4 replies to this topic

[Ames]

Nite Finder laser view
Nite Finder hand view

This is my pride and joy. I did this back in September, and I saw that a month or so ago someone else did a full maglite combo with the Nite Finder, but I still just love this and I thought I'd share it with you.

The problem with this mod (the only problem) is that it's expensive. You need your own laser pointer that you're willing to hack up to make it in to a Nerf gun. Once that hurdle's passed, though, it's a simple matter of removing the old flashlight and soldering leads on to the (former) battery contacts for the laser pointer, and in to the contacts for the Nite Finder. The result is so, so worth it.

I've found that the accuracy remains slightly questionable, but that's simply not the point. It's just so cool...

If anyone else wants to try this I'd be happy to help as much as I can . Otherwise I hope you all enjoy it,

Also, if anyone has any suggestions on how to improve it, I'd love to hear too.

Edited by Ames, 15 February 2006 - 11:14 PM.

[SpectreX]

I think it's my maglite integration you're talking about, and wow I have to say nice job doing an integration with a laser pointer. When I did my maglite, I was originally thinking about doing a laser pointer integration, but I wasn't sure how complicated the internals were, and I was having trouble locating a relatively cheap one that ran on two AA batteries as opposed to watch batteries.

I'd love to see a picture of the internals of your gun to see how you hooked it all together if possible.

The only suggestions I can think of would be if you filled in the rest of the housing around the end of the pointer so there isn't all that empty space, just to make it look a little cleaner. However, thats only a cosmetic suggestion, as far as mod itself goes I think you did a kickass job of it. If I were to make a suggestion as far as the mod itself was concerned I would say if you wanted to try to figure out how to engineer a system so that the laser pointer's direction could be adjusted. This way you could make it function as an actual laser site. With the original NF light, you could move the lens around, so you could calibrate it to actually serve as an aiming assistant(not that anyone really did much). This suggestion isn't a critical one, just something to think about if you get bored and decide you want another challenge.

Edited by SpectreX, 16 February 2006 - 09:36 AM.

[FromAbove]

If you guys want an easy way to add a laser pointer check this out.

Laser Guidance

Posting this means I don't need to mention how many times lasers have been shunned before due to the risks involved, so take it as you wish.

Edited by FromAbove, 16 February 2006 - 09:43 AM.

[Ames]

SpectreX, I think it was your MagLite combo that I liked so much. Yours really was amazing, speaking of clean. It looked so professional! I think filling the insides and making it better alignable is a great idea, and I will work on it next time I'm bored and/or don't want to write a research paper .

Also, thanks for the link, FromAbove. He used kind of the same technique that I used, and what's really interesting is that his hinged on the same principle as mine - my laser pointer used its metal shell (with a thin non-conductive paint coating that had to be scraped away) as its "negative" contact, making soldering the connection quite easy. I thought that was just a peculiarity of mine, but I guess it's not! Knowing this, I'm going to add a laser to my Maverick, I think...

What are the risks you refer to, by the way, other than accidentally hitting someone in the eye? That is a real risk I think, but I have thus far avoided it!

[Carbon]

What are the risks you refer to, by the way, other than accidentally hitting someone in the eye? That is a real risk I think, but I have thus far avoided it!

I wasn't exactly sure either, especially after playing at Laser Quest, which uses actual lasers in the guns. It is all about possible eye damage, but it depends on the class of laser;

From this link: check it out for possible kinds of damage.

class I: inherently safe; no possibility of eye damage.

class II: the blinking reflex of the human eye will prevent eye damage. Most laser pointers are in this category, with output powers of around 1 milliwatt.

class IIIb: can cause damage if the beam enters the eye directly. This applies to laser powers up to a few milliwatts.

class IIIa: similar to IIIb, but with large beam diameters, such that the pupil will only allow a 'class-II'-amount of light to enter the eye. Lasers in this class are mostly dangerous in combination with optical instruments which change the beam diameter.

You can look at the class rating on the warning label on the side of your pointer

It really depends in the case of laser pointers. Another link I read said that most laser pointers are IIIa, because the increased power gives increased brightness. If that's the rating of the particular pointer you used, be careful. Below that should be okay.

Sorry if this kind of list has been posted before...I did a quick search, and didn't find anything.