Count Choc ANH E11 aluminum Doopy pipe build (pic heavy)

AWOL · March 23, 2016

Just partially disassembled my M38 scope and yes there are two prisms in there. Same as Ian's scope internals. I cannot yet remove the central inner chamber lens because I don't have any tool that can safely remove them without scratching things up. <br>

I am in the process of casting small scope parts and will see if I can cast the part that houses the prisms. It is quite thin in some areas and may be too complex to get aclean cast of it but worth a try. If that works, then it might be possible to buy some simiart size prisms and install them.

If you have too much difficulty casting it do you think it would be possible to scan for a 3d print?

if it works kick it, if it doesn't work kick it till it does...

count chocula · March 25, 2016

I think I finally got the roof prism mod to work the way I wanted.

I was having a lot of trouble with the image being blurry initially, but when the roof prism is placed directly behind the "porro" prisms (from T-jay's monocular), and the larger/rear lens is placed directly behind the roof prism, you get a clear, upright image. It's not magnified, in fact I think it's actually shrunk/de-magnified a little (as I guess it should be when looking through a telescope backwards).

Fyi the two porro prisms have to be put face-to-face a la Thrawn's guard's mod - in a vertical orientation (I had some trouble for a while because I was trying to put the faces together horizontally). It seems to work best if the frontmost prism angle sits just above the smaller lens aperture (see below).

I kind of chopped my scope to pieces trying to figure this out. Here's what the layout looks like.

Now I just have to put it back together lol. Also I guess I will need to put a fake/plexiglass lens where the larger/rear lens used to be.

I've also made some progress with the bolt. I sanded/dremeled some grooves into it to try and get the look of the bullet-loading side.

kevin926 · March 25, 2016

Looking really good! I like how you made your bolt. If we can talk Aaron into casting one, I think I may copy your idea. So post more pics! Lol

count chocula · March 26, 2016

Thanks, kevin! That would be awesome if aaron could cast a bolt/extractor. You can buy a real bolt with the extractor from numrich for around $80 + shipping, but tbh I'm kind of cheap/lazy and thought it might be fun to try and re-create one.

I looked extensively and have found very few dimensions for the real bolt. I couldn't find any measurements on the FISD E-11 blaster reference. According to sskunky the bolt is 123.8mm long and 33m in diameter. Sskunky also notes that the bolt "strips" are 123mm long and 7mm wide (although I vaguely remember my trigonometry and I don't see how the strips can be ~123mm long when the bolt is only .8mm longer and the strips run at a diagonal to the bolt - I'm thinking the strips are a little longer than 123mm). It seemed like zeroroom was getting near to tackling a template of the bolt on this thread, but apparently he went awol.

Instead I used v7sg's bolt pictures (luckily he included a ruler in most of them) to approximate the dimensions in photoshop. I just cut and copied a portion of his ruler and rotated it to measure everything, e.g.:

Here's a figure illustrating the dimensions I've guess-timated using this method - I used these to sand down the epoxy-clay-casted bolt. I used a dremel cone cutting bit to do most of the work, then hand-sanded and used various needle files (e.g. on the center slot where the ejector fin sits):

If anyone out there has a real sterling mk4/l2a3 bolt and would be kind enough to confirm these measurements it might help out anyone else who is crazy enough to try and fashion their own bolt.

kevin926 · March 26, 2016

That is a clever way to use photo shop. I like the idea of having plastic or resin parts for anything that can be considered a firing mechanism. This way there can be no confusion of a working firearm, seeing how I am going for the metal build for the most part. Gun laws are pretty strict even for replicas. That is the main reason I didn't buy real Sterling parts to go on my aluminum pipe. I just don't want the potential hassle. Your rubber bolt is the perfect alternative if I don't get a resin one. Great job

Lichtbringer · March 26, 2016

I looked extensively and have found very few dimensions for the real bolt. I couldn't find any measurements on the FISD E-11 blaster reference.

That´s cause they choosed a way to overoptimistic name for it.

It´s next to no "reference" in it, it´s just a nice collection of build and upgrade tips for making the blaster, with most tips/technics nothing new for modelbuilders (but maybe for costumers).

Reference is something with dimensions and appearances of the original, like Zeros (sadly unfinished) work, not nice looking alterations on copied parts.

I hope he is well, wherever he may be.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Lichtbringer

count chocula · April 4, 2016

The scope

It's almost done.

I forgot to mention last update that I tried to add some lettering to the rear rim of the scope (the shapeways scope doesn't have any lettering). I dremeled out a space, then used green stuff and some stamp letters (I have some 2mm and 3mm arial uppercase stamps I bought from romazone on etsy) to recreate the lettering. I tried twice and wasn't really happy with the way the letters looked. It was tough to get everything to line up properly and look professional. Mine kind of looked like a grade school craft project so I just scrapped the idea and sanded and green stuff'ed over it. Not sure if there is a good way to make this look really clean - the letters are so close together here any little mistake makes it look silly.

