[Handsonic]

Originally Posted by MadMax

Hey Handsonic,

Thanks for the review!

Usually we find that with short discharges (grenade does not discharge a lot of it's pellets), the cause is that the end cap didn't end up properly aligned with the body. If the alignment pip isn't set into it's socket, the rubber gasket in the end cap does not make a good seal with the grenade body and a lot of gas bypasses some of the path that it needs to flow through. Also a misaligned end cap can allow a lot of gas to exit totally outside of the grenade.

It's been awhile since we tested unlubed operation, but my recollection is that the grenade is more tolerant to working with dry gas than the Tornado because the plastic pressure vessel has a smoother finish than we can machine into an aluminum valve body. I'm also rather spoiled. When I do a grenade test, I grab a bottle of lubricated propane at work that someone else has injected silicone into.

I apologize for the crappy end cap lug. It worked well enough compared to a lot of other issues that were going to hell and I didn't get around to seeing that it needed improvement until I had fired very crummy prototypes a few hundred times. It has become second nature for me using the Cyclone because I've lived lived with it for the past six years. To put things in perspective, I think Tornado took me about a year to design and tool up.

While a long product gestation cycle provides time to work out a lot of bugs, it also gradually makes me a crummy user tester. I become overly familiar with the thing that I sometimes fail to see some of the problems that new users may have. If I were a more confident designer I might brush off difficulties that new users have as "newb problems", but I try not to do that. At some point a product becomes hard to use because the designer has lost perspective.

We did do some late testing of new users and found that alignment of the end cap was an issue so Manchovie (he's our artist) totally rearranged the user manual to put more emphasis on the alignment issue and we applied some silver Sharpie marker on the alignment bits to draw more attention to the important features.

It is also possible that your Cyclone got too cold. I don't know how frequently you fired your Cyclone in your five throws, but it does take longer to absorb heat than Tornado. The aluminum valve body in Tornado is much more thermally conductive than the plastic unibody in Cyclone. I wanted Cyclone to be more economically manufactured than Tornado so I did what I could to reduce the usage of large machined parts and bury more integrated features in the moulded parts.

I hope that part of the problem is due to Cyclone being quite a different product from the things that players are already used to. An experienced player can basically pick up any GBB pistol and get it shooting inside of 2min, but someone totally unfamiliar with airsoft (or firearms) would be gimpy for awhile.

With a product like Cyclone I the ground is not prepared for me. We have no precedent for a thing that works like this.

Thanks for the explanation. I will definitely have to retest unlubed throws with the Cyclone. If the result is different, I will edit the review. I am still at awe at how much work you put into this amazing piece of technology, it is truly a great airsoft innovation... no pun intended.

I've also been experiencing some issues regarding gas leaks, though I am fairly certain it is because of my own stupidity. Sometimes, when I try to gas up the grenade, it spits everything back out violently. My hands and face have gotten very cold because of it. How do I prevent it from hiccuping like that? It only happens when the valve is sticking out a little bit too much and I don't know if I should push it back in with force or not.