56 replies to this topic

[hereticorp]

In this post, I will turn the rather superior and boring looking clear Maverick pistol, into something sexy and blue-glowing.

Start:


Finish:


Basically I took apart the maverick, removed the ARs, painted all the orange parts black, sanded off all the orange parts on the shell, and added a bunch of blue LEDs.

I used two different sizes of blue LED, both of which are 3v power requirement, so 3 in series would make up a 9v LED series and would be just about perfect for a 9v battery.

The LEDs are connected in sets of 3 in series and then each set of 3 is connected in parallel to a 9v battery housed in the handle of the blaster.



Disassembly:



Removing the orange from the outside (I HATE orange):


Placing the battery terminal in place:


I used a piece of scrap plastic and glued two battery terminal springs on with their end wires sticking up to attach the LED wiring to. There are a couple LEDs in place above and below the turret as well.

Wiring the LEDs:


Each LED series must have a wire from the positive battery terminal to the positive wire on the first LED in the series, then it goes Neg to Pos, Neg to Pos, and then a wire from the final negative pole to the negative battery terminal. The LEDs can be any distance apart, but they must be connected in that fashion or else they will burn out or not light at all.

Painting the Parts:



I painted the parts on top of some Styrofoam, and I thought it was cool the patterns that showed up as the paint ate away at the foam.

[hereticorp]

Stoppering the Plunger:


I took a short piece of FBR and glued it into the plunger assembly to eliminate as much dead air space as possible, just experimenting with the idea, I saw it somewhere on NH or NHQ and figured I'd give it a shot.

First LED Attempt:








You can see a rather blatant dark spot in these pictures, so I went to remedy that before I put the gun totally back together.

[hereticorp]

Assembled gun, no LEDs:









I had to adjust the cut-out for the battery replacement mech and add 3 extra LEDs to cover the dark spots, but it turned out rather well, and the gun functions perfectly.

[hereticorp]

Final Product, all lit up:













As you can see, it turned out rather well. I need to find a way to smooth off the sanded areas where there used to be orange paint on the shell, but for now I'm happy with it.

I ended up using a total of 18 LEDs, which is probably overkill but I like to have things light up really bright when they light up. I did the same thing with my XBox 1 and my PS2 when I did the LED mods on those.

Hope you enjoyed the mod.

[Mr BadWrench]

pretty.....

you know 9v batteries are terribly inefficient, anything would be an improvement.

DON

[slowguitarman]

Not how I would have done it, but it looks pretty cool nonetheless. Why did you use two different sizes of LEDs? Why didn't you just use one size and wire everything up in parallel? What kind of LEDs are you using? I have never seen blue LEDs that run on less than like 4.5v.

EDIT: Now that everything is up (I didn't realize you weren't done)...how did you wire 18 LEDs in series on a 9v battery? Did you wire six different parallel sets of three LEDs in series? If you are using different LEDs, it is usually not the best idea to have them in parallel.

Edited by slowguitarman, 09 December 2008 - 06:00 PM.

[hereticorp]

UpperHand, on Dec 9 2008, 05:54 PM, said:

THAT IS SICK.

Thanks for fucking up my post and not following the CoC kid.

slowguitarman, on Dec 9 2008, 05:57 PM, said:

Not how I would have done it, but it looks pretty cool nonetheless. Why did you use two different sizes of LEDs? Why didn't you just use one size and wire everything up in parallel? What kind of LEDs are you using? I have never seen blue LEDs that run on less than like 4.5v.

Because the larger LEDs didn't fit into some of the areas of the shell.

I'm using LEDs that I ordered off of eBay for use in my XBox and PS2, they're 3v and came with the resistors to step them down from 12v. They're the only things I've ever used.

As to why I wouldn't wire things up in parallel, why would I want to waste power using resistors on all of the LEDs when I could just distribute the power evenly over 3 LEDs in series? Besides, I'd have to dig out some 9v to 3v resistors and I just didn't want to deal with that.

Mr BadWrench, on Dec 9 2008, 05:57 PM, said:

pretty.....

you know 9v batteries are terribly inefficient, anything would be an improvement.

DON

Yes, I'm aware of that, however I'm lazy and don't feel like rigging up a 2xAA setup in the handle of the mav, I had a 9v around so I went with it, I could care less about efficiency really.

Edited by hereticorp, 09 December 2008 - 06:02 PM.

[atomatron]

Very nice, I like it .

It looks...Radioactive.

In my opinion that is what should be done to all clear mavs.

[boisie]

I'd like to see this done with a pot for brightness, or a picaxe 08 for cool light shows.

[xtremejumpy]

Where the hell do you get these things? The guns, not the ideas.

[slienced assassin]

Dude that looks sick. I would totally do that if I had a clear maveric.

[A side of nerf]

Very cool heriticorp, I like the use of blue and I imagine red looks cool too! I would also like to say that your photography never seizes to amaze me, those shots are great!

Quote

What kind of LEDs are you using? I have never seen blue LEDs that run on less than like 4.5v.

I buy my LED's at radioshack and I can run them off of two AA's = 1.2v each = 2.4v

Quote

I'm using LEDs that I ordered off of eBay for use in my XBox and PS2,

If you finish that, send me a few pictures because I was considering green LED's for my PS2.