Anyhow I chopped up the scope as seen in the last update. I painted the inside of the scope a satin black and then started gluing in the prisms/lenses with some epoxy. This stuff takes 5 - 10 min to set. It would've been nice to've had a quicker-setting glue (e.g. CA glue + zip kicker), but I've heard that CA glue can release a vapor that stains the lenses.

I glued/green-stuff'ed the front lens in first.

I wanted to add some crosshairs into the circuit, but after printing some cool-looking crosshairs onto decal paper and applying to the rear-most lens, I realized that the decal paper itself made everything a little blurry (don't have a picture of this). Maybe printing onto "overhead" transparent paper would've worked better. Instead I bought a cheap scope from amazon with a crosshair built-in.

The crosshair inside of this scope was just a thin piece of mirrored paper with a crosshair cutout which was so thin I almost broke it trying to get it out. I bent the little crosshair lines back into place and glued this just behind the front-most lens.

Here's a picture of what the two front-most prisms look like glued in. They do have to be in a semi-reclined position for this to work. When the vertical axis of the prisms is perpendicular to the horizon the image is cut in half.

Then stuck the roof prism and rear lens in as shown in the last update and glued all the parts together, then sanded the next day. I found a cheap pair of prescription-less plastic lens glasses from a party store and sanded one of the lenses down to get the rear-"lens".

Currently in the process of painting (hammered-copper underneath, then a coat of black over that).

It was tough to get a good shot through the scope with my phone, but the image is upright, and the crosshairs line up well.

Bolt

I bought an ejector/ejector pin/plunger-spring and charging handle from numrich. I dremeled out a spot for the ejector, then used various drill bits to make the holes for the ejector pin (1/8") and plunger/spring (3/8").

Then put it inside of the receiver to mark the location of the charging handle before drilling a hole for it (3/8" bit).

I realized only after trying to insert the rear spring assembly that the charging handle is supposed to go through the hole in the front-most part of the spring assembly (as seen in the orientation below). I had to core out much more of the back-end of the bolt with the dremel to get the whole thing to fit together properly. I also tried to make a sear-relief and flattened area on the back side as in the actual bolt.

Front-side (there are a few areas I need to fix with green stuff):

Back-side:

The whole thing together:

Aaron's photobucket was an invaluable reference for all of this bolt-work. Needs a little more work before adding the "strips" (which I plan to do with abs scraps) and painting.

**I'm Batman[501st]** · April 4, 2016

Great work, sorry I missed the last few updates.....

And yes, the Blaster Reference is more of how to make mods with a Resin kit, with some blueprints and measurements added later. Not everything unfortunately, as you've discovered. Maybe an update later....

From memory the 2 prisms were either side of the large component in the top right of the picture, but you're past that now. Well done again.

count chocula · April 16, 2016

On 4/4/2016 at 11:00 AM, Sith Lord said:

Great work, sorry I missed the last few updates.....

And yes, the Blaster Reference is more of how to make mods with a Resin kit, with some blueprints and measurements added later. Not everything unfortunately, as you've discovered. Maybe an update later....

From memory the 2 prisms were either side of the large component in the top right of the picture, but you're past that now. Well done again.

Thanks, Ian! This build was supposed to be a pipe with some doopy parts stuck on, but after seeing some of the phenomenal builds on this forum I think I've fallen down the rabbit hole. This is becoming a very non-doopy build. Thanks to you and the others on FISD for the feedback and inspiration.

I've managed to make a little progress in the last 2 weeks.

Bolt

I tried adding strips to the bolt with abs scraps. I cut them out and sanded them a bit before gluing them to the bolt with zapagap/zipkicker. I found out quickly that my bolt is just barely thinner than the receiver, because after adding only two strips, the bolt would no longer fit inside the tube. I had to sand the front strips down quite a bit, and wasn't able to add any rear strips :wacko: . I suppose I could've sanded down the bolt resin a little more to make it thinner, but I decided to leave it the way it is for now. No one sees the rear of the bolt unless they disassemble the whole thing anyway...

I also added a few serial numbers to the bolt. I drilled out a little of the resin, replaced it with epoxy clay, then tried stamping a few letters/numbers in. They looked a little rough (I think I need a lesson from T-jay on hand-stamping). I re-covered some of the uneven letters with more epoxy clay and left just a few. This looks a bit sub-par, I think, and I'll probably end up re-doing it.

Here's the whole thing together:

I'm going to wait until near the end to paint the bolt (and nearly everything else) anyway, just to be sure everything fits properly.

End Cap

I have a real sterling end-cap, but I don't have an end-cap receiver/adapter. I took a shot at fabricating an adapter from a metal cap I had lying around (from a pull up bar I've since upgraded) and cut it down to use as the end-cap adapter.

I used these templates from usaeatt2 to get a feel for the adapter dimensions, although I think these templates were designed for a 40mm OD pvc pipe, and thus were not especially useful for the width dimensions of the cutouts. Instead, after cutting out a strip the length of the adapter and making a slit in it, I stuck the fabricated strip inside of the sterling end cap and marked where the little square guiding pieces sat, then made the cutouts with a dremel and stuck the adapter to the receiver with jb weld.

