Saturday, June 19, 2021

Field Report: Mystery Machine and Orb Weaver

Hop ups

The hop ups work well. I can adjust them in the field from no effect to curve straight into the sky. 


Accuracy seems about on par with rival blasters using rubber flap hop up. 


Considering how simple this design is, seems like a winner.


Mystery Machine

This performed admirably for most of the day.... until the end when it mysteriously stopped working.  What happened? 

Turned out the nub detention mechanism broke.

./documentation_images/physical_build/used_images/old_broken_catch.jpg 

This is after cleaning up the snapped off plastic and co.

Turned I designed it, I did the nub retention platform first, followed by the  rival round feed path. I stupidly didn't notice the feed path cut into the nub retention platform, leaving just 1-2 mm of PETG to withstand the impact of repeatedly slamming a mag in. 

Oh well.


Time for version 1.1.


A M3 screw actually works REALLY well as a catch for the nub. Better than the original plastic design even. 

./documentation_images/physical_build/used_images/new_catch.jpg 

Hard to imagine that breaking from any number of magazine inserts. 

 

 V1.1 also changes the magazine catch to work with worker 15 round mags.

 

Orb Weaver 

 

I used this for the UF HvZ game, and several NOMAD PvP games.


Overall, it's performed admirably, with just a handful of nits.


  • During a PVP game with targets in trees, I aimed at some odd 40-60* angle up, and unsurprisingly, quickly stopped feeding. 
  • During a run in HvZ, the lid got bumped hard enough to spill the balls. Maybe two magnets are needed? Then again, was a pretty hard run. 
  • There's been a handful of firing twice incidents.
  • It is heavy at 6 ib. A significantly less dense (and of course, weaker) print could be worth a shot. 
  • Optic mounting is awkward, but I knew that going in. 

And that's about it.

 

I'm pretty happy with it, and plan on continuing to run it at HvZ events.  


Surprisingly didn't wind up with very many pictures of this game, if any one has some please do let me know!