197 replies to this topic

[MavericK96]

AA and AAA batteries do not last the same amount of time with the same power. The voltage is the same, but the amperage, which determines how long it can handle a load (basically, don't nitpick, I know the difference), is different. D batteries last much much longer.

Actually, I don't know about regular Alkaline, but NiMH rechargeables for both AA/AAA and D both seem to have about the same current-time rating (~2500 mAh) so in that respect they should have about the same power.

One question I had, which I wasn't quite able to discern from your writeup, was whether or not you were connecting the two 7.2V batteries in series or parallel. Also, what kind of battery life are you getting from that setup? When I get my hands on a Vulcan I'd like to do a similar battery mod, but I was wondering if it would be better to just get a higher voltage battery (9.6V or something) rather than buy two lower voltage ones.

[Split]

AA and AAA batteries do not last the same amount of time with the same power. The voltage is the same, but the amperage, which determines how long it can handle a load (basically, don't nitpick, I know the difference), is different. D batteries last much much longer.

Actually, I don't know about regular Alkaline, but NiMH rechargeables for both AA/AAA and D both seem to have about the same current-time rating (~2500 mAh) so in that respect they should have about the same power.

One question I had, which I wasn't quite able to discern from your writeup, was whether or not you were connecting the two 7.2V batteries in series or parallel. Also, what kind of battery life are you getting from that setup? When I get my hands on a Vulcan I'd like to do a similar battery mod, but I was wondering if it would be better to just get a higher voltage battery (9.6V or something) rather than buy two lower voltage ones.

Typical capacity of a single (decent quality) D battery is about 12,000 mAH (link).

It's series. Total of 14.4V. I used 7.2V because they were clearanced out a while ago at about $4 each, compared to the normal $20+ each. So I happened to have 4 on hand.

Do not do two batteries in parallel. Period. I can, but won't explain or elaborate. It's a bad idea for multiple reasons, and defeats the purpose of a battery replacement overall.

Editted for bluntness.

Edited by Splitlip, 30 July 2008 - 03:52 PM.

[umdlancer]

love the mods , got some questions though, is it possible to make another belt and/or barrel out of pvc or some other pipe?

According to the Vulcan box, Nerf will be releasing a refill pack for the Vulcan which consists of a 25-round ammo belt and 25 sonic micros.

[MavericK96]

AA and AAA batteries do not last the same amount of time with the same power. The voltage is the same, but the amperage, which determines how long it can handle a load (basically, don't nitpick, I know the difference), is different. D batteries last much much longer.

Actually, I don't know about regular Alkaline, but NiMH rechargeables for both AA/AAA and D both seem to have about the same current-time rating (~2500 mAh) so in that respect they should have about the same power.

One question I had, which I wasn't quite able to discern from your writeup, was whether or not you were connecting the two 7.2V batteries in series or parallel. Also, what kind of battery life are you getting from that setup? When I get my hands on a Vulcan I'd like to do a similar battery mod, but I was wondering if it would be better to just get a higher voltage battery (9.6V or something) rather than buy two lower voltage ones.

Typical capacity of a single (decent quality) D battery is about 12,000 mAH (link).

Yeah, I looked it up a bit after I posted and found that was true for alkaline batteries, though the consumer-grade rechargeables (Energizer, Duracell, Rayovac, etc) seem to only have around 2500 mAh apiece, which seems kind of lame, to be honest. To get something around 10,000 mAh you have to get industrial-grade NiMH, which cost a fortune (~$20 apiece).

And thanks for the info about the connection. I figure it was probably series, but I wasn't sure if running the motor at that high of a voltage was a good idea.

[jlidral]

If you want to change the rate of fire, take my rc car componentry a step further. Buy a cheapo electronic speed controller (ESC) and a pistol grip remote. Take out all the electronics and fit the ESC, solder connections to the batteries. Cut appart the pistol grip remote. Put the throttle trigger, which is identical to a gun trigger in place of the trigger in the vulcan. House the rest of the electronics somewhere inside. Once connected up, the further you squeeze the trigger the faster it fires.

The use of an actual speed controller will restrict the voltage to 7.2, but with the power of rc car motors that shouldn't be an issue.

This could also be achieved with a variable resistor wired to the trigger, but i'm not sure how the heat generated by the resistor would go with the plastic casing. The advantage of a variable resistor is that you could use as a high a voltage as you wanted (Bar melting the case).

If you would prefer the switch to be an on/off switch as opposed to the rate of fire controller, a variable resistor could be soldered in series with the connection between trigger and motor. Turn the dial to select the rate of fire.

The above idea's would allow any rate of fire to be selected, from very slow to maximum. But if you hold the trigger in it will still keep firing, so it won't be a genuine single shot.

the resistor would likely get hot and melt any nearby plastic, you could set up something to cool it though, or make sure it's not close to too any plastic parts. also it would be cool to see step by step instructions on how to do the rc car version.

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[ty23]

Just adding to the whole magstrike thing: I'm pretty sure mine can't get off all 10 shots in a second... maybe 3-4.

Now on the whole vulcan: I'm now really excited about the search for them. I'll be looking out for them.

