EDIT: Actually, after further testing, the issue remains, but with one interesting fact.

If there are no darts being fired, the gun will fire just fine in semi- and full-auto modes at 15-16v with SGNerf's upgrade kit. However, if I put in darts to fire, it will fire continuously until all darts are exhausted.

This is interesting, because it means that something about the way the darts chamber or the pressure on the bolt is what is causing this issue to occur. Any ideas on what might cause the gun to fire uncontrollably with darts, but work fine without?

Also notable is that most of the time it will fire all darts with one trigger pull, but occasionally it will stop. Something about the interaction with the dart itself is causing this.


EDIT 2: It appears that using Streamlines works fine, but using my own homemade slug darts with white LogHome foam (fits tighter than Streamlines) causes the issue to occur. I'm guessing maybe it has something to do with the bolt not being pushed forward all the way and somehow not triggering a "stop" switch? I don't really know, because the darts fire just fine with any dart type, but using thicker darts seems to make the blaster fire uncontrollably until all darts are exhausted. It's not a length issue, either, because my slug darts are shorter than Streamlines and therefore length shouldn't be an issue.

Good to know. Likely the current draw is more due to the added torque from the 9 kg spring.

SgNerf, if it's possible, can you test the current draw in your Stampede?

i have serious concerns about using unprotected Li-Ion cells in my Stampede and would rather get some Protected ones.

I don't use Li-Ion cells, but I did test the current draw of the Stampede with stock voltage a few posts back in this thread.

http://nerfhaven.com...ndpost&p=285100

Possibly related...the stock motor is rated at 6 volts. I am going to ax man soon, looking for a 12v and a 18v. which of these would perform better?

6 volts? Wat? The Stampede operates at 9 volts stock.

I thought I might post an update on my situation.

It appears that adding the 9kg load spring purchased from SGNerf, as well as the improved O-ring and plunger catch spring, my Stampede will now operate at ~15-16v without the continuous firing. I haven't done much testing, but so far it looks promising. It also fires a lot quicker from trigger pull to actual dart firing. I'll do more testing and report back.

Possibly related...the stock motor is rated at 6 volts. I am going to ax man soon, looking for a 12v and a 18v. which of these would perform better?

6 volts? Wat? The Stampede operates at 9 volts stock.

The motor is rated at 6 volts. Assuming Hasbro used the same motor supplier for all the stampedes built thus far, every motor you find in every stampede should have "6 Volts" and an SLN on the side of it. A child could calculate 1.5x6=9.

Not to be rude, I haven't had my coffee yet.

A couple of reasons this doesn't make sense to me:

1. While they could step down the voltage from 9v to 6v in the circuitry, it makes no sense to do so when you could just as easily require 4 D batteries instead of 6.

2. Why would Hasbro intentionally overvolt a stock blaster?

Question: What about this: (Laptop Battery) Toshiba SATELLITE PRO A210-16V 9 Cell

- Type: Li ion
- Capacity: 7200mah
- Cell: 9

Is this possible?

or this?

I would be wondering what the max current draw is on those batteries...

Keep in mind the stock Stampede needs like, 2 amps.

I have been using the stock ammo, as that is what everyone else at school uses, so I cannot speak for custom darts.

Yeah, it seems to work fine with stock ammo, though I will still sometimes get the occasional double-fire. I just want it to work with my tighter darts, though, since they fire a LOT better.

...... Anyone have any insights as to what the deal is? I have double and triple checked the voltage/current with my multimeter. If we can figure out how to make the Stampede work with increased voltage running the correct way through the blaster it might completely solve the auto-run issue.

In Reference to your "autofire" ... I have 2 Stampedes, both can run the 16.8 setup just fine after using SGNerf's Upgrade kit. I strongly reccomend it to anyone with the "autorun" after jumping the voltage. I'm just waiting on a second shipment of batteries and converters from hong kong so I can have both up and running at the same time.

I did the conversion with SGNerf's kit as well and still get the auto-fire issue when using thicker (LogHome white foam) darts. I think it has to do with the black return spring, but none of us are sure.

Hey quick question, sorry if this has been said before, anyone know the size of the stampede sheild vs the manta ray?