Afterwards there was a lot of trial and error when trying to get the sterling endcap to fit on. I ended up sanding/filing several parts and filling in some areas with epoxy clay. Looks a little rough, but I'll clean it up before painting.

The end cap now rests in the adapter fairly well and can be rotated/retracted as in a real sterling.

End Cap Clip

I wanted a functional clip, so I left the doopy clip in the box. I have this 3-d printed clip attachment from themaninthesuitcase. I used sskunky/zerorooms templates to make a well for the clip out of a piece of aluminum bar I had left over from making the thermal detonator.

I cut out a 35x21mm slab from the aluminum bar, then made a few slits in it with a dremel (as suggested in the template above). This piece is very small, and executing perfectly straight lines within 2mm of each other is challenging. I basically marred up the piece enough in the ridges to make it easier to bend.

The bending itself was fairly easy when using a few c-clamps, a few pieces of heavy aluminum bar, and a hammer. I set up a rig similar to that used for making the thermal detonator clips, and gently hammered the piece until it bent into a U-shape.

One side of the clip snapped after bending when I was sanding the whole thing down. I reattached this part with epoxy clay... The clip base ended up being a few mm too long for the 3-d printed clip, so I trimmed it down, then drilled a 2mm hole for the pin. I also cut out a smaller piece of aluminum and bent it into a curve, then jb-welded it to the clip to act as a spring.

Magazine

I decided to try and put the battery (a 3.7v 18350 IMR in this case) inside of the magazine as in ducati's build. In retrospect, I probably should have put the battery in the counter (or maybe in the inner barrel), as space in the magazine is very limited, but I liked the idea of the magazine being the source of energy for the blaster.

I have one of gazmosis' very nice magazines. I chopped the top off (sorry gazmosis) and drilled out the inside to fit an 18350 and the led for Tino's button mod. There are holes in the magazine cap because I initially tried to make the magazine insides accessible for maintenance later, but realized quickly (after the little corners kept breaking off) that I might be better off sealing the cap to the magazine.

Although I initially thought the battery would fit without an issue, as it happens I had to sand the walls of the magazine paper thin to get the battery to fit. In fact the walls cracked in a few placed and I had to repair them with epoxy clay.

I used a bicolor (red-blue) led for the button, and wired it up to some shield fingers (I cut little slots in the cap, slid the shield fingers halfway through the slots, then soldered wires to the underside of each finger). I also wired the positive and negative from the battery to another set of fingers. I'm hoping to make these meet up with another set of contacts in the magazine well, transferring power from the battery to the rest of the gun electronics, and sending power back to the led in the magazine from the selector switch to make it light up blue or red when stun/blast are selected. Oh yeah, and there's a few magnets in the middle of all those contacts to make the magazine connect to the well... I probably tried to cram too much stuff onto one surface here. Hopefully everything works out in the end :unsure: [knocks on wood].

I had to put electrical tape over the contacts after everything was wired because the magnet kept pulling metal objects onto the cap and shorting out the connections lol. Also, putting the magnets on after soldering would've been a better idea, because trying to solder a wire to a tiny shield finger within a few mm of a rare earth magnet is tough lol. When the parts were all soldered I stuck some epoxy clay over the underside connections to try and keep everything together. I then crammed the wiring inside and jbweld-epoxyclay'ed the top on with clamps.

Magazine Well

I'm finally using one of the DD parts. The gazmosis magazine barely fit into the well after sanding the edges almost paper thin. I ended up hollowing the whole well out to get the magazine to seat all the way in.

I also drilled some holes for a real sterling ejector and magazine catch assembly. Made quite a few cracks/mistakes here, which were then repaired with epoxy clay.

The plan is to use a piece of abs scrap within the well to meet up with the magazine. The other side of the battery/led magazine contacts will sit here. I'll also end up burying a few other electronics within the top of the well.

Counter

This post is getting to be a little long lol. Lastly, I've been modifying the counter shell I got from tengel at shapeways. Would've loved to have a real counter, but the cash flow is insufficient. I'm not a huge fan of the way this counter looks. The numbers are deeply recessed and would be very hard to paint to look like the real thing. Instead, I made some very un-cannon modifications :icon_eek: , which may be disturbing to some... but we're supposed to be having fun with this... right???

I chopped the counter in half, drilled out the numbers, and re-created the face of the counter (with epoxy clay and sandpaper/files) to fit the battery-level indicator seen below.

(Above) The faceplate has been redone here. I should have taken pictures of the pre-mod face and the numbers inside, but I didn't. A side view of the original face can be seen in this picture.

I also made a small port for a micro-usb charging chip. If all goes well (which is a big 'if') I will be able to charge the magazine battery with this port on the counter, and the counter "numbers" will tell me how close my battery is to death.

