More small hopper ideas

[Simon]

I thought something similar, but was intrigued as to how it performed real-world.

Worse than it does in their promo videos. I have one.

It has a huge issue with what I call the "replenishment rate". The faster it spins the less likely it is to get a ball in the auger to feed. When they didn't feed a ball they would spin it faster to try and catch up. Doh. Leads to popcorn on an unbelievable level. At low rates of fire it works. At higher rof and with a less than full loader... nope.

[new ion?]

Makes sense. There's nothing to stop the balls from just bouncing off the auger.

And if a cylinder surrounding the auger was put into place... well, then you have a Q loader, and it would have HORRIBLE feed rates due to only being open to paint at one end.

Skibbo, here's a quick mock up of what I had in mind based upon your design. Excuse the paint, I don't have a circuit design program at home.

Click Me!

In all honesty, I don't think this is the best way to go as you're limiting the current applied to the motor. You'd want the motor to be a completely different circuit, controlled via a relay.. but again, now we're diverging from the KISS method.

[skibbo]

Makes sense. There's nothing to stop the balls from just bouncing off the auger.

And if a cylinder surrounding the auger was put into place... well, then you have a Q loader, and it would have HORRIBLE feed rates due to only being open to paint at one end.

Skibbo, here's a quick mock up of what I had in mind based upon your design. Excuse the paint, I don't have a circuit design program at home.

Click Me!

In all honesty, I don't think this is the best way to go as you're limiting the current applied to the motor. You'd want the motor to be a completely different circuit, controlled via a relay.. but again, now we're diverging from the KISS method.

Awesome. Thanks new ion?.
I'm wondering if we can apply the KISS principle to another design/some board design.

[new ion?]

How so?

[skibbo]

How so?

Instead of limiting the current to the motor (which is probably the simplest design) if there's something slilghtly more complicated but would adhere to the KISS principle but allow more programming/fun things that'd be good.

[cockerpunk]

with CR123s coming out in guns, why has no one thought of this as a good loader battery?

[Simon]

Because AA's are still better and more conveniently found. CR123's just help for sizing/packaging.

[PBSteve]

more conveniently found.

I'm pretty concerned about this.

[Simon]

It's one reason I have been shy about rechargeable batteries, and would only do it if you can swap them out for normal batteries easily.

Too many bad experiences with Angels and my Luxe where I forgot to charge them etc. I guess if they were my only gun I would remember and be better at it, but I don't.

In the defense of the CR123's they are more and more easily found because of their use in flashlights.

I'd still take e-lithium AA's though and be able to use normal AA's in my hopper if the shit hit the fan.

[pbjosh]

The choice of the RCR123 in ours had a lot to do with allowing enough board size in a gripframe to keep the board simple (cheap) while making sure the battery was something that was not sourced from us and able to be had for cheap.

We didn't want the player to be stuck ordering a battery from us that was expensive and a possible long lead time item when they could just pick one up at Walmart. A 9v, while cheaper and easier to find, did raise the cost of the board. In looking at a PE board which is dual sided and quad layer we can put almost all of the same on a single sided dual layer board, so the price of the RCR123 with charging port and cable made up for it in total cost of the board. And the player still gets a rechargeable battery system, and multiple batteries and chargers are available cheap and easy to get.

In a hopper they could be used, but there is not the advantage of using them unless you already have a system with a RCR123 in it, and have the chargers/otherwise. The size constraint of a hopper is generally less then inside of the gripframe with an airline, board, solenoid and related. On that note, they could be used and are fantastic format batteries.