It is exactly one foot (12") wide and, at it's longest point, 9.5" tall. The actual height from the rail to the top of the shield, though, is 4.5".

Didn't see this posted yet.

http://www.crunchgea...tampede-ecs-50/

Yeah, I watched the video shortly after posting. Pretty sad, but fun to see more footage of it "in the wild," I suppose.

Sooo...People have this thing. How long until we see some mods? Or at least an AR removal with new ranges?

I'm thinking that without replacing the gear mechanisms/motor with stronger ones, a stronger spring would probably cause the gun to malfunction and potentially break. I guess it all depends on how much strength the motor and gears really have beyond how they are normally used.

Yep, just confirming that I replaced the stock catch spring with a stronger one, and the blaster still continues to fire automatically with higher voltage. Not really sure what else could be causing the issue other than the electronics themselves. (?)

EDIT: Triple post

EDIT: Double post. Board kept giving me errors when trying to post, but apparently they went through anyway.

I only ever used about 16 volts total (2x fully-charged 7.2v battery packs) and it started having the problem immediately. Also, when I return to using the standard 9v, the blaster works perfectly. So I don't really think the electronics are damaged, but just for some reason the blaster goes haywire at 14-16v.

Wow, interesting! I assume this fixes the problem even at higher voltages? Strange that it works properly at lower ones but not higher.

Nice find, Spartan, and thanks to SGNerf for the write-up. I will have to try this and get back to you.

Yes, i've tested it on a few modded Stampedes and it fixes the "auto-running" issues at all voltages and RoF.

I think its probably due to higher RoF that causes the spring to somehow get dislodged during usage, so it could be a good idea to seal the gap where the spring usually pops out from to prevent future issues arising.

Well, I just pulled apart my Stampede and, sadly, it looks like my catch spring was still in place. So either this is not the sole cause of the automatic firing issue, or maybe the default spring is not strong enough? Did you replace the springs on yours with stronger ones or just put them back in place?

Wow, interesting! I assume this fixes the problem even at higher voltages? Strange that it works properly at lower ones but not higher.

Nice find, Spartan, and thanks to SGNerf for the write-up. I will have to try this and get back to you.

Thanks for the info. And yeah, I've noticed the same about Streamline accuracy. It's pretty awful with the Stampede and other blasters in general.

SGNerf:

Would it be possible for you to post the dimensions of the O-Ring and spring(s) that you used?

Latest Important Update in the Mod Guide:

:: Aftermarket Spring Replacement ::

Note that the above voltages are tested with TrustFire 14500 unprotected Li-Ion rechargeable batteries. These unprotected Li-Ion batteries have high discharge rates which are necessary to provide the required torque to the motor to handle heavier spring loads.

Be advised that regular Alkaline batteries may not have high enough discharge rates to be able to produce the same results even at the same voltage.

Yeah, I've actually noted that even at around 8v, my batteries can power the Stampede with the 9kg spring, because they are high-drain (something like 38A) battery packs. Low RoF at that voltage, but it still has enough torque to fire.

Tried that technique over an electric burner, and also above an open flame (Zippo) with no success. The only thing it did was start to melt the plastic a bit, but the "glue" or whatever didn't loosen one bit.

Would be cool if you actually had some info about what replacement motor would be suitable, because AFAIK most of the aftermarket motors people have found are too big and require reaming out the plastic inside to get it to fit.

Would love to snag one of these at about half that price.

Does anyone else notice the recent battery power trend?

Maybe Hasbro is in cahoots with Duracell?

Thanks for the write-up, SGNerf. I'm curious to see what, if anything, can be done to improve this blaster.

Does anyone know where to source those AAA to AA adapters for making the "empty" battery cells? The ones on DealExtreme look like they don't have a bottom piece (making them worthless for this applications) and they're out of stock anyway. I haven't been able to find ones like SGNerf uses online anywhere.

If I can't find any, I guess the only option is to find a bolt/wire to jam/solder in between the contacts in the gun itself with no casing.

I just bought a few of them... let me see if I can dredge up a location... I'll edit this post once I get the name of the company.


