ACT-LABS Gun arrived today

[vibez]

I must say the new design is alot smaller than the old guns. The trigger makes a really cheap clicking sound too.

Cant say i'm impressed at all with the new design. Ok it looks more like a gun, but it also looks & feels like it came out of a box of cereal.

I'm glad I have my 2 guncons

[Timoe]

Is there a guncon manufacturer that is prefered?

What I mean is, I've heard that the official Guncon is not preferred.

[vibez]

the scorpion 3 gun seems to be the best for accuracy

[Timoe]

Awesome

[Lilwolf]

Sucks that they didn't get the gun right.

Now for the expensive questions..

1) Do you have the original?

2) Have you opened them up?


I'm wondering if the inside would be easier to hack.... in lets say... nintendo arcade guns.

[M3talhead]

PICS!

PICS!

[vibez]

here you go.

The cable from the gun is now detachable from the vga box

[M3talhead]

Wow thats small.

[MKChamp]

So do you plan on using these guns in conjunction? Are they PC or TV versions?

[Bill Mote]

I didn't think the Scorpian 3 worked without a separate power source.

dot

[tivogre]

Sucks that they didn't get the gun right.

Now for the expensive questions..

1) Do you have the original?

2) Have you opened them up?


I'm wondering if the inside would be easier to hack.... in lets say... nintendo arcade guns.

I have an original (a pair, actually);

[Kremmit]

Vibez:  Is your new gun a PC version or TV version, and does it have the player 2 switch Tivogre is talking about in his other thread?

[Lilwolf]

Thanks for the photos.  I have the original also, and started hacking them already... but when the prices on ebay jumped to over 200 I started putting them back... then the prices went down to 100 or so when they announced the new version and I'm ready to rehack them.

I emailed actlabs to see if they will sell the new shells by themself for people with the raygun who want a better look.  To see if the inside was the same... but they never got back to me

But if the guns are diffferent on the inside, they might be better for hacking.  What I was hoping for.

Sucks that they didn't get the gun right.

Now for the expensive questions..

1) Do you have the original?

2) Have you opened them up?


I'm wondering if the inside would be easier to hack.... in lets say... nintendo arcade guns.

I have an original (a pair, actually);

[tivogre]

I just can't see how it would be all that difficult to take the guts out of this gun and put them in another shell.

Everything inside is easily removable;  the worst I can see is maybe extending the trigger and sensor wires a bit for a longer gun.

I'm tempted to order a shell from HAPP that I like and give it a go.

Anyone see any pitfalls I'm missing?

[vibez]

Vibez:  Is your new gun a PC version or TV version, and does it have the player 2 switch Tivogre is talking about in his other thread?

Its a PC version, they dont have the switch, so no matter which trigger you press, it always shows as mouse button 0.

Also I don't think The switches are physical switches on the TV versions. I think the switching is controlled by the vga box

[Lilwolf]

Its not always all that easy.  you have to align the optics and you have to make sure there is a place to mount whatever triggers the button.

So if they changed the internal board sizes, then you can't just swap one shell for another.

And trying to get it into a nintendo gun (for instance) you have to use a lot of hot glue

[Kremmit]

Vibez:  Is your new gun a PC version or TV version, and does it have the player 2 switch Tivogre is talking about in his other thread?

Its a PC version, they dont have the switch, so no matter which trigger you press, it always shows as mouse button 0.

Also I don't think The switches are physical switches on the TV versions. I think the switching is controlled by the vga box

If that's the case, then maybe the way to re-assign the buttons may be to cut the traces from the switches on the player two gun- so that they don't send any signal at all down the line to the VGA box.  Then add an extra cable that's wired to those switches and to the appropriate buttons on a hacked mouse. 

No, wait, if you did that, the screen wouldn't flash when you pulled the trigger, would it?  I wonder if there's a way to make the VGA box trigger a flash without sending a mouse click down the line to the PC? 

Or maybe there's a way to build a circuit that would attach between the 2nd gun's VGA box and the PC that would "catch" the mouse clicks and re-assign them for us?

[vibez]

The vga box is what actually sends the flash signal direct to the card, I'd love to me able to hack it I could wire up my guncon2 guns to the vgabox to make the flash

[Kremmit]

The vga box is what actually sends the flash signal direct to the card, I'd love to me able to hack it I could wire up my guncon2 guns to the vgabox to make the flash

You mean it sends the flash signal to the monitor, not to the card- right? 

Either way, seems like it ought to be easy enough to get a vga box to flash- just need to wire the switch in your guncon's trigger to a circuit that mimic's the signal from the ActLabs gun- or just wire to a hacked ActLabs gun.  Or to any other gun with a vgabox- if all you need is a flash, it hardly matters which gun's vgabox you're hacking.  I've got one of those el-cheap-o "PC Auto Mag" gameport guns here, I wonder if I can get it to trigger a flash by jumpering two of the pins on the gun connector...

[vibez]

The vga box is what actually sends the flash signal direct to the card, I'd love to me able to hack it I could wire up my guncon2 guns to the vgabox to make the flash

You mean it sends the flash signal to the monitor, not to the card- right?

[johnbuzzz]

Got my new gun the other day. The trigger looked like it was an incomplete mold as it doesn't extend as it should.  Seems they "break" them before you get them.

Response from ACT-LABS...
"We cut the trigger in the factory as the longer one will easy to break if
the gamer is holding the bottom part of trigger."

Cheesy way to fix a bad design if you ask me.  Plus the trigger pokes at the meat of your finger when used.

[terrahwk]

Response from ACT-LABS...
"We cut the trigger in the factory as the longer one will easy to break if the gamer is holding the bottom part of trigger.

Well.. I have the early version of the new act-labs gun (PC version.. with the long trigger). The early version had problems with most PC monitors but I believe ACT-LABS have fixed the issue now. I have some electronics skills, so I fixed mine by myself.

Not long after fixing the calibration problem, my trigger broke. I wasn't happy after spending so long fixing the electronics, then the trigger breaks the second night the gun was used! So.. back to the drawing board..

The trigger design is poor I think. It 'slides' back and forwards, and it's not quite a smooth fit so it sort-of jams in the gun. I've had my trigger replaced with a metal one that a friend of mine knocked up. The replacement 'hinges' inside the gun instead of sliding. It no longer jams, it's faster to use, doesn't hurt your finger and 'feels' better now that it's made of metal.

I like the act-labs gun, but I was disappointed that I had to do so much work to get it to the point it's at now, and I don't think everyone is going to want to open their brand new gun, rework the board (surface mount rework, too) and hack in a new trigger to get it to work properly. It's like it wasn't tested properly before being sold. (I believe the boards don't require rework anymore, but I don't know..)