Can Richard Play Paintball ?

[Automaggin2]

http://www.warpig.com/paintball/tournament/zapam98/newprod/index.shtml

[TAG]

On Feb 28th 2002 Richard was electrocuted while working on energized power lines.
He lost both arms above the elbow and spent 2 weeks in ICU then 4 more in the hospital before going to Nashville Rehab Hospital off and on for the next 4 months.

After his arms healed he decided that he wanted to play paintball again. With encouragement from a good friend, Travis Boyd, he was introduced to me and Dee.


Tom,
You cant imagine how much everyone appreciates your support and the support of this community. Richard was already a mag user before the accident so this will really pump him up even more.

[digitard]

While I have no input on what can be done, I do want to say that your friend is an inspiration.

Many times in life people give up because the solution is not easily seen ... but those who take the "curveball" and then grow stronger are an inspiration to anyone.

If your friend does get back into tourny's I will fly out sometime to see him play and support him and your team.....

While my personal injury is nowhere even in the same ballpark, I know that when I tore my ACL in my knee (at at 15 no less) I didn't think that I would be able to play paintball again because the constant damage I kept doing to my knee from it blowing out was causing wear on my kneecap ... after having surgery and a year of rehab on the knee to build up enough muscle tissue to basically be "good as new" I was able to play with no leg brace and no worries .... while the injuries differ, I did know that i was afraid that I couldn't do things I wanted to do ...

Tell your friend he is an inspiration and that positivity is a necessity .... never let the turns of life get the best of you, there's always a way.

Sincerely,
Dave K

[TigerMan]

Richard is one extraordinary person for not letting something like his dehabilitation put him back. I give him and others like him a lot of credit for wanting to get back on their feet and continue on, doing what they did before.

For a feed system, maybe have something with a vacuum assist, like ones on Angels except more powerful. Maybe something such as this could be rigged to either the gun or the feed pouch or hopper with a tube.

Good luck and I hope everything works out for the best with Richard so that he's out there playing again soon. Keep us updated as to what ends up being used.

[hawpunch]

this guy is a true champion....

hi,

i am not a paintball techie, so i'm not too sure how a loader can be worked out for richard. what i did want to say was, as the other posters noted, how courageous your friend richard is to get up from such a deblitating injury and situation and go on with life. its people like him that inspire the rest of us who are in perfect health to achieve more than we thought we could. the true heart of a champion is not in the way he handles his victories but in the way he handles his defeats. please tell richard he is an inspiration and good luck in his endeavors.

i would also like to say that i am impressed by agd and tom for their compassion and willingness to help. when there are times that i feel bad for spending so much money on agd products and paintball, i think of all the positive things people in the paintball community, like tom, do and it justifies the cost because my small contribution keep these companies afloat. thanks tom and agd.

aloha,

jae park

[Collegeboy]

Ok so I am guessing that his arms will be locked onto the gun. Or will he be able to remove one of them. I think the last one would be correct.

Ok if he can remove one of them. Here is a cheap and easy thing to do.

Take one of those packs that carries paint balls tubes that only uses elastic straps. Nothing on the bottom or top. Take the pack position it on his front and put the pods upside down. Now when he wants to load it he can position his hopper under the tubes, open the pod and let the paint fall into the hopper.

This will take some time getting used to but will be practically the same as everyone else out there.

If you want to engineer something that would take some money but would be nice do this.

Do as the others have said but instead of forcing it into the gun itself. Make the paint go to a pod on his front that will hold around 200 rounds or so. Make it where only 200 go it, rig up some sort of cut of valve (those one way swing vales would work great. As to make sure no more the 200 will fit in. Then once it gets time, he can open his hopper position it under the pod and again open the pod and let it fall into the hopper.

Give me a sec and I will work on a work up sketch.

[lillfroboy]

i like clooegeboys idea
i think it coul work if hes right

[Collegeboy]

Alright here is a quick diagram.

I modified it a bit. I have no idea about electronics so someone needs to do that. I thought there would be a problem with when and how to turn the warp feed on and off. I thought about running a system like the intellifeed but hook it up to a sensitive mouth piece. They make some for wheelchairs. Both sides mean forward, left means left and so forward. Now we could just hook it up to a one way switch where when he bits on it both ways the warp feed turns on and it forces balls into the front 200 round pods. That will allow his to fill the pod while still playing.

Here is a diagram.

[azzkikr]

I saw richard yesterday for the first time, and have heard of and been keept up with his situation throughout the year by travis also a friend of mine. I was there with bob while going over some of the ideas that we were cooking up with him and what he thought about it. I'm 100% sure that we will make it work. like bob said, they already have the gun issue solve for the most part anyway. the loading thing is kind of triky for now but I'm sure he'll get it working. I must say that the inspiration that he brought to me was unlike any other, as I'm sure that other felt the same at the field. I hopefully will be playing with richard in the near future. let me end this by saying that I'll try to take some pics of richard for the first time when he steps back on the field. later AZZKIKR

hey bob I've also came up with another idea for the feeding system, wich I know will work but I'll run it by you guys later anyway.

[Bobby_Lee]

If any plastic or plastic machining is needed

Wow is all I can say. I gotta say I'm a little embarassed that I've ever whined about being tired. That said, If any one needs any custom plastic parts needed to make this work let me know. I have access to nylon, teflon, delrin, polycarbonate, etc. I have CNC machines. A router, 2 bridgeport style CNC's and a CNC lathe. Give me a print and tell me what material ya want and I'll make it. In any event good luck. I know paintballers will get this rollin'!:)

[ScatterPlot]

Hey man, thats great that youre not all upset about this thing. One thing I thought of was to make use of the front loader design thing a few posts above this one, but you could load with one of those speed pod things that Dye makes. He could just push it in there and it would load automatically. Good luck!

[TAG]

Tom,

Tried calling but got Voicemail...I will try again tomorrow. If you still wish to discuss this tonight we are up until the AM Just let me know and I will give you a call.

Collegeboy...
I am not sure if he will be using both of his arms while he is playing or not. This is something I will ask him during our chat tomorrow.

Bob,
We all appreciate the offer for your services. Once we get this thing down to a final design we might be making that call......thanks so much for the help.

I think we are heading in the right direction with a single large paint container. I will know more after I speak with Tom tomorrow.

[Xerces]

not much to say that hasn't already been covered. it looks like the backpack warp design seems to be the best for loading purposes.

I am not sure if he will be using both of his arms while he is playing or not. This is something I will ask him during our chat tomorrow.

i don't know how you have this set up, but it seems 2 arms would be better for stability reasons.

[cougar20th]

well first off let him know he's doing the right thing not giving up. i applaude him for that.

now as for triggering the gun. dont artifical arms use some sort of pressure switch to activate the different areas? could you rig a similar switch to fire the gun. i dont know much about it but just a thought.

[TAG]

cougar..
We will eventually have the arm fire the gun through one of the sensor pads in the shoulder. Right now we are using a rubber encased pressure switch that can be used with his mouth.

We were having a slight problem with the mouth switch wearing out so Ken Crane from PerformanceAngel.com is sending us a new version that might solve the problem.
As soon as the arms' engineers get in touch with me we will finalize verion 2