To get power into these electronics I will have to run wires into the counter. Rather than drill a hidden hole in the back of the counter, I'm planning to use the "promo e11" wire mod here, but in this case the wires will be functional, running from the mag well, up through the power cylinders and into the counter to power the battery indicator and charger.

**T-Jay[TK]** · April 16, 2016

What an update! What an effort!

Great work on the end cap adapter (indeed these plans are for a 40mm tube).

You bent the U-channel yourself, although there was one in your completion set?! :huh:

The 5mm LED head is actually not meant to light up, only meant to recreate that little button on top of the magazine.

Crazy cool idea with that charging option for the permanently installed battery. You could hide the port for the cable plug with a faked reset button...

However, the CRLs do not ask for any specific details on the blasters, so in the end it is up to you how you want this to look.

And it sounds like you are having fun, which is the most important thing

count chocula · April 16, 2016

On 4/16/2016 at 4:51 PM, T-Jay said:

What an update! What an effort!

Great work on the end cap adapter (indeed these plans are for a 40mm tube).

You bent the U-channel yourself, although there was one in your completion set?!

omg you're right. Talk about spinning your wheels. For some reason in the back of my mind I was thinking I would have the same problem you did with your clip being too small initially and didn't even check.

But you're right, your supplied clip fits perfectly. How embarrassing :blush: . Will be using yours now.

On 4/16/2016 at 4:51 PM, T-Jay said:

The 5mm LED head is actually not meant to light up, only meant to recreate that little button on top of the magazine.

Yeah... I thought the lit-up led there might be a cool little tweak, although I know the original sterlings had a silver button, and your led mod was not meant to light up. If it looks cheesy in the end I can just cover those contacts and have the led be non-lit.

On 4/16/2016 at 4:51 PM, T-Jay said:

Crazy cool idea with that charging option for the permanently installed battery. You could hide the port for the cable plug with a faked reset button...

I am planning to stick the male end of a microusb cable into the bottom of the hengstler button so that the button sits firmly in that charging port when not in use and hides it.

Thanks for the feedback!

count chocula · May 9, 2016

Magazine well

I cut a piece of ABS scrap to fit inside of the well and meet up with the magazine. I put a few magnets in the center and put 4 shield finger contacts to match up with the magazine contacts and wired/soldered them up.

The amount of resistance when pulling the magazine out feels appropriate, and there is a very satisfying "click" as it goes in. I tested the wires coming from the well contacts with a voltmeter and the expected ~4 volts are coming through.

Front Sight

I bought a sterling front sight from numrich and set to carving the dove tail into the receiver tube. I printed off some templates, took some other measurements and such, but this dovetail is a complex shape. I wasn't able to find any good templates. For the most part this was eyeballed after looking at lots of photos of real sterling dovetails.

I started by marking out the area and drilling a few starter holes. Then dremeled/filed until I arrived at the basic shape.

The front sight fit into the dovetail too loosely after the first go.

I tried carving a corresponding tail into my doopydoos muzzle, but it just didn't really fit properly. This sight is supposed to stay in place by pressure alone, so everything really needs to be just right. I tried modifying the doopydoos muzzle further, but eventually gave up and bought a muzzle (and inner tube) from Aaron (usaeatt2; Thanks Aaron!).

Interesting how different the doopydoos muzzle and actual/Aaron's muzzle look when compared. Not sure what DD used as a cast reference for this (imagination?).

Some modifications were needed when fitting this dovetail to Aaron's muzzle. I moved the dovetail forward a bit and filled in some of the back of the dovetail with epoxy clay. Everything fits perfectly now. The front sight really has to be forced in, and once in place it doesn't slide around at all.

This was a last minute pic (thus the stock). Stock installation is described below.

Counter update

I attached the male end of a micro-usb cable to the counter button so that it fit into the charging port, hiding the port. This was a bit of a fight and I ruined several micro-usb cables (luckily they're cheap). Apparently the charging chip wasn't installed at a perfect 90 degree angle, because the male micro-usb adapter had to sit at a slight angle to make the button appear true/upright.

I also grinded-down some spade connectors and attached these to the two outer-most counter connector holes. These are wired up to the +/- of the battery-level indicator and charger port.

Here's what the whole thing looks like plugged in:

Flash Guards

The DD guards are a little too thick. I ordered the 3d-printed designs from themaninthesuitcase.

I cut the pieces apart, but left a little bit of the sprue on the part, to serve as a guide/anchor to glue them in.

I made two tiny drill holes in the appropriate areas:

Then glued them on with jbweld. The ejector port guard didn't really want to conform perfectly to the guard outline, so I had to use a clamp to hold it in the right position while it dried.

Front sight guard/rear retaining clip

I added some knurling to these parts with epoxy clay and various knurled tools (as T-jay and others have done). This took quite a few tries and still isn't perfect. The knurling on the front sight guard (a square pattern) is actually slightly different than the knurling on the clip (diamond pattern).

