Wordbiker

Yeah, nice link Carbon. It does appear that they have the same basic idea. What I found interesting after following all those links is that a good number of the comments were requesting a targeting webcam, faster response, Mac compatability, remote capability...and something more than the crap 5-6' range.



I saw that some of these sold for over $50/ea shipped, and we were hoping to come in somewhere under that for our retail figure, though that may be a bit optimistic. Heck, it looks like they're going for even more now:
USB Missile Launcher eBay
...and not a single "Buy it Now"...

One thing I am interested in is so far, all the ideas regarding this project have come from myself and my buddy. If you were to have a toy like this available, what specific features would be important to you? I am looking to buy one of these for "research" purposes, so if anyone here might have one to sell, I'll pay a fair market value for it.

While we do have to pare things down to essentials for manufacturing reasons, we'd like to offer some "upgrade" options as well as have the software open source. We are geeks ourselves and would love to see what other people can do with this once we have sold the hardware. I can honestly say I'm glad someone else has tried this. Now we have a better idea where they fell short, what people are looking for, and a general idea of what price they might sell for.

OK, just an update:

I did my shopping trip and came back with a starter arsenal of mod potential.



As I stated before, I'm new to nerfing, so these guns are just to play around with, mod, and to see how I can better make the gun portion of the project (and to play some games with my 3 kids...heh). I did find some 17/32", 9/16" and 19/32" brass tubing, so a nested barrel is in my near future. One design issue is making the gun as small as possible, yet allowing it enough push to still have some decent range. The previously linked USB missile launcher is barely capable of a weak lob, and given the size and lack of a beefy propulsion setup, I can see why. I don't see building anything as beefy as the long range air-powered guns seen elsewhere on the site, but I do want something that has at least decent accuracy and consistency. It just wouldn't be any fun if you can't hit what you're aiming at.

I will post more once I have the time to gather more supplies from the local hardware. Thanks for reading.

Wow, great links Langley!
There was a lot of good information on those sites, though I am trying to accomplish something different. Although I mentioned having autotracking as a possible feature, that is not the main focus of what we're trying to do. This Nerf gun is intended to be fully under the user's control, perhaps even over a great distance, not as an autonomous robot.

As a development platform, I started with a USB servo controller from a company called Phidgets, though most likely we will be developing our own board with only the needed features. I bought a kit for quick assembly and testing. Phidgets did include some sample code, but for our mouse interface we (more than likely my buddy, or someone we hire) will have to write custom code. I only wish I could say I'm a programmer. I did get the kit going with some sample code, and you can see a short .wmv video I took here:

phidgeting.wmv

And here is a still of the unit:



In the computer field, my focus is hardware, so this weekend I'll be taking a trip to Albuquerque NM where there's a lot more hobby, toy, computer and hardware stores than in my rural area of Colorado. I plan to use cxwq's excellent advice and buy some brass tubing to make a nested barrel for a simple single-shot spring driven gun. I also plan to look at what is available in multi-shot Nerf products to see if I can potentially give this gadget some real firepower. Recommendations are welcome, though the requirements are:spring action only, relatively compact size and weight, and reliability. From what I have read so far, I will be looking for a Maverick.

After a few discussions, we have come to the realization that having this run solely from the USB is impractical, and additional power will be required from either an external power supply, or a molex extension from the host PC. The Phidgets controller has two servo outputs that are presently not being used, so some experimenting with servos may net us a repeatable or full-auto gun. I'll be picking up some servos of differing torque ratings, size and quality to try that concept out, as well as test for how the servos I have can handle the weight of a mounted gun.

I thank you all for the responses.

Nerforbust, if this has already been done, I'd sure love to see a link or some pictures. I don't doubt that someone has built one as all of the parts are readily available, and we're not trying to break new ground. The hope is to have it usable right out of the box. If producing it commercially proves to be unviable, then we can still have some fun with a prototype or two.

hoshiadam, my thanks for the suggestions regarding the multi-shot mechanics and the correction of my typo. I do plan to buy more authentic Nerf guns and examine them for more possibilities, but for my prototype, will stick with a single shot for simplicity and efficiency.

Talio, my apologies for posting a concept without anything to show. After seeing several concepts posted previously and being asked in a personal message by another member to post, I went ahead before having pictures available.
Regarding the "N" word...it was not my intent to call anyone here by a degrading title. The term is the product's name, and was only referring to its use as a common gaming term due to the market segment it is intended for. Once I receive my parts order, I shall correct the previous lack of product to show. As I am sure you can tell, this project will take a bit of time, and perhaps some steps forward as well as a few back. Would it be OK to post my progress? I do have some offsite picture and video hosting available to me, and could share links of substance and pertinence.

It's great to see yet another team going for the real gold: curing disease.
I've been a folder for several years now, but unfortunately all of my machines are committed to other teams. That's no help to the team here specifically, but we're all fighting the same odds. Disease sure doesn't seem to give a crap about affiliations, team names or point tallies.

Hopefully soon I'll be able to share with you what I came to the forums for, and it does involve Nerf and computers, so perhaps this thread and forum category isn't so far off topic as previously stated. I am also interested in talking PCs to anyone that cares to, though I do a lot more of that over at PCApex.com (formerly PimpRig.com) as a staff reviewer. No, that doesn't mean a thing other than I can write and like getting free PC goodies. Heh, well...you'd like it too, wouldn't you?

You'd better watch out, cxwq-- this guy might sue you for inhibiting his Constitutionally granted right to impose his immense stupidity on the rest of us.

Now that was funny, I don't care who you are...

Well, I didn't see a welcome thread so I decided to start here. Howdy!
I am an occasional paintball player, and frankly...have never played Nerf games before (not unless you count torturing my sister when I was a kid and Nerf guns were new). I also didn't join the forums to learn how, as I like to bleed, and will stick with the thrills inherent with expanding CO2 and ballistic explosions of oily food byproducts for quelling my barely-contained impulse to hunt down and kill fellow "human beings". No, I joined because I had some questions to ask all of you about Nerf as I have a PC-related product I'd like to develop...and yeah, it involves non-hurty projectiles. I joined here specifically because the forums just cracked me up, and to discuss the Illuminatus Trilogy with cxwq. Does all that make me a bad person? (rhetorical question, don't answer)