Shuzz

so would an arduino work?

Technically yes, but there are a few things that make an Arduino a rather bad choice for this:
- You may have a hard time putting an Arduino board into the LS shell.
- They need at least a 6V supply due to their onboard voltage regulator, that means you'd have to use at least 5xAA batteries in order to keep the current above the required threshold once the batteries begin to drain (and therefore their voltage drops below 1.5V)
- An Arduino would be overkill for "only" lighting up a few LEDs.
- Arduino boards are far more expensive. (About five to six times more than what I used for the controller board)

But if you don't care about the cost and can fit the board into the shell you can use an Arduino.

Hi guys,

thanks for your kind replies. It's been a busy week for me, sorry for replying so late.

I added some shots of the finished internals to the first post so you can see how the cables were routed, where everything was placed and so on.

If you edit your original post, you should be able to edit the title as well. (You can't use the "quick editor", you have to click the "Use Full Editor" button below the box that appears when you click "Edit" (at the bottom of your first post). You can then edit both your Topic Title and Topic Description fields.

Thanks for the tip, however, it doesn't work for me.
I cannot edit the thread's title...
Should I report my own post so a mod can do it?

Actually, I like it, if only because I happen to like Atmel microcontrollers quite a bit. This LCD display looks like it could be quite useful for this project. You will need around 11 I/O pins, though, so you'll obviously need a larger microcontroller.

ATTinys and the rest of the AVR series is generally less expensive and more powerful than a PICAxe, and they also come in many sizes. C is not hard to learn (as I'm sure the OP knows), and is a much more useful programming language than BASIC.

You're right: ATTinys are dirt cheap. PICAxe boards afaik are comparable to an Arduino, as in having their own programming language and being more expensive than "naked" PIC chips.
However, the LCD would not be my choice for something like this ammo counter. First, they're sensible to low temperatures and generally more fragile than LEDs. Second, they tend to be quite large compared to LED displays (I'm not sure that the one you linked would fit inside a LS shell, even though it surely is one of the smaller LCD displays I've seen.) Third, most of them require loads of I/O pins on the controller to interface them. Those that don't usually require more complicated firmware and cannot be updated as quickly.

Can you indicate where you got the microcontroller board from (is it Conrad)?

And would you email, upon request, the bit-file that is downloaded to the microcontroller, so we have no need to design the software ourselves

And maybe you could use a switch to set the different mag sizes, so no need to auto detect the mag.

The board has been homemade, it's just a simple piece of PCB. Components were hand-soldered. The schematic doesn't show the added pin-header used for programming the device.
I can email you the binary file, but it might not work out as you expect. Reason is I probably screwed up while wiring up the LEDs (e.g. switching two wires by accident) and simply fixed that while writing the software.
So, depending on how you wire up the LEDs, they might not light up in order and you'd have to do some try-and-error'ing until it works properly. If you still want the .hex-file, PM me. You can also have the source code, there's nothing secret in there...

As for the switch: Sure, I could do that. Using a dial switch (or a variable resistor) connected to the last free pin on the controller is simple enough and would work.
But it doesn't make sense when you only have six LEDs as a display, therefore I didn't do it. (I could let them count in binary, but that wouldn't be user-friendly either...)

Actually, one thing you might be able to do is when the LEDs are going off when you are using an 18-dart magazine, you could take the mag out, re-insert it (Which will reset the lights if I'm correct), and just keep a note in your head that you've done this one time (It'll take 3 times to empty an 18-dart mag.). Something you could try out if you're in a big Nerf war where you might need the extra darts.

Yes, you could definitely do that. However, in a war situation you probably wouldn't...

One general thing: This mod was not done for NERF wars, as you would only rarely use six round mags in a war when you have bigger mags (or drums) available.
It was done for LARPing, especially futuristic LARPing where guns with flashy light shows fit in.

What if you're using an eighteen round mag or drum? I assume it counts the first six shots only?

Correct. I don't see it as a big problem, though, because when LARPing I typically only use six round magazines. Drums mostly don't fit the setting, bigger mags are somewhat unwieldy to carry around.

Recognizing different types of magazines would require modding the mags, for example by fitting a resistor on the part of the magazine that's inserted into the blaster.
Also, I didn't have any 7-segment digits at hand that are small enough to fit inside the shell of the blaster.

However, it's definitely something that is planned for v2 of this.

Ummm, yes it is. -.-

Great, first typo in the title.
I suppose changing the thread title is not possible, right?
Sorry! Can a mod help me out here please?