AimTrak or ArcadeGuns.com Pro

[T3quila]

Hi guys,

I'm getting ready to buy a light gun for my cabinet (still in progress) and have a couple of questions.

I know the internals for ArcadeGuns.com are the same as Ultimarcs AimTrak as they are resellers with their own gun shell design, but what got my attention is their new Pro edition with a better IR low- or band-pass filter.

The reason why I'm asking is that the cabinet is in my living room (love my wife even more for that she let me put it in there) and I have a window a couple of feet to the right (with blinds though) and relatively close the patio glass door to the left (only a thin white curtain on that) of the cabinet, therefore unless it is night I will have significant ambient light in the room.

ArcadeGuns.com claims in their pro edition they have that additional mentioned filter that should help with the described scenario.

Has anybody both guns or any experience with that or any idea if Andy's shell is easily modable to add a better IR filter?
I was initially going directly to order from Andy simply for the reason that his customer service is absolutely phenomenal and he is very active on this forum, too. But he can't do anything to alleviate adverse lighting conditions in my living room 

Thanks guys, let me know what you think.

[TimeCrisis]

I have arcadeguns V 1, i haven't had any problem with daylight coming from the window.

not many people will own the brand new guns they just came out a month or so a go, I don't even know where the filter is, maybe you can just add it to the end of the gun.

but people are putting aimtraks in arcade like guns for recoil, with those shells i guess you could put a pass filter in them.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,119610.280.html

but as it stands most aimtrak users don't have this pass filter and get on fine, you can maybe look at reviews on aimtrakcs themselves.

[T3quila]

Hi TimeCrisis,

I wasn't aware that the V2 are that new, since I'm relatively new to the hobby as well.
I did read a lot of threads but hadn't seen anything pertaining to the Pro edition, that would be the reason why.

I like the idea of the "ring finger button", I would imagine it could work well in lieu of a foot pedal for Time Crisis (no pun intended).
What is your opinion of the placement of that button and my intended function for it, or did V1 have a different button placement?
What did you (or anybody else for that matter) do for foot pedals, I have seen people using the Harbor Freight shop pedal but it seems really easy to push around/miss in a frenzy of playing.

The 3 games I'm looking forward to play the most are Gun Bullet aka Point Blank, Time Crisis and House of the Dead.

I might order the new V2 Pro just to be on the safe side with the ambient light and since they are resellers Andy still makes money on it, so a Win-Win situation.

On another note, as you mentioned I was thinking about the recoil as well, but I have 0 soldering skills (don't even own a soldering iron) and as it seems ArcadeGuns are getting ready to have a solderless crimp or drop in solution for that, too, so that would be another plus point.

Thanks!

[TimeCrisis]

Yeah the button is great, i use it all the time and prefer it over the pedal for sure, also use it for reloading in hotd 1 as it wants be to shoot outside of the screen which sucks, i don't mind moving gun outside of the screen like Hotd 2 but i aint shooting outside of the screen.

if you don't own any aimtrak yet currently best bet is the arcade guns you will love the ring finger button and can at least try the recoil when it comes out, i think it may be best to e mail him and ask him when the recoil kit will come out, as it would be best to buy both at the same time due to postage costs and such like.

later on if you want arcade recoil you can try the DIY job by using the guts of the arcade gun as well as the ring finger button to mod the lightgun to try that out, i will warn you that the real arcade gun is heavy as hell likely the same as the arcade and sadly you will need to hold it with two hands, about 90% of the weight is the solenoid though so it's really heavy, maybe it's worth it for arcade level recoil, i really don't know.

the kickback effect also looks cool, but apparently time crisis 5 guns don't have kickback.

[T3quila]

Yes I ordered from arcadeguns Sunday night for the reasoning you mentioned.
I saw that they take up to 5 days to "assemble and test"  it before they ship it out. That is rather unfortunate because I hoped I could play over the weekend. I guess they only fulfill orders once per week since it is a small store. Can't wait to get my hands on it to try it out.

[AndyWarne]

The Aimtrak does have a bandpass IR filter. Its actually the window in the end of the gun. If you look into the end of the gun it looks black, this is because its an IR filter.

[delt31]

I never knew that.  Do you sell extra ones as I took mine out after fixing something and didn't put it back.  Gun works great though so never noticed.

[AndyWarne]

I never knew that.  Do you sell extra ones as I took mine out after fixing something and didn't put it back.  Gun works great though so never noticed.

We can supply a replacement if you can drop me an email andy@ultimarc.com

[T3quila]

The Aimtrak does have a bandpass IR filter. Its actually the window in the end of the gun. If you look into the end of the gun it looks black, this is because its an IR filter.

I would have assumed as much.
I was merely stating that ArcadeGuns.com claims in their Pro-Version description of their gun to have a secondary bandpass filter to enhance the overall filtering and was wondering about anybodies experience with it.
I haven't opened their gun to see how it looks nor made any measurements to verify the claim... but I can tell the gun overall is working for me in my lighting conditions FWIW.

I also can't comment if it works better than the original AimTrak since I don't have that to compare at this point. That would be highly subjective without a larger test in different conditions, so I won't make any comments regarding that anyway.

Bottom line for me is I'm pretty happy with the AimTrak hardware and the ArcadeGuns shell and only can echo the sentiment of many before me that I totally would buy it again. Since the difference seems to be mostly button placement on the shells I feel confident to recommend both the original AimTraks and the ArcadeGuns versions.

On another note:
Has anybody ever tried to put the AimTrak module into a Namco Point Blank/Time Crisis Recoil gun (where the upper part moves due to the recoil)?
I have seen the guns at a chinese manufacturer ArcadeSpareParts.com at http://www.arcadespareparts.com/arcade_parts/shooting_parts/time_crisis_gun_assembly/13199.html but the only thread I found here so far regarding that Vendor went nowhere. For that price I would give it a shot if the HW fits into the shell and then just hardwire the solenoid to the trigger...
Any comments about the feasibility of the AimTrak in that shell and that Vendor would be appreciated.

[TimeCrisis]

lol check the link i sent you at the start of this thread, seems that is practically what everyone is trying to do.

[T3quila]

Yes I had forgotten about that thread and since found it again. Have been reading 86 pages of threads of the main forum in the last weeks.
Lol I have probably read all answers to any possible  question and forgot about it again.