I wanted a low profile, modular, paintball marker system. It had to fit in a tank turret, hold 40 rounds of paintball ammo, and be adaptable to a variety of vehicles. I also wanted to base the system off an electronic marker because I thought there would space savings and reliability gains over a manual trigger.
I started out with a ViewLoader Charger, an inexpensive electronic marker. From the user reviews I've seen of it, it's an adequate paintball marker and a good value. Most of the complaints were that it doesn't fire fast enough. That's really not a factor for RC Tank Combat games where fully automatic fire is not allowed.
To get as low a profile as possible, I wanted to turn the marker on its side. The Charger, like most markers, has a top paintball feed port. I needed to move the feed port to the marker side so that when the marker was mounted horizontally, the new feed port would be back on top and the paintballs would feed using gravity. I removed the feed tube and filled the feed hole in with HTS-2000 (www.aluminumrepair.com). I have a steel tube turned down to just fit inside the marker body to act as a backing plate for the molten HTS-2000. I basically use the same technique shown on the HTS-2000 web site for repairing holes in aluminum. It takes a lot of time and patience with my MAPP gas torch, but it works. Then, I carefully drill a new feed hole in the side of the marker. The photos below show the prototype result. It ended up going to Chrys Kane, in Greece, for testing in several of his vehicles.
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Marker body after removing the feed tube, filling in the feed port, and grinding. |
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Top view showing the magazine tray. There's room for 40+ rounds. |
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Elevation mechanism. This uses 1/4 scale servo with a heavy duty servo saver and a short arm. The arm mounts to a pivot on the marker body. You can also see the firing solenoid. The lower grip of the marker has been removed. |
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Back of the marker assembly showing the relocated electronics and a
firing servo. The electronics board normally resides in the handle of
the marker. I chose to build this version with a firing servo. Other
options are possible such as interfacing to a DIO board, like RocketMan
does. I could also use a servo relay controller like the one offered by
www.anvilus.com.
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With the magazine lid on and a ruler in the foreground for scale. |
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