PCBs arrived!

Today my PCBs from oshpark came in.  Check 'em out!

My Replicator 2 has been really busy running makexyz jobs, and work has been a little crazy, so it haven't been able to tinker much.  I am currently learning more about the TI MSP430, because I think it's the perfect micro to power my laser tag project.  More to come later...

New release mechanism for magazine

So here's a cutaway view of my latest grip model.  There's a nice amount of material so that the magazine will not bind inside of the grip.  The magazine now has a bar with a notch in it that will hopefully catch on the to-be-designed release button.  I haven't decided how to approach the spring loading for the magazine, but it will come to me once I have the release mechanism designed.

I'm starting to think that I am going to have to go all-SMD for the PCB because there really isn't a lot of room in there!

Yet another grip design

On this iteration, I went away from designing the grip as two separate pieces in favor of printing one piece.  The advantage here is that I can easily mirror features from one side to the other, as well as get a good feel for the grip without having to join two pieces.

I added traction features to the sides and front of the grip.  I also enlarged the bosses that go between the fingers.  The grip needs to be more comfortable so I increased the radius of curvature all the way around.  The rear curvature needs to change more so it's more like the Glock 17.

Next I will add the hole in the bottom for the battery magazine, and try to come up  with an eject mechanism and way to add a custom spring.

Grips!

Well, the left side grip finished while I was sleeping last night.  😁

It's not bad for a first pass.  It doesn't fit quite right over the gun's frame and it's also not nearly as comfortable as the Glock 17's grip, which is my baseline for comparison.

I am also rethinking the gun frame concept.  I think I should try to incorporate the magazine slider features and release into the grips instead.  We will see how this turns out with the next couple of iterations.

Magazine slide feature underway

I really want to see how the magazine sliding action will work out, and I had some ideas for strengthening the frame while making the gun easier to print.  I started by chopping off the front of the gun to save on time and materials.  I added a couple of bosses that will hopefully engage the slots in the magazine.  Actually, as I type this I have realized that I didn't measure the slot and picked an arbitrary value -- oops!  The small printed piece is intended to be glued to the bottom of the frame and act as the magazine keeper and extra guide.

I decided to kick off a fixed print so the frame has the right thickness.  Here's what the grip might look like eventually.

Pics of my first Lazer Tag parts

Here is the gun frame I printed last night:

And here is the battery "magazine":

I made a quick rev 2, where I changed the thickess and length of the magazine. I figured that the battery should stick out more in case it ever needed replacement.  I also shelled the upper portion to make it possible to include release tabs.  You may also have noticed that the angle of the top is now perpendicular to the sides of the magazine.  I did this because I felt that was the direction of the eject spring's force.

For rev 3, I will add more thickness so the tabs can be a little meatier.  There also isn't enough space behind the tabs for proper disengagement.  I also think it's time for a rev 2 of the gun frame.  Most likely I will only print the handle and try to get the magazine to slide in and out a little.

My new maker blog after the demise of Posterous

I wonder what it was that drew me to Posterous in the first place...  Whatever it was, I certainly regret it because I can't remember where I had exported all of my past blogging data.  I used Posterous for my infrequent progress reports on various projects, like 3D printing and my racing simulator.   And now it's all gone!  :(  I guess it's time to try out Blogger and hope that it doesn't get axed like some other Google products.

The racing simulator was a pretty big project, but I finally have it at a point where it's completely functional.  It might not look polished, but it does work.  I'm looking forward to getting some seat time in it with the kids over the winter.  Summer is just too hot to be sitting in a garage playing video games.  I should post pictures later... maybe when I figure out how to make posts from my phone.  I'm too lazy to do the photo transfer thing.  ;)

I have decided to start a new project!  My kids had some friends over last week, and we only had two Lazer Tag guns.  I never bought more because the new Lazer Tag set (recently acquired by Nerf, I think?) is best experienced when you pair it with an iOS device.  I don't know if it's required or not, but I don't have enough spare devices for the number of players I'd like to support, and the gun seems a little big.  Our current Lazer Tag guns are also pretty unwieldy.  So I decided that it would be worth creating some kind of open source Lazer Tag system.

Then I started to google a bit and came across Skirmos.  It is a very recent project -- their Facebook page was created back in November 2012, and a post in September 2013 mentions that they are starting a Kickstarter campaign.  I could wait to see what they are going to be offering for their pledge levels and just buy their system, or I could try to come up with my own.  I've decided for the latter, though I will also keep up with them on FB and KS over the coming weeks.

My first issue with Skirmos (which is arguably one of their attractive characteristics for most people) is that you seem to strap it onto any gun you already have.  This is great for a lot of reasons, but I'm looking for something that's easier for 2nd graders to run around with and not bang large guns around or outside of the house.  We only have those large Nerf rifles and I know it just won't work.

I'm also looking for a semi-realistic experience for the guns.  What I love about our current Lazer Tag guns is that you feel a kick when you pull the trigger, and to reload you have to "eject" the magazine.  Totally awesome features IMO.  I want to recreate this experience.

I started by taking measurements of my hand with my calipers.  Given the ideal (or what I recall is the ideal) grip angle of 110deg, I made a quick sketch of a gun frame and printed it on the Replicator 2 so I could hold it in my hand.  It actually came out pretty close -- after the fact I  placed it on top of my airsoft replica of a Glock 17 and it was almost right-on.  I also picked a reasonable LiFePO4 battery from batteryspace.com and printed out a model of that.  Then I made a magazine to hold the battery.  I wanted the battery in the magazine since that's a good place to put the weight, and it would make battery replacement easier.  I need to change the model so that it has quick release tabs for easy removal from the gun.

Not a bad start for one night's work.  I'll post pictures when I can do it from my phone.  There's got to be an app for Blogger, right?  ;)