Open Source Paintball Board (OSPB)

Alright!!! 2 bits of good news!!

NEWS 1!

Got the Arduino NANO in and while it might be tight, I think it can definitely work! The package came with pin headers on it so thats why its so thick.. If it were ever to be in a real gun, the headers would be removed and thats where the connectors could go.

Here is my vision as it stands today :-P The board would go right behind where the button pad currently sits. The USB connector would NOT be on the board, but would be routed to where the LEMO connector is. Micro USB will fit in the same hole, just need something to fill in the void space. There would be a small board where the trigger button sits, and this would also house the transistors to fire the solenoids.

Still trying to work in a OLED screen in there somewhere but babysteps right?

This week sometime I should recieve my protoboard (for prototyping the trigger mount).

-2x Hbridge in a IC package for driving the solenoids

-Frame to mount it into for testing
-Connectors so that I can stop using aligator clips (Finally!)

NEWS 2!

Like everything in life, its all about compromise, and one of the things I had to compromise on was power usage. The arduino platform is good, inexpensive, and EASY to design, but the downside is that its not really that battery friendly. Well I did a test and the board uses 13mA running just the code. Each time you fire, the 5way uses 7mA, and the MQ uses 9mA (getting my sear tripper in soon, so I will have figures on that! Thanks NewRaceOwner for loaning!) Running some rough numbers they are coming out to be better than I thought! With some extra programming to enable sleep modes, and disable a few things we arent using (ADC, Timer1, Timer2, Spare digital pins) we should be able to make it more than usable! Might not be as efficient as your Tadao, but I dont think they could build their first board as quick as I am doing either.. Compromise!

As always I appreciate the feedback so keep it coming! I love those feature requests too since even though I might want something, I want to make sure its something that others will want too!

Tetravaal