Tag Archive for 'LaserTag'

Next Piece: Armband

Published on January 9, 2007 in LaserTag. 2 Comments

We were thinking it would be cool to have the LCD display be on the arm, instead of the side of the gun.

So we have modified roller-blading wrist-guards for the purpose:

Armband PiecesCompleted ArmbandWearing the Armband

Watch Karl Show It Off!

Karl’s Mom helped with the sewing. Next we’ll add buttons for mode and backlight. I think they will be very thin and unobtrusive.

Our First Real Gun

Published on January 5, 2007 in LaserTag. 1 Comment

Here it is, the big milestone: our first real gun!

From this:
The beginning of the first gun

To this!

You can see how we have gutted an air-soft gun, and inserted our led’s and switches to turn it into a lasertag gun. All of our guns will be interchangeable as they will all have the same Cat-5 Pinout. Eventually we will have an array of guns and we can change their properties in software. (Reload times, shots per clip, damage per shot, etc..)

Prototype #1

Published on December 31, 2006 in LaserTag. 0 Comments

Here are some pictures and some short video of our first prototype gun!

A more or less finished backpack.Finished Pack

2×4 Gun and LCD wristband!Gun and LCD

I love having good tools, and this $40 soldering iron is the best $40 I ever spent.The New Soldering Iron

Nicd battery pack! With velcro! battery pack

And Kyle explains it all! Sort of…Movie Thumb

Lasertag Camo

Published on November 18, 2006 in LaserTag. 0 Comments

Karl and I have taken our backpacks and spraypainted them camo! And we have installed a few components for two test boxes. (Radio, Mainboard, and ISD)
Spraypainted with componentshold it while it glueshandsome meSeated radiowire wraparoundsolder the usb

You can see me wiring the usb port for the usb key thing. (It stores your personal stats)

More to come as we prototype our first two boxes!
me with the tester

Ahoy! Holes!

Published on September 24, 2006 in LaserTag. 0 Comments

The next step in our Lasertag construction project is the preperation of the boxes for our components. We have decided to put all of the electronics in a backpack. But the backpack will need some I/O. We need a rj-45 for the gun, two for the arm-band, a usb for the key, and a hole for the power switch and power plug. How do we do it? We need square holes…
Well, the best and nicest way I can think to do it is to use a little thing called a roto-zip bit. I bought 5 of them at Home Depot for a few dollars. Luckily Karl has a drill press:
The Drill Press Rig
The pictures mostly speak for themselves. Basically we used a cardstock template:

Using Template

Then spraypainted the negative:

Spraypaint Negative

And Routed!

Route it Out

We will have to use a flat file to make some holes perfect:

We are going to have to file

But the USB port worked great (It actually looks better in real life)!

Usb fits nice

I can’t think of a better way to do this in plastic. And the results are nice, with patience and hard work. We have done 10 boxes like this.

All thanks to this one bit:
The miracle tool

Who needs a CNC machine when you have steady hands Karl? (Video)