the specs for some ion aftermarket boards and not all of them will work. I saw everything for a limit from 30 to 89ms.

Some good choices if you dont want to use a board from another marker, is the morlock board with you already talked about.

The Galeforce board, which was a board made for the rainmaker by the same people who made the morlock. It is around $95 new, but you might be able to find one around $45 used. It is capped at 11 bps though.

Lastly is the Tlaloc chip made for the 99 semi rainmaker board. This gives the board some other rates of fire, but they are getting harder to find.

So do some research, also come check us out at the brass eagle owners group forum, www.beog.org. Also talk to Rainman229 there and he will probably hook you up.

[wjr]

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to look at what dwell the board is.

I may talk to rainman. He was actually the guy I bought the rainmaker from.

[Ydna]

nonono ion board would be a bad idea unless you were using an Ion solenoid. The Ion boards work a little differently than other "regular" boards because the solenoid uses a pulsed dwell time, instead of a "100% on" dwell time that most traditional boards use.

[wjr]

Thanks Ydna. Luckily, I haven't gotten the ion board yet. I managed to get my hands on a free angel LED board.