I'm going to be writing and posting this over a few days, as this is still a WIP, but I wanted to throw up an update, cause I've shown a few people the design idea and I'm interested to see what you guys think of it.
Hey, so a little story before I start. Coop and I were thinking of just silly and unnecessary mods for nerf, and were going to build the best one. This is one of the ideas I came up with, integrating two automatics, totally unnecessary, but also pretty cool. This idea grew on me more and more, and later that night, I actually started drafting how the shells would fit. They actually went together very nicely, so I started making the cuts for the integration. I already had the stampede completed, which I used at Massacre 5 to great avail. It's powered by two RC battery's, 7.2 volts each, and shoots about 2.5 darts a second, and packs a big bad bow spring, giving it a range of 60+ flat, with hot glue tipped streamlines. It's also rather accurate. I had the swarmfire in a bin, a project I started and then left to work on later, and was just gathering dust, so I didn't feel bad about sacrificing it to make this new project come to life. I have a second swarmfire that I modded with brass barrels which averages around 50 flat with taggers (the blue kind, slightly heavier then the orange ones), so I was envisioning this to be a really cool rushing blaster, or HVZ blaster, but mostly just a concept gun, and something really fun to build.
So here's the plan, integrate the swarmfire upside down like a LS DTB integration (as I'm sure your guessed), and wire them both up to the stampede trigger. I started with the shells before the wiring, as it seemed more appropriate. This was the plan.
(I have 2 stampede shells I'm working with, hense the color change seen later) The orange in that picture it where I wanted a poly carb connecting bracket to reinforce the way the shells lined up. Swarmfires aren't light, even without the battery, so I felt something like that was necessary. Fitting the shells is actually really simple, and I don't have pictures of how I did it, but it shouldn't be hard to figure out yourself. To integrate the shells, remove the internals and screw each shell together. Turn the stampede upside down and fit the swarmfire to it so you can see the seem of the stampede handle line up with the seem of the swarmfire body, to make sure it's on straight. Then, duct tape the shells together. Adjust as needed.
Add a few tacks of hotglue on the parts of the shells that meet. This is only meant to hold them together for positioning purposes. Remove the tape, then unscrew the shells so the two halves line up. Reinforce how ever you like. I bonded the shells together using epoxy putty as the base, and then putting a roughly 6 inch poly carb template between the blasters, which was also bonded with epoxy and epoxy putty. I then sanded the sides of the e-putty (once is was fully dry) in an attempt to have the shells flow a little better.
(also put hot glue on the inside for reinforcement, just for funziez)
So I still have some work to do, yes I know, but the shells are virtually fused together (as far as normal plastic strength goes) While the shells are apart, I can bend the stampede and swarmfire shells inward, and hear no cracking on the connection point. Once thats done, take a sharpie and open the shells up. Mark where a slot must be cut in the swarmfire shell to allow for the clip to still feed through it (much simpler then it sounds). Cut it out with a dremel, and call it good. Unfortunately, this won't take 6 shot mags or drum mags, cause of the way the shells meet, only the 18 shot mags, but I was ok with that. It would be easy to cut away more of the swarmfire shell to allow for use of drums and 6 shot mags, but I think it looks better this way, and flows more with the shell and theme of the blaster, and 18 shots a clip is plenty for me, especially with an additional 20 in the front turret. Now we get to the fun part, wiring.
My stampede ran on 2 7.2 volt RC battery's, as stated earlier. However, I didn't realize at the time, but my circuit was actually in PARALLEL, meaning that it only used the power from one battery to run the stampede. Yes, 7.2 is less then the normal 9 volts the stampede runs on, but it doesn't really matter, cause the amps are higher then normal d battery's will provide, and amps is what gives tork, which is what's needed to compress the bow spring. I actually like the slightly slower firing, it gives a half a second more to adjust and be more accurate with shots. Put you could always put as many volts through it as you like, I just like 7.2 Anyway, one battery will power the stampede just fine, so I can use the other one to power the swarmfire. The goal was to be able to EASILY fire them one at a time, or at the same time, which made me want to link them both to the stampede's main trigger, then have different, easy-to-reach kill switches for each blaster. The normal kill switch for the stampede (the one that you flick with your right thumb) is actually in a really nice place for a swarmfire kill switch, as I could turn it on and off with the same hand as the stampede. Now the problem is finding a new kill switch for the stampede. I ended up just going with pulling back the jam door, which trips the top sensor and won't complete the circuit.
Here it is
See the new switch next to the trigger mech? I took that from the front of the stampede, used to be a clip lock sensor, which I found very much unneeded. Simply glue it in there, and make sure it compresses fully on a trigger pull. I'll have a full wiring diagram up tomorrow or the next day, to tired to make one right now and take pics for it.
Another note, both battery's fit in the back of the stampede shell were the original battery tray was located (glued them in). I thought the way I achieved this was pretty cool, and can be useful for other RC battery integrations on blasters. Here's how it works. I cut a slot in the shell for the outgoing battery port, so it can be charged without removing it from the blaster. Then a cut a second slot for the wires that will connect to it, bringing power to the circut, also external to the shell. Now, they can be disconnected and then connected to an outlet to charge, and then reconnected to the blaster in a few seconds, no tools required. It's only semi clean, but it works flawlessly.
(disconnected for charging)
(connected to blasters)
As of right now, I had the whole thing assembeled a few days ago, and it works pretty well. I took it apart again to continue modding the swarmfire, as not much has been done to it yet (soon to have PETG barrels if they ever get here, and rear loading). I also have a few other changes to make, but for the most part, I'm satisfied, but it will defiantly be getting a paintjob in the near future. I'll be posting the rest of the "write-up" tommorrow hopefully.
Edited by ice, 07 June 2011 - 09:21 PM.
