Kyle Anderson » LaserTag

Next Piece: Armband

Kyle Anderson — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 06:34:04 +0000

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:

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

Kyle Anderson — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 06:26:25 +0000

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

From this:

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

Kyle Anderson — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 15:33:53 +0000

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

A more or less finished backpack.

2×4 Gun and LCD wristband!

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

Nicd battery pack! With velcro!

And Kyle explains it all! Sort of…

Lasertag Camo

Kyle Anderson — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 23:10:34 +0000

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)

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!

Ahoy! Holes!

Kyle Anderson — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 01:52:41 +0000

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 pictures mostly speak for themselves. Basically we used a cardstock template:

Then spraypainted the negative:

And Routed!

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

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

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:

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

LaserTag!

Kyle Anderson — Mon, 22 May 2006 21:39:16 +0000

My friends and I are currently constructing our own lasertag guns using this as a base.

Here is our checklist:

Construct electronic components using the above milestag components.
Get and modify vests to hold components
Melt aluminum and pour guns into molds! Rock on!
Connect it all together and play!

We’ve go the electronics together. The vests are on their way via UPS, and my friend Karl and I have the furnace ready and we can melt aluminum! We still need to put sensors on the vests, pour the guns, and interface it all together. But man, what an adventure!