Edited by A side of nerf, 09 December 2008 - 06:12 PM.

[Applefury]

Very Sexy!
Good Job on the mod, you can't paint those clear mavericks ( or I'd hope someone wouldn't ) so this is the way to go and it does look very nice.

[Mr Tubb]

Nice modification! I do like the blue glow, but maybe somebody else will use a different (or multiple) color (s.) For example, if somebody wanted to do a Baghead style version of this, they could use pink and green LEDs.

[slowguitarman]

hereticorp, on Dec 9 2008, 05:57 PM, said:

As to why I wouldn't wire things up in parallel, why would I want to waste power using resistors on all of the LEDs when I could just distribute the power evenly over 3 LEDs in series? Besides, I'd have to dig out some 9v to 3v resistors and I just didn't want to deal with that.

What? You don't need a separate resistor for each LED in a parallel circuit. You just wire your resistor in series with the parallel LEDs. You also said that you used 18 LEDs, yet you said you wired the LEDs in threes to evenly make 3v each, but I don't think you put six 9v's in a mav, so how did you wire it?

@a side of nerf: All the blue LEDs at all three of my local Radioshack's have always been the 4.5v kind.

[Anthrax13]

That looks tight! It actually makes me want to own a maverick, where do you get those? I have never seen them before.

[slienced assassin]

You can get a maveric at wallmart or another store that sells nerf guns. This may be different because you probally don't live near me. I belive they sell for $10.

Edited by slienced assassin, 09 December 2008 - 06:50 PM.

[Foamfoot]

slienced assassin, on Dec 9 2008, 03:49 PM, said:

You can get a maveric at wallmart or another store that sells nerf guns. This may be different because you probally don't live near me. I belive they sell for $10.

He's referring to the crystal mav. They were at gamestop during the Black Friday weekend. They are not currently available, but there is speculation that they'll be released full-on. or at least one more time.

[atomatron]

No, bad.


He meant the clear ones....I hope...

you can find those on Ebay.

If you are willing to pay.



[edit] the juxtaposition of these posts is not as it should be..

Edited by atomatron, 09 December 2008 - 07:04 PM.

[Shrub]

That is totally sick. No joke. Today there are alot of good mods.

[Forsaken angel24]

You bastard!
Stupid fucking black friday.
Stupid fucking Game stop exclusive.
Stupid fucking only available in America.

In other words.
You did what I was going to do.
Then again I guess it wasn't exactly a unique idea.

In other words.
You did what I was going to do and since I love me... Great job.

[Anthrax13]

atomatron, on Dec 9 2008, 03:58 PM, said:

No, bad.


He meant the clear ones....I hope...

you can find those on Ebay.

If you are willing to pay.



[edit] the juxtaposition of these posts is not as it should be..

Yes, I meant the clear ones.

30 bucks for a fuckin maverick? you've got to be kidding.

[NerfDude1138]

hereticorp, on Dec 9 2008, 05:57 PM, said:

I'm using LEDs that I ordered off of eBay for use in my XBox and PS2, they're 3v and came with the resistors to step them down from 12v. They're the only things I've ever used.

As to why I wouldn't wire things up in parallel, why would I want to waste power using resistors on all of the LEDs when I could just distribute the power evenly over 3 LEDs in series? Besides, I'd have to dig out some 9v to 3v resistors and I just didn't want to deal with that.

I have a restrictor resistor question: I thought that one would typically have wired three LEDs in a series with a resistor, then repreat five more times for your 18 LED array. You said you left the resistor out. Is that not dangerous? The resistors I thought were to keep the LEDs from overheating. I only bring this up because some kid might follow your mod, string a bunch of LEDs together and have an overheating issue. Can anybody answer this? It would be good to know.

Very nice mod by the way. I plan on doing it myself.

Edited by NerfDude1138, 10 December 2008 - 11:14 AM.

[slowguitarman]

Nerfdude, you should do a little more electronics research before trying to do anything like this. I will admit that hereticorp was very vague in what he said he did, and he still hasn't explained the problems I saw in what he said he did, but still...restrictor? You mean resistor. The easiest way to do this is buy a bunch of blue (or whatever other color) LEDs that are all the same and then use an online resistor calculator to find what resistor you need for a single LED and then wire the LEDs in parallel with each other and wire the resistor in series with that. It would also be cool to not use such a huge switch.

[Renegademilitia15]

Anthrax13, on Dec 9 2008, 09:31 PM, said:

atomatron, on Dec 9 2008, 03:58 PM, said:

No, bad.


He meant the clear ones....I hope...

you can find those on Ebay.

If you are willing to pay.



[edit] the juxtaposition of these posts is not as it should be..

Yes, I meant the clear ones.

30 bucks for a fuckin maverick? you've got to be kidding.

The clear ones were a friday special, and they were only sold at gamestop. Thats why they are so rare.

On topic, hereticorp, very nice mod. You just made a pretty good looking gun into a dead sexy gun.
Nice work.

Edited by Renegademilitia15, 10 December 2008 - 10:48 AM.