OK, before you ask, it's not for sale, and due to some consulting arrangements with a couple of companies, I can't provide "how-to" plans at this time. That may change in the future, but for now, that's the way it is. The Rainmaker LCD was my first forray into microcontroller applications. The electronics were pretty bulky and chunky, on a perfboard under the shroud, but it worked, and the EEPROM meant it could be reconfigured easily by plugging the paintgun into a PC and loading new software with different timing values or firing modes. My Rainmaker LCD as configured when I first built it in the fall of 1999 features a Worr Games Autococker shroud, Pro Team 45 style grip frame (converted from thier Automag model), Armson folding fore-grip, VXT Icebox, Air America Unireg, AKALMP low pressure bolt and Tornado valve, Titanium coated lower bolt from Xodus Paintball, and my own electronics which fire the gun and drive the LCD display.
Display indicating 3 round burst mode
The Rainmaker LCD evolved in the following months. I didn't like the shroud up front, or most of the stuff up front, or the regulators hanging off of the back, etc. After refining the layout of the gun control electronics to something much more compact with everything basically surface mountet, I added LEDs to indicate firing modes (safe, semi, burst, full, etc) so that the LCD could be used optionally, since it adds bulk. By the time I had it where I wanted it, the whole thing was about the same size, if not a little smaller than a Bushmaster 2000. I started thinking about where to mount things, and ended up tucking the electronics into the loader. I called it the "Uniloader" being short for Universal gun control Loader. The reason being, with circuitry to drive two solenoids I could move the loader from gun to gun, and as long as they had the same wiring set-up, the same electronics could control different paintguns, with different software and timing values loaded for each.
This is the Uniloader with LCD (the LCD display displaces about 10
paintballs out of the loader) on a SuperNova ET. The electronic timing
makes it completely impossible to short stroke and chop a ball by letting
off the trigger before a ball is in the breech. Of course, it hammers
on burst or full auto, too.
Here is the side of the Uniloader - the original VL Revolution power
switch is on the left, above the batteries, the black button to the right
of it is an input to the board, I usually use that as a mode select button
(though dual acting paintguns, it can be used as a "pump" to get really
wacky). The light box sticking out of the back is the interface plug.
It carries the I/O lines for programming via PC, the input line for the
trigger switch, and the lines to drive two solenoids.
The back of the Uniloader - the gun control circuitry sits between
the batteries and the back of the Revolution in that slim airspace.
The LEDs are two red and one green. For a typical 3 mode operation
(semi/burst/full) I set the software up for the green LED to indicate power
on (and blink off while firing) the left red LED for semiauto, the right
for 3 round burst, and both red LEDs to indicate full auto. This
allows it to work without the added bulk of the LCD taking up valueable
paint space above.
The E-PMI1 - this photo taken while still under construction, on the
ugly side - with the air input, the solenoid valves and the Rock regulator.
The E-PMI1 - also while still under construction, on the pretty side,
with the cocking ram.
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