Rayvens and Rifles and Guns, Oh My!

Just got back from another successful "Mod Night".  There were 5 of us working on projects tonight.  Of the smaller stuff, we dropped a 2.5kg spring into a NiteFinder that could shoot a hole through a bunker.  As a result, darts were flying around the workspace for much of the night.  I'm pretty sure we'll need to put some padding on that plunger soon before it shatters, as it's got quite the punch to it.  Sadly, the speeds it sends darts out only make the inaccuracies of N-Strike darts more obvious.

A lot of work went into the Pulse Rifle this evening, but there's still a LOT more ahead of it too.  My main goal tonight was to get the Airsoft gearbox finalized and closed up, and I did just that.  We wired the trigger for the Laser Tag side of things into the AEG contacts since there will only be power going to one system or the other (never both).  Closing it up was actually the harder part, since the new Stock that we installed last week gets in the way of construction.  I had to take apart much of what we had done last week just to finish up today's work, only to put it all back together.  However, I put down some much-needed Lock Tite on the bolts securing the stock in place so I don't plan to ever have to dig back into that gearbox for awhile.  I don't use Airsoft much anyways, so I don't expect to be needing to service that stuff very often.


I started looking into how to rig up the Pulse Rifle's ammo counter to work for the Laser Tag side of things, since I use it more frequently in that form.  Turns out there's a lot more to this thing than I had "counted" for.  Get it?  Ammo Counter?  Counted?  It's... oh nevermind.  Still, it'll be neat to get it to work with the Arduino Nano that'll be installed in this blaster.  The Pulse Rifle will be programmed to have 95 rounds of ammo anyways, so the counter should be able to trickle down just like in the movie.

Aside from that, German also got a little more work done on his Rayven.  The lens has been properly mounted and, by all accounts, it looks great!  I especially like the reworking he did with the front of the blaster.  He's getting it prepped to hook up to the Arduino board for test firing, which included work on the trigger and mag release.  His blaster will reload just like the LTX DMR:  a mag drop.

The way he integrated the lens with the pipe, along with fitting the Longshot Front Gun piece on top really looks flawless.  That, and I like how he managed to attach the flashlight to the side tac-rail with a few zip ties and some holes he dremeled into the rail.  This'll be a really neat blaster once it's done!


Our friend Gina also got some major work done on her Barricade she's working on recasing.  She's using a V2 Pistol for it's internals and Sundawg has been doing an excellent job guiding her through the process.  It also helps that she learns quickly, so I wouldn't be surprised if her Barricade is up and running long before either my Pulse Rifle or German's Rayven are slinging IR around!

In general, it was a very fun and productive Mod Night!  No surprise there!  It's always great getting closer to completing a blaster, but I enjoy the experience even more when I'm around my friends while I'm doing it.