Lets talk Halo B...the truth uncovered!!!!

[FreshmanBob]

I'm still not too sure on the whole halo vs revy but we'll see what happens

anyway, just to give you guys a little heads up, Oddessy paintball was testing a new halo at IAO that managed to force 3 balls down the breech of a racegun autococker.

Now, the thing about raceguns is that you can set how long the breech is open for, this gun was open for 10 ms.

That means in 1/100 of a second 3 balls were forced past the cockers ball detente. That means 300 balls a second.. though there's gotta be a catch, I'll let you guys know what i hear.

[cfhiv]

Feed Rate

Steve and I ran some tests today the results are below.
KEY for my terms:
pad is paddle new pad is the newest viewloader paddle
old pad is the old four pronged paddle bps balls per second

KEEP IN MIND THIS TEST WAS DONE WITH LOOSE RESTRAINTS.

as a side not the newest paddle from VL sucks if you ask usKEEP IN MIND THIS TEST WAS DONE WITH LOOSE RESTRAINTS.

[cphilip]

Well the formating of the table was lost but a I can still follow.

Nice testing!

[Mango]

Even if the Halo-B weighed 5 lbs, I would still use it. It's performance is just that good.

[mxracer33x]

I played all day at shatnerball with my emag/warp/haloB and shot in some interesting situations, without any problems. It feeds at any angle well, even 90* left with enough paint.

Shooting the emagnum at Full Auto 20 bps the Halo B kept up great. A xboard revvy made the Level 10 work very hard in comparison. Still no chops but you could hear it working alot. I personally am still going for a no-rise body with the halo B. warp is more bulk than I want.

8 cases of paint and the batteries are still going strong. My Ricochet 2k needs replacements after only 3 cases. Very good battery life.

[raehl]

My biggest beef with the HALO?

Narrow feed neck. It feeds great on all my markers, vert cocker, vert bushy, and mag on warp feed, never broken a ball in it, although did jam one once.

I have, however, had balls get stuck in the neck. They get a little big or a little dirty and get stuck in the curved park of the feed neck/tube. This quickly becomes a pain in the *** when you have to dislodge the ball.

As for the .6 lb difference.... com'on, that's less than the weight of the paint you'll be putting in the thing. Plus for those of us who run the HALO off of our warp feed batteries (or EMag battery) it's even less since you lose the battery weight.

But all in all, I'll take the HALO B over any other loader. My backup is another HALO B. Those of ou who say you need a backup loader for tournaments - duh. You should always have backup loaders for when your loader breaks a ball inside. I've noticed that happens a lot more with revs and richochets than it does with HALOs.

- Chris

[Kevmag]

Re: My biggest beef with the HALO?

Originally posted by raehl
Plus for those of us who run the HALO off of our warp feed batteries (or EMag battery) it's even less since you lose the battery weight.

I didn't think you could run the Halo off the E-Mag battery, let alone the a warp feed battery (would even 2 x 9V set up in series have enough current to run both Halo and Warp?). Has anyone else tried this on an E-Mag?

[raehl]

You'd want to set up the 2 9 volts in parallel, not series - it's not the voltage that's the problem with the 9V's, it's the current. 9V's are really just 6 small 1.5V batteries in series in a box.

And when I mean off of my warp feed battery, I run my warp feed off of 8 1.2 volt high drain AA batteries designed for digital cameras and the like. Definitely enough currrent coming outta there for the warp and HALO, and the emag battery will do an amp of current, which is also plenty. Just have to make sure you regulate your output down from the 18 volts or you'll blow out your warp feed board.

- Chris

[cphilip]

Chris, do you know if the Halo Board can take more than 12V?

[Kevmag]

I have a battery harness to run my warp and 12V Revy off my E-Mag battery. The connector to the Warp is properly regulated to 12V or 9V to not blow the warp. The connector to the Revy is unregulated (as the Revy board will reg down to 12V).

Do I need to modify this connector to use with my Halo B? Or can I just remove the AA battery carrier and connect to the 9V connector?

Thanks - Kevin

[raehl]

HALO Board

I have no idea what the upper limits of the HALO board are or whether it has a regulator to bring down the input voltage. Tex assured me that running 10.6 in wouldn't be a problem, beyond that is a question for HALO.


I definitely wouldn't assume it's ok - the reason you can run the 18v from the E-Mag battery straight into your VL is that the VL uses 2 9V's - so it was already tking in 18 volts, it just has a voltage regulator built in to bring that down to 12 volts. Thus when you run 18v into it from the E-Mag battery the VL brings it down to 12 for you. Since the HALO is only supposed to have batteries that output 9 V, there doesn't appear to be a good reason fo them to have that voltage regulator built in.


- Chris

[gatorchris]

I have seen a few people running two 9vs in parallel around here, that way you get the increased amperage needed without raising the voltage. Officially Tex frowns on it but I dont think Ive seen him say it wouldnt work or would damage the boards. The people Ive seen do it claim it still works fine, and that the weight savings are noticeable. I just choose not to be a sissy and run the AAs

[raehl]

2 9 V's

They may weigh less and get you enough current, but they'll also get you less shots and will be more expensive to use. (More expensive batteries, less shots, more money.)

Of course, if you're like me and have gone all-rechargable (seemed silly to be shelling out $2-3 per paintball day for 9V's) the cost isn't so bad.


But still, after you put the paint in there - is the couple ounces of battery weight really a big deal?


- Chris

[gatorchris]

Should have been more specific, they are using rechargeables as well with the 9v's. They have to recharge after every day of use though to keep the current up to snuff. I have changed my AA's once since I got my B, and that was out of paranoia more than anything else. Didnt want to start the day and wind up with dead batteries right before a back to back or something. I agree about the weight, I dont think its worth it, which is why I choose to just stick with the AA's.

[cphilip]

I bring this back up to let you know a couple things that have developed.

The test unit that was used here has seen about a case of paint through it. It was used for the feed tests that Steve and Charlie did and reported above. Then it went out in the field with another new unit that was seeing its first use too.

But now this test unit has failed. It's jamming and buzzing. And often refusing to respond to the on/off button and when it does is almost always buzzing and refusing to spin. This came on fairly sudden. It may have seen a case of paint through it.

So I called Odyssey this morning and let Edward hear it over the phone. He says "Motor Fried" and send it in. Says they got a bad batch of motors. So I still do not know if the other two are going to be affected but I am sending this one on in.

So thats a downer...but the up side and the reason for me bringing this thread back up is now we will get to see their customer service action. The sign of a good company is how they deal with problems. Will report on that too! talk about looking hard for a silver lining?