Front sight knurl:

The back side of the front sight guard before sanding:

Clip knurl:

This was the least-blurry picture my Iphone could manage:

Stock

I bought a sterling stock from apex. This thing is gummy and greasy when it arrives. I cleaned the cosmoline off with mineral spirits and a toothbrush and sanded it down a bit, then lubed up the moving connections with superlube.

It comes with a piece of the donor receiver barrel still attached. Others have removed this with an oxy-acetylene torch, but my tool kit is limited. Instead I just dremeled the hinge out of the donor barrel piece:

I filed the bejeezus out of it (over a few days) until it looked like this:

It fits closely to the receiver, but there is still a bit of a gap.

To find the best position to seat the stock hinge, I first seated the front of the stock into the front of the receiver (near the muzzle), then held the hinge in position while rotating the stock to the rear to be sure it would seat properly into the rear cap. I then makred this position with pencil and jbwelded the hinge into this position and later put a few 2mm pins through it (it tended to come apart with JBweld alone). I later grinded these pins to be relatively flush.

Just to show it who's boss, I decided to weld the hinge to the receiver with this stuff. Apparently welding aluminum to steel is generally thought to be impossible/inadvisable, but muggyweld says that super alloy 1 can do it. Aaron's steel pipe build (usaeatt2) descibes in detail how to weld/braze sterling parts together and is a good reference for this, although he uses all-steel sterling parts (and silver solder).

I cleaned the joining areas with emery cloth, a wire brush, and a final cleaning with mineral spirits.

The alloy that I used melts at only 350 F, and supposedly bonds at a strength of 20,000 PSI. Because it melts at such a low temperature, I was able to use a simple heat gun to heat the area around the joint (although it took about 15 min of heating to get it hot enough). The flux turns a bit brown when it's time to apply the alloy.

I welded one side of the hinge at a time (because the whole receiver became too hot to touch/move after doing one side). I let it air cool and sanded/dremeled the joint down a bit to get this:

The hinge now holds on well even when moving the stock about. I don't think this thing is gonna come off [knocks on wood]. I'll have to fill the little divots in the hinge (at the pin sites) with epoxy clay.

kevin926 · May 9, 2016

Show off! Lol. This build is looking great!

**Bulldog44[TK]** · May 10, 2016

Spectacular job on this blaster. So many details to take in and some impressive mods. The scope is truly amazing. Your efforts to get it functional is even more amazing. <br>

Keep up the super job on this. Looking forward to more posts and progress!

count chocula · May 11, 2016

Show off! Lol. This build is looking great!

Thanks, Kevin ! You're build(s) are coming along swimmingly themselves. I'm really enjoying watching you turn styrene and aluminum stock into sterling parts.

Spectacular job on this blaster. So many details to take in and some impressive mods. The scope is truly amazing. Your efforts to get it functional is even more amazing. <br>

Keep up the super job on this. Looking forward to more posts and progress!

Thanks, Brian! Your scope cast build is a joy to watch. I'm thinking of modifying the large-lens-end of my scope further to look more accurate, but I'm betting the optics and overall look of your finished project will blow my scope out of the water.

**Bulldog44[TK]** · May 11, 2016

:duim: You can honestly say you built your scope. I am just making copies of an antique, sort of cheating in a way.

usaeatt2 · May 11, 2016

This build is BITCHIN'!!! Nice work Sean!

count chocula · May 12, 2016

This build is BITCHIN'!!! Nice work Sean!

Coming from the master of sterling parts builds, that is a huge compliment! Your build threads and photo libraries have been an instrumental resource for me. Not to mention the awesome resin-cast muzzle and barrel

Edited June 9, 2016 by count chocula

count chocula · June 9, 2016

I started working on the grip several weeks ago. Because I'm including electronics in this build, I needed to get the selector switch and electronics sorted, too - which ended up taking several weeks.

Speaker

I'd like for the speaker to fit within the rear end of the barrel (as in the toy models). Although many have successfully fit the speaker within the counter box, I really wanted to minimize the amount of visible wiring (even if this wiring is running underneath the scope/counter rail). Also, the slot in the receiver for the charger handle seems like a good enough outlet for sound.

Anyhow, I purchased a 1.22" (~31mm) diameter speaker and enclosure from a model train company. The speaker and enclosure together just barely fit inside of the 38.1mm OD receiver tube. The bare aluminum on the endcap lock has started to rust a little from sitting in a rainy Texas summer garage.

The speaker enclosure needed a front cap, though, to prevent the return spring from damaging the speaker. I fashioned a front cap out of a relatively sturdy bottle cap that was lying around. I drilled some holes in the middle of the cap to let sound out. I then primed the cap, painted it flat black, and epoxy'ed it to the speaker enclosure.

I also made two small holes for the speaker wires out the side of the enclosure, and made little ravines with a dremel in the enclosure along the length where the wire would sit, hoping that this would make the wire sit flatter against the inside of the receiver barrel.

Grip

I'm using a doopydoos grip. I really wanted the metal parts of this assembly (from the trigger group) to look metal. I did my best at duplicating Aaron's (usaeatt2) mod (post #76) for this.

