So...How's it going?

[luke]

I don't believe that it's just this section that keeps folks away from this board.

Like I've said several times, friendly corner "was the last straw for many" but it started years before that. The problem was the lack of enforcement of the basic rules. The problem here in friendly corner goes back a decade at least. That said the problem did not start in FC, it all started after Tom retired.

You say there's a lot of interesting things happening in the AO community but where and what?

When I say AO community, I'm talking about former members that left here. The AO community is spread out mostly on facebook and MC Brown. There are offerings of custom markers, parts, new offerings in mods, techs without a good home due to facebook nonsense, at least one machinist I know of that lost his account on FB for no good reason. He's an assent to the community but really doesn't have a good home to operate from.

If you believe that's the case you could probably start a different forum and have traffic over there because it's not happening here.

Why should I start a new forum when this one is dead but could be brought back with just a little support from the moderators. All I'm asking of them is to enforce rules that have been neglected since Tom left. It's that simple.

I have an idea but will not move on it until I have a conversation with someone that can enforce the rules. That's all I'm asking for.

This forum isn't particularly stable and seems to use a lot of archaic technology that is barely maintained, which isn't too surprising given that its probably ran by unpaid volunteers. Kudos to the guys who keep this forum alive though. You have a vested interest in ensuring paintball players get exposure to automags and their parts but are you helping to maintain and drive traffic to this site?

Maybe, but it worked then and it works now. Plus Bunny did a bang up job with the current changes.

Facebook is not all its cracked up to be, it's very difficult to run projects there due to how the algorithms work. You post something and it doesn't even show up in your own feed, you have to go look for it them turn on each comment to read it. Plus you have to re-read an entire post to find new comments. It's an ignorant way to run a forum.

MCB has a far larger user base of folks doing a variety of different things to markers. MCB certainly lends itself to more R&D work which is what is going to drive people to come on the site and post. If you're selling a marker now why not just go on facebook and looking at the posts?

MCB is just TOO LARGE, to many forums and bst is lumped in with everyone else, its not Automag spesific, I've never done business there, never will.

Don't take this the wrong way. I like your parts and I think you do a great job but if you want traffic on a site you have to drive innovation and custom milling isn't going to cut it at this point. Design a custom circuit board that can fit in an automag and open source the project, design a new X valve (original RT style) that will allow the mag to be macroless, figure out a better method making the Level 10 not be so finicky.

This is not just about my business, my business is doing great. This is about community, this is about other builders, designers, manufacturers, techs, guys offering printing services, etc. It's about Tuna and XMT here on AO without traffic. XMT cant even fill a preorder, but my guess he could if this place was brought back from the dead. I want to see him complete those projects, the community needs him and we need Tuna, we need everyone that contributes under one roof. This is about me seeing the need to get everyone back under on roof where Automags is the focus. Like it was when Tom was here.

I'm not an electronics guy, I have tried for many years to purchase the rights to the UTB, but Scenario Dreams disappeared. I've had a dozen builders try to create a new UTB but in the end they all walk away from the project. I have an electronic frame ready for production, just need UTB boards.

I make my own LcX valve. To go truly hoseless it's a complete remake of most of the parts involved. A project I spent a great deal of time looking into and decided I dont want to do it. I'm closer to retirement than not. What you mentioned can be done but I'm not your huckleberry.

[CitsejaMkraDehT]

Like I've said several times, friendly corner "was the last straw for many" but it started years before that. The problem was the lack of enforcement of the basic rules. The problem here in friendly corner goes back a decade at least. That said the problem did not start in FC, it all started after Tom retired.

Tom retired how many years ago? Automags.org dwindled because of many reasons. Lack of technical discussions, lack of R&D, lack of desire to own an automag, etc.

Why should I start a new forum when this one is dead but could be brought back with just a little support from the moderators. All I'm asking of them is to enforce rules that have been neglected since Tom left. It's that simple.

I have an idea but will not move on it until I have a conversation with someone that can enforce the rules. That's all I'm asking for.

Because you're unhappy with how things are run. Instead of complaining about it, bring a solution.

Facebook is not all its cracked up to be, it's very difficult to run projects there due to how the algorithms work. You post something and it doesn't even show up in your own feed, you have to go look for it them turn on each comment to read it. Plus you have to re-read an entire post to find new comments. It's an ignorant way to run a forum.

MCB is just TOO LARGE, to many forums and bst is lumped in with everyone else, its not Automag spesific, I've never done business there, never will.

Facebook sucks so no disagreement there. Facebook isn't intended to be a forum.

Sort of sounds like your fault for not engaging in/with MCB. Great forum with a lot of great discussion.

This is not just about my business, my business is doing great. This is about community, this is about other builders, designers, manufacturers, techs, guys offering printing services, etc. It's about Tuna and XMT here on AO without traffic. XMT cant even fill a preorder, but my guess he could if this place was brought back from the dead. I want to see him complete those projects, the community needs him and we need Tuna, we need everyone that contributes under one roof. This is about me seeing the need to get everyone back under on roof where Automags is the focus. Like it was when Tom was here.

Then build up the community that you so believe in and stop waiting around for others to do so. You keep mentioning Tom but that was a long freaking time ago.

I'm not an electronics guy, I have tried for many years to purchase the rights to the UTB, but Scenario Dreams disappeared. I've had a dozen builders try to create a new UTB but in the end they all walk away from the project. I have an electronic frame ready for production, just need UTB boards.

I'm not sure why a "new UTB" is necessary, whatever board that is. Nor does that even matter. Scenario Dreams, Tado, Planet Eclipse, etc. doesn't do anything unique with electronics. Period. They aren't Texas Instruments, Intel, IBM, they are just simply integrators of technology.

If I was to do a new board I'd prototype the concept with a raspberry PI or maybe something a bit more C architecture based and prove out that all the functionalities can be done and then use KiCAD to do the board layout. Voltage booster to take the two AA battery output to 5V or potentially just 3.3V depending on what processor is chosen. I'd probably look for something that has minimal input/outputs (inputs: eyes/micoswitch, output: solenoid), SDRAM (no microSD), and can power LCD screen. You certainly want something that is going to draw as little power as possible to actuate the solenoid. One of biggest, foolish design choices by Tom was giving the user to the ability to operate the marker in mechanical and electronic mode.

Hell I bet there's probably open source GIT repos to pull source code from for the LCD screen. With ChatGPT / Claude / etc. you can probably speed up firmware development by a factor of 10x as well.

I make my own LcX valve. To go truly hoseless it's a complete remake of most of the parts involved. A project I spent a great deal of time looking into and decided I dont want to do it. I'm closer to retirement than not. What you mentioned can be done but I'm not your huckleberry.

I get it, R&D is expensive, hard, and time consuming. If you want to drive innovation, then share those CAD drawings so folks can work off them and make a macro less automag.