Airsoft Canada - LED BB/Magazine Counter

Hey Archie Gang,

http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/projects/aliens/m41.htm

After I saw this thread on the Sci-Fi theme, I actually thought this was a worthwhile (some-what practical not just for kicks) mod. AND I DONT MEAN THE GUN"S BODY WORK, I mean the counter gauging the ammo spent. It naturally resets after a new mag is inserted.

I emailed the guy asking for him to update the post with his schematics of the circuit he used, or to forward them to me but no response.

I want to do the same thing but have several ideas about going about it,

1. A toggle hooked close to the slide (if a EBB or GBB) or inside the piston or piston chamber. Each strike would tick the counter up or down.

2. Another toggle behind the trigger (or above in the housing linked to the spring and swivel) and some complicated programming to determine the rate of fire of what ever gun is used and the counts would be an estimate.

3. A motion sensor/IR link attached to end of barrel inside a small suppressor. It would count the BBs passing by the interruption of the IR beam or the motion sensor (anyone heard of a motion sensor this tiny?).

4. Or just go balls out and try and match what he did through trial and error, which is pretty much number 3.

Following quote from the page

Quote:

Plans #2 : Phil of USMC Blackwatch has kindly given us permission to host copies of his plans for the MORITA and PulseRifle project (Thanks Phil). You can download the PR Plans by clicking here.

What about the counter electronics? (warning techie speak....) This how I intend to build the electronics for the LED counter circuit. For anyone interested in it, the counter will represent the 'percentage' of rounds in the magazine, as the airsoft version will carry 190 rounds, not the '99' of the film model. For every 2bb's that are fired, the counter will decrease by 1. The circuit will contain these components:

# 2 - binary counters
# 2 - binary driven 7 segment display driver chips
# 2 - 7 segment displays
# 14 5k resistors
# 2 - op-amps
# 1 contact switch
# 1 infrared transducer switch
# 4 AA batteries
# 2 de-bouncing circuits (a capacitor-resistor combination)

The counter will reset to '99' every time a clip is inserted, by simple placement of a contact switch inside the magazine housing. The clock signal will come from placing a sensor across the end of the inner barrel. This will be an infra-red transducer, which will create a 1-0-1 pulse for each break between the sensors. this break is caused by the bb coming out the end. By working on a 1-0-1 pulse you eliminate most errors such as the counter miscounting, or counting down by itself in strong sunlight. You would however be able to get the counter to count by sticking an obstruction down the barrel (like your finger).

The batteries will either be placed in the carry handle ( 4 AA's), or if I use a dummy shotgun, they will be placed inside that.

The electronics are really going to be there for the fun of it. I don't expect the electronics to work flawlessly in all conditions (what does?) . I have studied an Electronics Engineering degree though, so trust me when I say that this design will eventually work, even if I have to bodge it =). The electronics should be as reliable, if not more so, than that of the circuits in the Tokyo Marui SIG550's with the 'tripple shot' function.

I haven't built this circuit yet, so as-is the design may not work, the above section is merely my mental 'musings'. When I have a final design, that is confimed to work, I'll post the circuit diagram, and PCB layout here.

I really have no idea how to work with binary driven 7 segment display driver chips, let alone anything with binary and chips or drivers. Any heads up or direction?