non-optic breach sensor

[misenhei]

i may be too little to post here yet, but:
my buddy and i were throwing ideas back and forth, and why couldn't you have a piezoelectric pressure sensor sitting at the bottom of the breach? since the voltage output is proportional to the weight, sensitivity could easily be adjusted as a function of that voltage.
-you can't break 'em.
-they don't take any external power to run.
-it'd be unaffected by breaks - no matter how gummed up the breach gets, the paintball(s) will still weigh the same.
-the bolt's albedo will not affect sensitivity.
-it'd be more reactive in the cases of running/snapshooting where the stack gets jostled.
-that case of black/grey paint you accidentally bought because you forgot to open it before you paid (you know who you are)....could still be shot same as any others.
-installation would be varying degrees of difficult (except on a mag-type body)
tell me what you think, shoot the idea down - that's what the forum's here for, eh?

[athomas]

Good idea for an ideal setup.

But:

Firing the gun at an angle would cause the ball to exert less pressure on the sensor. Running and firing could cause the ball to exert no pressure on the sensor at times but still be in firing position.

Maybe there is a way around these downfalls.

[misenhei]

for the angle shooting's a good point. as angle increases (deviation from vertical), the vector on the switch will decrease, but so will your feed rate. assuming a force feed, or a weighted stack, as long as you can deliver paint to the breach, that should be enough to trip the sensor.
for running, i look at that as a benefit. since most eye systems work on movement, that constant movement from every step you take may give conflicting data to the eye. the transduction is fast enough it's used as an optical switch for fibre transfers, so, your marker's reaction time allowing, it should be fast enough to catch it RIGHT when it's at the low spot in it's bouncing and fire.

like you said...we are still in the realm of ideal though

[Fixion]

The weight will change if you have a Halo B.

[Bloencustoms]

The angel IR3 already has a similar system in place. They call it COPS, for crystal operated paintball sensor (I think). Anyway, it used a plastic rod which protrudes silghtly into the bottom of the breech, and rests on top of the pressure sensor below in the grip frame. They were very problematic. People couldn't figure out hoe to adjust them, and with angel owners frequently changing bolts, they often choose bolts that were not milled with a slot to pass the sensor rod. This resulted in damaged sensors and rods. Most IR3 owners that I know chose to remove the COPS altogether.

[ezrunner]

Sensi/cops

The Angel SENSI/COPS sensor is just this type of system. The board analyses the signal from the sensor and does predictive rate of fire calculations.

The problem is that these sensors pick up vibrations not just pressure. The Halo has inconsistent pressure/force and therefore causes the gun to ramp up ROF when the next ball isn't quite there yet.

The break beam eyes are a much more usable system. If you wanna get predictive calculate timings.

-rob