My Gets through the clip in about 2 seconds unmodded.

love the mods , got some questions though, is it possible to make another belt and/or barrel out of pvc or some other pipe?

According to the Vulcan box, Nerf will be releasing a refill pack for the Vulcan which consists of a 25-round ammo belt and 25 sonic micros.

They already did.

[AssassinNF]

Has anyone else with a vulcan experienced the same problems as Splitlip with the rotation mech? Has anyone else's vulcan busted like that?

[madmax]

I have a question for people who are good at electronics. Would souping up the motor with rc car batteries burn out the motor after awhile?

Also, in regards the AR removal. I noticed that with the AR removal i can feel more air coming out of the plunger tube, but the darts dont go that much farther. I think that to make the AR removal worth it you also have to try to improve the seal.

[slowguitarman]

Burning up the motor depends on what batteries you want to use. If you wire it up to four 7.2v batteries, it probably won't end well, but less voltage would be fine.

Also: One of my chains is a 26 shot. Does anyone else have one like this? I laid all 4 of mine together and noticed that one is a little longer, so I counted the shells, and it was 26.

[jlidral]

I have a question for people who are good at electronics. Would souping up the motor with rc car batteries burn out the motor after awhile?

Also, in regards the AR removal. I noticed that with the AR removal i can feel more air coming out of the plunger tube, but the darts dont go that much farther. I think that to make the AR removal worth it you also have to try to improve the seal.

it depends if you use similar voltage it probable woulden't. look on the side of the motor if you can it might say the voltage range I wouldent go over the voltage range, or you could add up the voltage by the number of batteries d batteries have about 1.5 volts 6 batteries about 9 volts, you could go a few volts over but not too mutch or u will burn out the moter. another solution is to just replace the moter with a better one. good luck let us know how it works.

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92% of teens have moved on to rap.
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[slowguitarman]

Don't use "u" here in place of "you". Don't be freaking lazy. Capitalize the correct letters.

On topic: Try to remain quiet unless you have any idea what you are talking about. I doubt that there are any voltage range markings on the motor, but I'm pretty sure SplitLip has 14.4v on his. As I've said before, most toy manufacturers don't run the motors anywhere near what they can actually handle. I used 19.2v (two 9.6v batteries together) on an airsoft gun that was recommended for use with 7.2v. Do stuff like that at your own risk, but I didn't have any problems with it.

[VisionCloud]

My ranges on the Vulcan so far. With the stock chain and bullets... about as far as a stock maverick. Take out the pegs and AR in the chain, use teh stock bullets (sonic micros) they pretty much flop out of the barrel, 3-8 feet. Replaces sonic micros with Streamlines, these thigns fly, no accurate range tests yet, but I would speculate 30 - 40 feet + flat. ( 5 ft off ground, 0 degree angle)

The vulcan is pretty nice gun, big, carpets entire areas with darts, any enemy left in the open gets wasted.
Downside: I haven't had a full chain fire properly yet. Usually 1 - 5 bulelts iether dont fire, or flop out of the gun, not usually a big deal considerign how many bullets are flying, but just an annoyance.
Obviously, I wouldn'e expect anyone to rely to heavily on this gun, my reccomendation would be as a base defense in games liek CTF. This gun can burn through ammo when used as full auto and takes quite some time to reload.

I would not recommend fusing the chains together, having one chain loaded while you refill the second cahin is way better than having one full chain, also full chain is too heavy and simply too long, not for practical use in a battle.

These are just my thoughts on the Vulcan so far.

My only other thought so far is using one chain and fusing it together in a loop,so that I have one continuous chain, I can add bullets as fast as I can on the fly, and keep a consinstant automatic gun going. Woudl recommend having a smaller gun such as a nite finder on you if using the vulcan, because someoens going to come through with a one bullet shot and tag you because they can simply out range your vulcan. It would be pretty emberrasing to be pooring out 3 bullets / sec and get taken out by one shot shot from 50 feet away.

[CaliforniaPants]

My only other thought so far is using one chain and fusing it together in a loop,so that I have one continuous chain, I can add bullets as fast as I can on the fly, and keep a consinstant automatic gun going.

This is a fantastic idea in my opinion. Having just purchased my vulcan i understand that logic and I'm going to end up trying that one. The only problem is making sure to line up the blank shell so you can remove the chain.

[Split]