I carved duplicates of the right/left front edges of the trigger group out of some leftover aluminum in the garage (using zeroroom's templates as a guide - post #44 and #88).

I sanded these aluminum pieces and then made several holes where the trigger pins would be, then cut little ends off of some stock metal bar from an art supply store, which were jbwelded into place to reproduce the look of the trigger group pins (final look seen at the end of this post).

I carved slots for these aluminum pieces out of the grip (I tried using carving tools first, but I guess I don't have Aaron's patience because I resorted back to a dremel with a grinding wheel). There were a few cracks from this that I later repaired with epoxy clay.

I then carved a big hole in the front of the grip for a selector switch.

These pictures are with a single pole, three-position switch. I later went with a dual pole, three-position switch (see below).

I also added some of Tjay's grip mods:

And marked/carved out a large space in the rear of the grip to house electronics:

Electronics

I initially planned to use the sounds/lights from a Disney blaster, but changed my mind after realizing that the sounds/lights from these toy blasters are not entirely screen-accurate (e.g. the LEDs blink on-off rapidly after firing, whereas the blasters from the movie light up a single time). I also noticed a lot of sound distortion when the sound effects from the toy blaster chip were amplified (with this chip).

I decided to use an Audio FX board from Adafruit, instead, which allowed me to load my own sound files and control them the way I wanted. This then led to me purchasing super-bright LEDs from the same company (for the muzzle light), followed by a voltage driver for said LEDs, followed by a microcontroller to control all of these components. I then spent several weeks breadboarding and writing code for all of these components.

I don't have much experience with coding (other than some C++ in high school) but after considerable research I was able to piece together some code for a 3V Pro Trinket that ended up working the way I wanted. I would post the code and schematics here, but it is a bit messy and I don't want to bore everyone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDIT: code and schematics are now seen below. Please excuse the enormous schematic image. One needs to be able to see the tiny markings on the PCBs. Code was written/compiled in Arduino software and is far from perfect. I used the code posted by someone named mucmac on this thread as a jumping off point (thanks mucmac). Sounds can't be uploaded here (I don't think?) due to copy right issues, but all sounds were either taken from various websites for free or recorded from video/movie using soundflower and edited in audacity. PM for details.

Code:

/*

Menu driven control of a sound board over UART.

Commands for playing by # or by name (full 11-char name)

Hard reset and List files (when not playing audio)

Vol + and - (only when not playing audio)

Pause, unpause, quit playing (when playing audio)

Current play time, and bytes remaining & total bytes (when playing audio)

Connect UG to ground to have the sound board boot into UART mode

*/

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

#include "Adafruit_Soundboard.h"

// Choose any two pins that can be used with SoftwareSerial to RX & TX

#define SFX_TX 1

#define SFX_RX 0

// Connect to the RST pin on the Sound Board

#define SFX_RST 3

#define blasttrigger 3

#define stuntrigger 4

#define lightground 6

#define switch2trigger 9

#define switch3trigger 10

#define fadeground 11

int soundState = HIGH;

int buttonState;

int lastButtonState = HIGH; // the previous reading from the input pin

// the following variables are long's because the time, measured in miliseconds,

// will quickly become a bigger number than can be stored in an int.

long lastDebounceTime = 0; // the last time the output pin was toggled

long debounceDelay = 10; // the debounce time; increase if the output flickers

bool firing = false;

int blasttriggeralreadypressed = 0;

int stuntriggeralreadypressed = 0;

int switch1alreadypressed = 1;

int switch2alreadypressed = 0;

int switch3alreadypressed = 0;

// You can also monitor the ACT pin for when audio is playing!

// we'll be using software serial

SoftwareSerial ss = SoftwareSerial(SFX_TX, SFX_RX);

// pass the software serial to Adafruit_soundboard, the second

// argument is the debug port (not used really) and the third

// arg is the reset pin

Adafruit_Soundboard sfx = Adafruit_Soundboard(&ss, NULL, SFX_RST);

// can also try hardware serial with

// Adafruit_Soundboard sfx = Adafruit_Soundboard(&Serial1, NULL, SFX_RST);

void setup() {

pinMode(blasttrigger, INPUT_PULLUP);

pinMode(stuntrigger, INPUT_PULLUP);

pinMode(switch2trigger, INPUT_PULLUP);

pinMode(switch3trigger, INPUT_PULLUP);

pinMode(lightground, OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(lightground, LOW);

pinMode(fadeground, OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(fadeground, HIGH);

// softwareserial at 9600 baud

ss.begin(9600);

}

void loop() {

//when switch2 active and not previously pressed, play switch 2 sound

if ((digitalRead(switch2trigger) == LOW) && (switch2alreadypressed == 0)) {

ss.println("q");

delay(20);

ss.println("#1");

switch2alreadypressed = 1;

switch1alreadypressed = 0;

digitalWrite(fadeground, LOW);

