Rant: "Those were the days"

Seems like there's an increasing divide between fans that you THINK would be a natural generational gap.  It's no secret that I'm a bit older than most of the fans of Nerf so growing up in the '90s meant that what most refer to as the "Golden Era" for Nerf and Super Soakers was my time as a kid.  From the Constant Pressure System water blasters that could knock you on your feet with a column of water to the long range arrow launchers like the Arrowstorm, Bow 'n Arrow, and Crossbow, this was the stuff used in backyard wars during my childhood.  They were a lot of fun... while the lasted.  I remember CPS pumping mechanisms breaking and arrows getting so bent they wouldn't fly straight again.  But nowaways, with all the new "Tacticool" blasters that Hasbro has made under the Nerf and Super Soaker brands, all anyone seems to talk about are the "vintage" blasters.  Not only does this make me feel like an antique, but it also makes me weigh in on whether this is just a case of folks in love with the Glory Days that they really never experienced.

Avengers: Opening Night

 It's not exactly Nerf or Laser Tag, but with the costume I made last fall and with all the blasters and toys released for the Avengers, I couldn't help but share this.  A few friends and I went to see the US opening of Marvel's "The Avengers".  Hands down one of the most fun and exciting films I've seen in a long time... not to mention it's written by the same guy who did Firefly and Serenity.  Very fun stuff, so GO SEE IT!

Definitely got a lot of photo ops with folks at the theater.  It kinda helped the hour that we got there early to get good seats fly by.  My only regret?  Not having a lighter, more breathable suit... as humidity today was still lingering at night.  Not to mention a theater packed with comic book fans doesn't tend to be the most lilac-fresh crowd either.

But yeah, go check out the movie this weekend.  Just a lot of fun to watch.  In the meantime, I managed to find some friends at the theater, Loki, and a miniaturized version of me!

Pulse Rifle: Sensor Construction

 Got some major work done on building housings for the sensors on my Pulse Rifle.  The 3D Printer is responsible for making these parts that'll be utilized to hold IR Sensors on the left, right, and top of the blaster.  To the left is another prototype of the design to be used for the right and left sensors.  It has to be modified to account for the barrel that'll be overhead in the vent cover, but that's a simple change to be made.

This is the design for the sensors electronics.  There are a total of 3 of these.  Thanks to a sanding mishap, I had to redo one of them, but it was good practice for me!  This one is bent so that it'll fit in the top housing.  All that's needed is to mount it and run the wires down through the shroud to the Arduino Mini that's running this thing.

Here's where the front-facing housing will sit.  It'll obviously be painted and I'm not done sanding/smoothing it out yet.  That square in the front is where the IR Sensor will face outward.  We decided to mount the front sensor on top so that way when the blaster is angled downwards (not firing), it can still take hits.

The hit lights will be set inside those vents too (in front of the right and left sensors), so there's still a lot of work to be done on this within the week.  More progress later!

Mod Night Happenings

One of our modders taking a break from work to talk to YOU!

Just finished another successful Mod Night!  We covered a lot of ground on a LOT of projects and, as always, it's just fun to be in the company of hobbyists who also happen to be good friends of yours!  It was also inspiring to have Iron Man playing in the background as we watched Tony Stark build up an advanced prosthesis far more advanced than anything WE were working on!

We opened up that Star Wars blaster tonight too.  Good ol late-90's-era electronics!  Shouldn't be too difficult to convert to an LTX blaster, so understanding what we've got to work with on the inside gives us a better idea of how to lay it all out.  Once we get blasters like my Pulse Rifle, German's Rayven, and Sundawg's Stampede running with Arduino-run blasters.

Speaking of that, Sundawg made some great progress cutting/fitting this pipe that'll house the lens for his dual-purpose blaster.  On the one hand, it's a modified Stampede, shelling out Streamlines up to 60 feet at 4 darts per second.  On the other, it'll be a beast of a laser tag blaster with excellent range, sending beams of IR Light over 1,100 Feet!  Either way you look at it, this Stampede will be something to fear for both the hobbies I enjoy!

I'll have a full post up with updates about my Pulse Rifle a little later.

Longshot Immortal: The wait continues

A Longshot Trigger up for auction for a good cause

Well, we've officially blown past the "Late April" claims that Orange Mod Works was shooting for a couple months ago for the release of their Longshot Immortal kit.  The fiasco with the Massacre kit release date getting pushed back set this launch date back and now I suspect that quality issues with those kits has kicked back the Longshot kit yet again.  And, just like old times, it'll take some kicking and whining from fans to get some more information about the development of this kit and projected release date.  Pre-orders stopped almost a month ago for this kit, so I was hoping we'd have something by now.  As far as I can see, it's another waiting game.

Feeling Evil

Just a random bit... since there's really not a whole lot to report on right now.  Didn't shave for a couple of days and, as I was cleaning up, I decided to go with the Disney Villian Goatee.  Figured what better way to be "evil" than to act as the opponent of N-Strike: Vortex!

It just always caught me as funny how the Vortex line got pitched as the "enemy" of N-Strike.  It's never been flat-out said but it seems like the N-Strike side is perceived as the good guys while the Vortex line look like they're henchmen of a dark overlord bent on world domination through his death army.

Anywho, tonight is another Mod Night.  As I have before, I'll be on the T³ Chat taking questions and such.  In the future, I'd like to do some kind of webinar/video chat thing with folks, but I just didn't have time to set something up like that.

Disclaimer: if you're looking to talk Nerf during tonight's Mod Night, you'll be a bit disappointed.  With our laser tag regular season a week away, we're focused on finishing up those projects.  I'm not saying there will be no talk of Nerf, but rather that our focus tonight will be Laser Tag.  Join us in the chatroll at 7pm Central Standard Time!

Pulse Rifle: Sensor Housing

Last week a friend of mine got his 3D printer running and started testing it out with shapes and designs.  As the kinks get worked out of this machine, we're moving forward with designs to implement into our creations.  First on the list is my M41A Pulse Rifle project.  Pictured to the left is a prototype of a lens housing that will fit inside the vent shaft along the main barrel.  On either side of this shaft, there will be an IR Sensor that will take hits from the left and right of the blaster.  A third sensor will be installed in a housing on top of the blaster.

Here's a look at where those sensors would be placed.  As you can see, the prototype part that German has designed would fit on the inside of this metal shaft.  Obviously there will have to be a place for the IR Sensors (pictured to the right) to sit, but we're still designing how the block will fit in there before we cut into the design to complete the housing.

A Mod Night has been scheduled for Wednesday (May 2nd) so hopefully we'll have a little more completion on this.  There's still a lot of work to be done on my Pulse Rifle, but I think we might be able to get it functional for our first game of Season 7.