Alright guys, a small update. There was a wiring problem in my gun; only one battery was really connected. I redid the entire schematics, and will edit in a better version soon. Some good news: The 3-4+ shots per second I was getting for results were just from one battery! After they're both securely connected, it's now more like 6-7+ shots per second! It's scary fast. I'm seriously considering just running the Vulcan off of one battery. To go through a 50 shot chain in 7 seconds is insane and unnecessary.
For those at the war, you might have seen the Vulcan. I had it out early, and it killed itself before we even started. I had it breechless deodorant clipped for the war, but that's not what I'm going to do with it. Anyway, I did figure out the problems.
Mainly, the foam I had used to cushion for impact on the plunger head slid off from the lube and closed up the plunger tube. The solution? Epoxy to make it hold better, and make SURE you clean that plunger head, if not the whole assembly in hot water to make it free from any lube at all. having the entire air passage stopped up made my darts not fire at all.
Also, the plunger tube got really dirty. It got sand in it some how and the lube just grabbed it all. I don't see a permanent solution for this really. I just plan on keeping it clean after every war.
Anyone who remembers me saying that something was rattling around: I left a random part in that I was previously using to tinker around with, but is otherwise unnecessary for the gun to work. It was basically a piece of the removed rotation mechanism that I left in when I was trying to fix it. No harm done there.
To anyone is may concern: With the battery replacement, be very careful not to tug on the wires too hard. It may weaken the connections. As of right now, my ground wire pulled out of my motor circuit and needs to be re-soldered in. So just be careful. I used a small piece of tape (avoid hot glue as it could melt the wire's insulation creating a short [destroying batteries and potentially the motor]) over the wires' exit hole on the inside to minimize their movement.

Here's a serious thought: Keep the AR in. If it doesn't affect ranges, it can't hurt, right? It wouldn't actually help in this case. I have a theory that the two prong AR has something to do with holding the links of the chain, but I'm far from sure on this one. Too late for me anyway. But the pros of leaving it in would be stopping sand, more cushion for impact, helping against dry fires and misfires, and potentially a more consistent firing, if my theory is true.

[Vincent]

Here's a serious thought: Keep the AR in. If it doesn't affect ranges, it can't hurt, right? It wouldn't actually help in this case. I have a theory that the two prong AR has something to do with holding the links of the chain, but I'm far from sure on this one. Too late for me anyway. But the pros of leaving it in would be stopping sand, more cushion for impact, helping against dry fires and misfires, and potentially a more consistent firing, if my theory is true.

I just got a vulcan yesterday from walmart because the one I ordered from amazon was taking too long to ship. Your theory seems accurate because if you look at the botttom of the chain, you see holes shaped exactly like that. If anyone gets a vulcan, I personally would not recommend a 50 shot chain just because, as SplitLip said, the gun can't pull that many darts up. You have to feed it by hand. I'll go measure my unmodded ranges and post in a second.

EDIT:I measured my ranges and had an avergae distance of 30 ft flat with my unmodded vulcan.

Edited by Froot, 06 August 2008 - 09:48 AM.

[Galaxy613]

What you could do is keep the AR, but just drill a hole in the middle of the AR.

[C5 Z]

Here's a serious thought: Keep the AR in. If it doesn't affect ranges, it can't hurt, right? It wouldn't actually help in this case. I have a theory that the two prong AR has something to do with holding the links of the chain, but I'm far from sure on this one. Too late for me anyway. But the pros of leaving it in would be stopping sand, more cushion for impact, helping against dry fires and misfires, and potentially a more consistent firing, if my theory is true.

Very interesting thought. I am curious to see what others think about this, as I have not been able to decide whether or not I should remove my AR. It sounds like it really does not help much in this case.

[AssassinNF]

I finally have a vulcan, and I can confirm the 30' ranges everyone's getting. Vulcans have officially shown up in north Alabama.

For now, I am definitely not modding this thing. It seems that an AR removal is rather pointless considering there haven't been any positive results from it. 30' ranges are fine with me for a gun that can spew so much foam. At the very least, it's the ultimate indoor nerf weapon.

Outside, however, I could just duel wield the Vulcan with my AT3K. 3K for long range, and Vulcan for anyone who thinks they can rush me. (And yes I can duel-wield those guns, surprisingly. It actually works very well )

[goongala]

Just got mine a week ago. But it fires 1 dart every 3 seconds, not the other way around. I'm using brand new batteries so I'm not sure what the problem is. Anyone else run into this problem?

[bartel]

Maybe it's just me, but in the great office war video, it seemed it was firing slowere than reports have been. I thought it would be more of a sustained rof, than a short, ten second burst, but that's probably just me.

[Vincent]

Maybe it's just me, but in the great office war video, it seemed it was firing slowere than reports have been. I thought it would be more of a sustained rof, than a short, ten second burst, but that's probably just me.

I only get a bit more than a dart a second.

[AssassinNF]

Maybe it's just me, but in the great office war video, it seemed it was firing slowere than reports have been. I thought it would be more of a sustained rof, than a short, ten second burst, but that's probably just me.

I only get a bit more than a dart a second.

I get the same as you. I can fire it faster manually...

But it's rof is more than good enough for me. It doesn't waste ammo like a Magstrike or RF20.

[Split]

Really now? That's pretty strange. The youtube videos are pretty accurate to what I was getting stock. You can count shots and figure out the seconds from the video progress. I was getting about 2 per second. My overcharged 7.2v battery gives me 3-4 for the first couple of minutes (turning it on and off basically, like you would in a war). I haven't used it constantly more than that.

[Forsaken angel24]

I have my Vulcan open and I am tinkering with a few things to start basic.
I want to get a complete understanding on how it works before I do anything drastic.

One question I have in mind is...

What function does this piece serve?

[slowguitarman]

I was wondering the same thing. I honestly have absolutely no clue what that piece does.