}

//only allow switch 1 sound when going through sound 2

if ((digitalRead(switch2trigger) == LOW) && (switch2alreadypressed == 1)) {

switch1alreadypressed = 0;

}

//when switch3 active, prevent switch sound 1 from activating until going through switch 2

if (digitalRead(switch3trigger) == LOW) {

switch1alreadypressed = 1;

digitalWrite(fadeground, LOW);

}

//when switch 2 and 3 inactive > 250ms, we must be on switch 1, thus play switch1 sound

if ((digitalRead(switch2trigger) == HIGH) && (digitalRead(switch3trigger) == HIGH) && (switch1alreadypressed == 0)) {

delay(250);

if ((digitalRead(switch2trigger) == HIGH) && (digitalRead(switch3trigger) == HIGH) && (switch1alreadypressed == 0)) {

ss.println("q");

delay(20);

ss.println("#0");

switch2alreadypressed = 0;

switch1alreadypressed = 1;

digitalWrite(fadeground, HIGH);

}

//blast trigger sound

if (digitalRead(blasttrigger) == HIGH) {

blasttriggeralreadypressed = 0; //semiauto only

}

if (digitalRead(blasttrigger) == LOW) {

delay(20); //debounce

if (digitalRead(blasttrigger) == LOW && (blasttriggeralreadypressed == 0)) {

ss.println("q"); //stop any sound

delay(50);

ss.println("#2");//play blast sound

ss.println("#2");

digitalWrite(lightground, HIGH); //turn on led for 100ms

delay(100);

digitalWrite(lightground, LOW); //turn off led

blasttriggeralreadypressed = 1; //semiauto only

}

//stun trigger sound

if (digitalRead(stuntrigger) == HIGH) {

stuntriggeralreadypressed = 0; //semiauto only

}

if (digitalRead(stuntrigger) == LOW) {

delay(20); //debounce

if (digitalRead(stuntrigger) == LOW && (stuntriggeralreadypressed == 0)) {

ss.println("q"); //stop any sound

delay(50);

ss.println("#3"); //play stun sound

ss.println("#3");

digitalWrite(lightground, HIGH); //turn on led for 100ms

delay(100);

digitalWrite(lightground, LOW); //turn off led

stuntriggeralreadypressed = 1; //semiauto only

}

Schematics (open in new tab and zoom if needed to see small markings):

Trinket Closeup:

Soundboard Closeup:

Amplifier Closeup:

Verter buck/boost closeup:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The real trouble was getting all of these components to work with the selector switch (switching sounds/lights with blast vs stun). I finally ended up using a 2-pole-3-position (2P3T) rotary switch. This circuit would've been simpler with a 4P3T or 3P3T switch, but the smallest of these switch types I could find were way too big for the switch cavity in the grip.

I uploaded my own sounds (from various sources) for the blast/stun triggers, and also put some "turn-on" and "turn-off" sounds for when the blaster goes from safe-mode to blast, or blast-mode to safe.

Here's a video showing how everything works:

I then desoldered all of the breadboard connections, wired these components together and put them in the grip. Here's what the monstrosity looks like at the moment (i have a lot of work to do filling cracks etc):

I connected the circuit to power/ground after putting everything in the grip, and the lights/sound still work.

For my next trick I will run all of these wires within the receiver barrel, and the bolt will still move back and forth (i hope lol)!

On a side note, I recently received a nice bucket from Rob (RT-Mod)! All the more excited about getting this blaster done now.

Cheers

kevin926 · June 9, 2016

You bucket head! Lol looks great, nice job on the electronics.

**T-Jay[TK]** · June 13, 2016

Woohoo!!! You combined the rotary switch with the aluminum inlays in the trigger group :shok: That's freaking awesome :jc_doublethumbup:

count chocula · June 30, 2016

Thanks Kev and Tino! You guys are the best. The commentary from this awesome FISD community is what really makes this building process a joy.

I'm about to leave the country for a few weeks, so I thought I'd post a quick mid-week update before I go.

Grip

I reattached the cover for the electronics with green stuff.

And tried to replicate the trigger group/housing with more epoxy clay

Wiring

My goal is to route these wires through the receiver in a way that allows the bolt to move back and forth. There are several issues with this, the main one being the point where the wires exit the grip. While the bolt has a cavity on the rear/magazine side and a smaller cavity on the bottom/flat part, the portion of the bolt between these parts is essentially effaced against the receiver, leaving almost no room for routing wires from the underside of the bolt to the rear/magazine/cavity area.

...so I cheated the opening in the receiver for the wires coming out of the grip, making the opening a little larger than normal towards the magazine side (this is eventually all covered by the grip anyway). Sorry for the gradeschool-ish labeling here. I decided to forego photoshop for the editor in photobucket this time :/

I also carved out a small cavity in the receiver barrel to allow the wires to travel from the flat/underneath portion of the bolt to the open area where the bullets/magazine sit.

Then routed the wires from the grip through this divot towards the magazine/rear side of the bolt, where they could run freely towards the magazine without binding on the bolt.

