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Rayven CS-18 'Mode' Switch

Now you can say "Switch to Stun" in a Nerf War!

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#1 kevne

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Posted 13 May 2012 - 12:25 PM

I use Trustfires in my Rayven making it pack quite a punch. The downside is that it makes the blaster very noisy and somewhat overpowered at close range. This mod gives you the option of running your Rayven at half power when you don't need full range.

I've been thinking of doing this mod for a while now. Initially I thought it would be just for kicks but since doing it, I've realised that there is actually a use for it... And of course it is funny as hell.

Unfortunately most of the photos I took during the mod for the write-up have been lost so I'll do my best to use my words.


Here's what I've done.



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If you open your Rayven up, you'll notice that there are three solder tags on the back of the battery compartment but currently, only two are used.



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By using the central solder tag, you are tapping off of the middle of the battery circuit. Therefore you are only using 2 of the 4 batteries. Not much use if you are using normal batteries, but if you use Trustfire batteries, this can be quite handy.

First of all you need to gut all of the wire out of your blaster. This included the four resistors soldered to the motors and the cut out switches. As you'll see in the picture below, I always opt to leave the components in the handle. One is a diode and the other is a capacitor. These components prevent the motors kicking out a lot of EM radiation (sounds Scary but it isn't) and help condition the electricity in the circuit. This also means that you can leave the yellow wire soldered to the battery tag.



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Here is a circuit diagram for what we will be doing. (The electronics whizzes among you will notice that I have used the wrong symbol for the motors. The software I use doesn't have motors so I used a coil instead.)

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First, I cut out a recess in the shell to house my switch and then I hot glued it in place. You'll need a DPST switch. I chose a slide type available anywhere.



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Now it's time to get that soldering iron out and poke it about. Join the motors in parallel in the conventional fashion. The left hand wire needs to be attached to the wire returning from the 'Rev' trigger in the handle (green in picture). The right hand needs to go to the centre tag on your 'mode' switch.



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Next you need to solder one wire to the central battery tag, and then another wire to the right hand battery tag. Both wires need to be long enough to reach the 'mode' switch whilst weaving around the inside of the shell. Once you have routed these wires, you need to solder them to either side of your 'mode' switch.

Once you've done all of that, you should have something looking a bit like this.



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Test your blaster by replacing the batteries and giving it a rev with the switch in both positions. If you've done it right you should notice that the flywheels spin a lot faster with the switch in one position than the other. I always feed a dart through by hand as well just in case I've wired it backwards and the darts shoot the wrong way. (Only happened the once I promise!)


Now you can say "Switch to Stun" in a Nerf War!

On to the paint job!

Edited by kevne, 13 May 2012 - 12:26 PM.

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#2 hamoidar

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Posted 13 May 2012 - 02:22 PM

Nice! I bet with a little work, you could do this to a barricade. In fact, this mod could be done to just about any flywheel blaster. Now I feel an urge to heat up my soldering iron. :)
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#3 The Nerfaholic

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Posted 13 May 2012 - 07:47 PM

This is an awesome idea! It makes me wish I paid more attention in Digital Electronics haha.
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#4 taerKitty

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Posted 15 May 2012 - 08:02 AM

This is an awesome idea! It makes me wish I paid more attention in Digital Electronics haha.

Nothing digital about this - in fact, there's not even much going on in the electronics side - this is basic electricity, like out of a middle school (or grade school, depending) science book.

That said, it's a wonderfully elegant mod.
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#5 Darthrambo

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Posted 16 May 2012 - 01:22 PM

Why not just use a potentiometer so you can control the power?
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#6 hamoidar

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Posted 16 May 2012 - 01:35 PM

Why not just use a potentiometer so you can control the power?

With the high current values of the Trustfires, the pot would burn out very quickly. I tried using a pot in place of a regular resistor in a cutting laser I rigged up from a DVD burner, and it caught on fire. And I just was using a nine volt battery. The switch is a good choice because it is cheap, and easy to use. It also will not heat up when in use.
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#7 kevne

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Posted 16 May 2012 - 01:48 PM

Why not just use a potentiometer so you can control the power?


That could work too. Better still, solder a fixed value resistor across the switch if you don't want a twidlly knob giving you a High/Low toggle.

I omitted from the writeup that I wanteed the option of only using 2 batteries so I can use Trustfires elsewhere.

Edited by kevne, 16 May 2012 - 01:53 PM.

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