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Paintball electromagnetic trigger help

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xjnation

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I really suck at electronics! Im trying to learn and some is sinking in a little at least. LOL

I am trying to build a simple firing system for a paintball marker that will use a 9v battery for power a micro switch placed behind the trigger, What needs to happen is the micro switch will control a push/pull solenoid that will push the sear relessing the action. What Im looking for is a simple schematic that will do this function.

LMK if you need more info and your help is greatly appreciated
 
If you have a DC solenoid, you would just hook up a battery with an acceptable voltage and current capability. A 9V might not have enough current capability to drive a solenoid.
 
**broken link removed**

Here is a pic of a current microprocessor controlled unit a solenoid,
6800 uf 16v capacitor, microswitch, and 9v battery lead.

I am looking for a way to steamline this kind of thing down to just the basic componants but still have good battery life. This existing unit will power the solenoid for around 10,000 cycles or so.
 
What are you trying to achive? if you want to rapid fire the gun why not
just use a small motor with a cam on it to push the trigger every revolution..
 
What are you trying to achive? if you want to rapid fire the gun why not
just use a small motor with a cam on it to push the trigger every revolution

That would make the gun illegal at most fields and very slow. It has to be a manual trigger one pull one fire to be legal in most places.

I am just trying to revamp the existing circuit to make it less complicated and easier to install in other guns. the system now will shoot around 13 to 14 rounds per second. without the microprocessor it will fire faster, with fanning a double trigger 20 rounds per second can be achieved by some.
 
Patience daniel-son :D

Well, it looks like a lot of people aren't as familiar with the firing mechanism of a painball gun as you are, myself included.

Thinking of the original circuit, I'm sure that the manufacturer designed it minimally in the first place. Reducing the circuit even more might require some hard core engineering. Maybe not, I'm not sure. The question that comes to mind is "The manufacturer designed the system purposefully to be efficient both in cost, and function in the first place. Without understanding the original circuit, how can we improve?"

Thus, I believe if you/we are going to come up with a better idea, it would begin with having a full understanding of the original circuit. Thus, we can better understand the works behind the mechanism. With understanding, we have better opportunity to improve the system.

With that said, Would you happen to have a cricuit diagram for this circuit?
 
Johnson777717 said:
Patience daniel-son :D

Well, it looks like a lot of people aren't as familiar with the firing mechanism of a painball gun as you are, myself included.

Thinking of the original circuit, I'm sure that the manufacturer designed it minimally in the first place. Reducing the circuit even more might require some hard core engineering. Maybe not, I'm not sure. The question that comes to mind is "The manufacturer designed the system purposefully to be efficient both in cost, and function in the first place. Without understanding the original circuit, how can we improve?"

Thus, I believe if you/we are going to come up with a better idea, it would begin with having a full understanding of the original circuit. Thus, we can better understand the works behind the mechanism. With understanding, we have better opportunity to improve the system.

With that said, Would you happen to have a cricuit diagram for this circuit?

You dont need to know how the mechanism works. and the board is way over done for what I need. it has an electrinic safety and preset firing modes. none of which Im looking for.


**broken link removed**

this is the micro switch behind the modded trigger, the metal arm above it is the sear which trips the hammer so the gun can fire.

**broken link removed**

this pic shows the solenoid pushing a rod that tripps the sear.

so basically all I need is a simple circuit that uses a micro switch to trip the solenoid, you pull the switch and the solenoid pushes the rod and releases with the switch still held or released. speed is what is importand here and Im not sure if a 555 timing circuit will help or not. Id rather just have the cap switch and as few othe componants as possible.

The existing circuit uses a 6800 uf 16v cap. and a 9v battery power souce.
 
I see what is happening here. Your pictures are worth 1000 words.

It may be possible to use, as you said, just the switch, capacitor and the solenoid to actuate the pin.

Some solenoids need a specific voltage according to the coil wire size in order to function properly.

Does the solenoid happen to have a part number, or ratings stamped on the casing? I'd like to see how much juice we need to fire the solenoid. From here, we can determine a basic circuit.
 
Paintball Electronics

I have an electric paintball gun that is set up like the one you seem to be describing. It uses microswitch for a trigger, a solenoid that acts not as a solenoid valve but to release the bolt that will strike the valve on its own. The red pushbutton under the trigger is something i added to connect the normally closed contacts through the button and to the input. the result is that when I hold the button down and press the trigger i get one fire on the pull and another on the release.
I have been tying with making a driver board for the solenoid in order to get a higher firing rate. I have noticed that the doesn't seem to put out enough current to completely pull in the solenoid. As you can see, there is a pretty large capacitor in the circuit to help with this, I'm not exactly sure about the size but it looks to be about a 2200mf. I think its using a 12v solenoid because i have a 2200mf capacitor that have charged up to 9v doesn't pull the solenoid in hard enough either. I measured 9v from the dc common to the capacitor in gun so maybe there using some kind of voltage doubler circuit or something. there are three rather large surface mounted diodes on the front of the board.
The back just seems to be the control circuit. There's a picMicro of some kind on the back with some tiny surface mount resistors and caps. The gun does have three firing modes single shot, 3rd burst, and full auto as well as a red/orange/green led that indicates firing mode.
If anyone has any insight and could help dissect the board with me.
The timing circuit that I was planning to use was just a 555 timer at about 20hz.
It would be possible to wire a circuit with just the microswitch and no timing circuit for a single shot only application but it seems to me that some type of circuit would have to be incorporated to raise the voltage to 12v and a capacitor to provide the instantanious current to drive the solenoid.
 
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