I also routed two wires to the rear for the speaker...

And three wires toward the front for the muzzle LED...

Inner barrel/muzzle

Not a lot to add here except that I drilled a hole inside of Aaron's resin-cast barrel with a very long drill bit to run wires through. I also filed down the front end of the inner barrel and dremeled out a space for the 3w LED to sit in.

I made the wires come out just short of the rear end of the inner barrel because I didn't want the wires to be visible coming out of the inner barrel.

I had to dremel down the two sides of the led to allow for the socket-head screws to pass by on the side.

The space I dremeled out for the led in the inner barrel is seen below. Without this space, the wires were a bit squashed between the LED and the inner barrel when the muzzle was tightened/screwed down and the LED would actually stop working when this happened. With the space drilled out (as seen below), the muzzle could be tightened down all the way to the barrel without causing the LED to malfunction.

This LED is ridiculously bright and tough to capture on photo, but this is a test with the LED in place inside of the barrel/muzzle combo:

Dark Side of the Bolt

I was inspired by Tino's recent addition of bullets and a magazine end to his build, replicating the look of the inner Sterling receiver when the bolt is pulled back. I wanted to make things a little different, though, making the bullets look a little more like blaster charges, glowing red or blue on the end depending on whether 'blast'/'stun' are selected with the selector switch.

I first bought some cheap 9mm bullet replicas from Amazon, and then casted these bullets in clear resin after making a silicone mold. I've never tried to cast anything before so this was an interesting first for me.

I dropped 5mm bi-color LEDs into the resin while the bullets were curing, trying to make the business end of the LED sit at the end of the bullet casing, just before the end-portion of the bullet. I felt like this made the ends look more 'glowy' when the casing was painted, whereas placing the end of the LED at the front-most part of the bullet made the LED light too strong/glaring.

The casings were painted with Humbrol metallic brass, but the ends were left unpainted. I labeled the red leads with a red sharpie.

I tried to emulate Tino's magazine end with ABS scrap and a little bit of aluminum. Tino makes this look easy, but putting this together and fitting it into the gun (and wiring it to the magazine) was like trying to build a boat inside of a bottle.

I then wired the magazine receiver to the wires coming out of the main receiver (including the bullet LED wires) and somehow got the extra wiring to sit within the cavity between the magazine receiver and the receiver. There were a lot of exposed wires in this area and there wasn't enough space for proper insulating sleeves around each wire, so I just painted the exposed wires with plasti-dip and crammed them all together. There were a few wires poking into the receiver barrel area when it was all said and done, which were crammed underneath the bullets. I'm still kind of amazed these wires/parts fit together at all.

I drilled some holes in the magazine receiver before attaching it to the receiver. This allowed me to route some +/- cables through which will eventually attach to the shapeways counter for charging to battery. These will come out at the back of the power cylinders and hopefully the exit point from the magazine receiver will be relatively hidden by the cylinders/resistors at the back. I've attached the wires to the counter here just to charge the battery because it was getting low after me playing with the gun for a while.

I also put the inner barrel in place and wired the LED inside of the inner barrel to its respective wires from the grip.

Somewhat miraculously, the electronics work as intended. Below are some pics of the bullets glowing. There's some kind of superglue/tape residue on the ends, which I actually kind of like, because it makes them look a little kyber-crystally.

The bolt does move back and forth. It is a little sticky, though. I made need to lube things up with some superlube.

https://i.imgur.com/bZdtn2D.gifv

**Bulldog44[TK]** · June 30, 2016

Come on man, this build has hit a ridiculously mind blowing level with all those electronics, bullets and lights! Had to re-read and stare at the photos a few times to believe what I am seeing.

Absolutely spectacular!

**T-Jay[TK]** · June 30, 2016

Out of words :shok: but I like it

count chocula · July 1, 2016

On 6/30/2016 at 3:38 PM, Bulldog44 said:

Come on man, this build has hit a ridiculously mind blowing level with all those electronics, bullets and lights! Had to re-read and stare at the photos a few times to believe what I am seeing.

Absolutely spectacular!

On 6/30/2016 at 11:25 PM, T-Jay said:

Out of words but I like it

Thanks, guys. I may have gone a little overboard with the electronics here (I'm sure some purists would say that electronics should be left out altogether), but most of these electronics are relatively invisible from the outside unless activated/exposed, so from the outside it looks relatively screen accurate (except for the battery meter on the hengstler and bicolor LED on the magazine). With the power disconnected it looks like a regular E11, but has a few 'sleeper' electronic tricks, which I think is pretty cool. Will definitely be a conversation starter at least.

I forgot to mention that I ordered an inner bolt from D-day (thanks D-day!), which I really like. The bolt I had made from epoxy clay was fine, but D-day's bolt is cheap and more accurate. I had to make a little channel on the back of the bolt to keep the wires running to the magazine from catching when the bolt is all the way forward. Here it is before painting:

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Count Choc ANH E11 aluminum Doopy pipe build (pic heavy)

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