EDIT: I found the source: Click Here (2 Pack for 2.26 USD)

Excellent, just what I needed. Thanks. Free shipping, too!

I would just use a piece of wire and etape.

I don't know much about electonics, but would using two unprotected and one standard battery just lower the voltage or bring it up to 9.9v? SGnerf said that 12.6 was too much and the motors didn't work, and this might be the happy medium.

You typically don't want to mix battery types and voltages.

Does anyone know where to source those AAA to AA adapters for making the "empty" battery cells? The ones on DealExtreme look like they don't have a bottom piece (making them worthless for this applications) and they're out of stock anyway. I haven't been able to find ones like SGNerf uses online anywhere.

If I can't find any, I guess the only option is to find a bolt/wire to jam/solder in between the contacts in the gun itself with no casing.

Does anyone know where to source those AAA to AA adapters for making the "empty" battery cells? The ones on DealExtreme look like they don't have a bottom piece (making them worthless for this applications) and they're out of stock anyway. I haven't been able to find ones like SGNerf uses online anywhere.

If I can't find any, I guess the only option is to find a bolt/wire to jam/solder in between the contacts in the gun itself with no casing.

I just bought a few of them... let me see if I can dredge up a location... I'll edit this post once I get the name of the company.


EDIT: I found the source: Click Here (2 Pack for 2.26 USD)

UPDATE:

So, after I ordered these (at least a couple weeks ago, in fact), I never heard anything until I finally got them today. And as it turns out, they are NOT the enclosed type with the spring that are shown in the picture, but rather the same as the ones DealExtreme makes (with no spring and simply an open bottom for the negative terminal). Obviously these don't work for the Barricade, so I'm kind of upset. I'll email the company, as you must have gotten the correct ones (I assume anyway) and they gave me the others.

If any real electronics experts out there can elaborate further on how the safety feature works, it would be helpful to us all.

If someone took a close-up detailed picture of the PCB I might be able to figure it out.

Batteries in parallel is not a super-great idea. If you are going to do it, though, make sure they are *identical* (and I do mean identical). Also, make sure they are at the same charge level.

And like SGNerf said, using 9-volt batteries isn't a good idea for this application because they have really low capacity, especially in a relatively high-current situation like this.

Wow. This is the same price as a Maverick. I can see this replacing the maverick as the cheap, high ROF blaster for the little kiddies.

Making a Barricade Manta would be awesome. Dual wielding them...

It's not the same price as a Maverick. But it is a pretty good deal.

EDIT: On another note, It'd be cool to see this with a minimization mod as well, i.e. making the side parts that accommodated the turret smaller so the entire blaster could be thinner.

It seems too bulky with an 18 round drum to be a decent sidearm, and there really is no point in doing this to just put in a 6 round clip. But this thing would be a great primary in HvZ, pistol rounds, and places with no super long range guns.

Fast reload would be a reason to do this for 6-round clips IMO.

Though if 10 rounds isn't enough for your sidearm, I think you might be screwed anyway.

Then again, modded this thing can get 40-50 ft ranges, so it might be a semi-decent replacement as a primary for HvZ or something, like you said.

After watching the other videos, I think I preferred it with less dialogue and more action. Not to say the latest one is bad, but there was a bit too much "plot" for a silly Nerf video, IMO.

- @MaveriK96 Definitely was something I was worried about. We thought we'd try something new. The narrative portion of this particular installment ran more than twice as long as I had intended. Some of the lengthiness was due to us making up for never giving any plot direction in NA1-3. I'm hoping to trim it back in the NA5 without completely compromising the story.

Yeah, I think the same amount of plot could be achieved with some shorter back-and-forths between characters rather than a super-long mission set-up monologue.

One idea could be to have the mission set-up dialogue be interspersed with the actual mission taking place, such that as they are talking about what they need to do as it is happening. A lot of movies these days like to use that technique and I think it can work well if properly implemented.

In any case, looking forward to seeing the next installment. There seems to be an overall lack of decent Nerf-related movie-videos out there.

I must say, the backwards baseball cap did not scream "professional killer" to me.

I used to have two Super Soaker 50s. Those are knock-offs for sure.