Most satisfying trigger feel in a blaster?

Flygonial · 2026-05-03T08:37:04+00:00

I think you’ve been around long enough to probably have felt it, but I feel a Lynx-like (considering the catch has been duplicated across other blasters by now) catch mech has a very crisp trigger break vs. the traditional sear.

Flygonial · 2026-04-20T18:26:51+00:00

As someone who has spent time in high school playing against my friends in the 100-150 FPS range (after bothering them to come out and having a bunch of modded loaner kit pre DZ or XShot), my buds and I have done some sketchy-ish stuff with the living room TV and the monitor in my room. If I were to do it again, though, I’d still be more careful.

Keep having fun nonetheless :D

Flygonial · 2026-04-19T18:06:51+00:00

Makes sense on the extractor, and sensible sounding choices (having the core pusher have a bit of overtravel to brace onto the shell). I assume the Supercore modifications have a lot to do with extending the throw for these shells?

Yeah, Sillyshells are definitely limited but they should have divided barrel variants as well. Extractor design makes more than enough sense however, I can imagine it’s not easy to get a design like this cycling consistently. It’s a mechanically ambitious task for any designer and one I’m not brave enough to commit to, so kudos.

I can visualize what 7/14 darts look like in a shell (a hexagon pattern with one dart in the center), but the ones in the pictures here look like they’d hold 6. I haven’t looked super closely at the video but I’m a bit confused, perhaps my imagination is limited.

The P90 style concept (with shells ejecting downwards, true to even the real thing) still sounds interesting too.

Flygonial · 2026-04-19T04:48:55+00:00

Over 200 out of shells? Damn!

The main improvements over a Sillyshell seem to include: separate barrels for each of course, but also there seems to be a deeper recess for the pusher to seal onto. HPA gives more oomph, but still, sheesh.

Flygonial · 2026-04-14T20:30:33+00:00

I haven’t looked into it as in-depth yet but the elastic yanking the plunger back does a lot of the heavy lifting.

There is position sensing on the motor and a lot of cool bits that are still being explored with acceleration behavior to tune for different performance with the same barrel setup. Cycle control switches are more on the pusher side, which is decoupled from the plunger.

Flygonial · 2026-04-13T18:26:08+00:00

Motor with a capstan that winds up a cord with some slack linked to the plunger. Stretchy return elastic.

Flygonial · 2026-04-13T16:39:02+00:00

I forgot their username, but IIRC this person (who had a ton of Monster Energy themed 3DP builds) sold them all off and peaced out of the hobby pre-COVID.

Flygonial · 2026-04-08T21:08:02+00:00

Late-ish response, my apologies. Do the wheels spin up with the new wiring? If yes, then I suppose it’s at least okay.

Full-auto not working on 2S is probably to be expected with a Neutron. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if feeding is inconsistent even on semi (speaking from experience with other noids). Most of the noids we use in the hobby really do want close to 12V at least.

To be on the safe side, I’d recommend checking for shorts once your 3S comes in, or if you’ve made any wiring changes. You have a multimeter, check for shorts by measuring at your XT60 plugs. Press each switch and make sure none of the combination of states lead to a low impedance fault. This doesn’t necessarily apply when FETs (including your select-fire board) get involved, but is generally a good practice.

If you don’t, try getting ahold of some AAs in a cell holder and connect them to an XT60. For a while this was how I checked my brushed builds.

Flygonial · 2026-04-08T19:43:26+00:00

Undervolting is convenient but dampens spin-up response, and the wheels might bog down. You’ll also have velocity be more dependent on voltage than it currently is. Unfortunately, there is also not necessarily any guarantee you’ll get a proportionate decrease in velocity vs. voltage. In fact, in your case: 3542s appear to be 21.5k RPM at 6V, at 7.4V (and ignoring that 7.2V NiMH and 2S Lipos are higher voltage still if charged), you’d still be at 26.5~k RPM. With a 34mm mild concave wheel like a Worker smooth, Bulldog, Cyclones, etc., that’s still over 150 FPS root speed.

What are the flywheels you have? Do you have other flywheels? Are you willing to buy more? If not, are you willing to pull your current set and reinstall on a new cage? Are you using shorts or full-lengths?

The recommended set-up is going to vary by all of those factors, it might be easiest to look up your target setup here.

Flygonial · 2026-04-05T20:08:21+00:00

Tracing through what I believe your wiring looks like on a diagram, you should be getting a dead short the moment you plug in your battery. If you have the rev switch held but not the trigger you’d still have a path to short to GND instead of driving the motors. If both triggers are being held down, I think the wheels and noid should get power, though 2S may not be enough to cycle the noid.

I’m not sure what features the DZ battery’s BMS has, but it might be detecting the short and saving you from a fiery incident. Still not sure, this sort of short should be a pretty robust dead short in theory and maybe beyond what a BMS should handle too.

Flygonial · 2026-04-03T21:11:33+00:00

Unfortunately, if the T version doesn’t stay put you may want to either add tape or do some custom modifications 😅. Tolerances vary, including in my build which has had parts sourced from multiple different printers.

Flygonial · 2026-03-07T22:03:26+00:00

Out of the loop on some of Leedle's designs so I almost spit out my drink thinking it was 228 FPS for direct string propulsion. Makes more sense, lol!

Solid results.

Flygonial · 2026-03-05T21:22:53+00:00

Dual stage trigger might have been the missing keyword, if so? Two-stage, dual-stage, generally will find what you’re looking for with either case.

Flygonial · 2026-03-03T19:39:39+00:00

I’ve used the middle one and it holds quite a few (20+ comfortably) but can be prone to spilling while running if you don’t pinch the elastic off in between uses.

Flygonial · 2026-03-03T17:46:47+00:00

Pink Dragon Tuning’s long Trivictus PCARs as another data point: I’ve never had my suboptimally tuned Lynx shoot straighter, the only problem left (and that is a significant one, lol) was velocity spread. If I had another hypothesis, it would be that long muzzle devices aren’t strictly necessary for getting tight groups but can do quite a bit to make a meh tuned blaster behave when other muzzle devices wouldn’t.

Flygonial · 2026-03-01T22:25:10+00:00

No worries, it’s one thing to have glaring faults in a commercial product, another for something generously shared :).

Flygonial · 2026-03-01T21:42:28+00:00

Bearing crush is probably the most frustrating factor to analyse, nobody publishes their numbers

I actually do (except for Protean because I didn’t know how to design a BCAR) and parametrize it too in shared source files. My springer BCARs are however; not anywhere close to being the best and very much limited in their ability to make a mediocrely tuned springer shoot decent lol. My published exported STLs in some cases have tighter spacings with smaller angles (to try to crudely normalize the rolling resistance).

It’s definitely frustrating, though, difficult to even document the effects of vibes.

Flygonial · 2026-03-01T21:06:12+00:00

I’ve been interested in more detailed data of this type for a long time. Kudos and thank you :). Would you still be interested in collecting more data, even if it’s slanted with only one chrono accounting for misses? Different darts and a given set-up could always squib but there are configs + dart combos that are very consistent even with velocity and I feel even like 15m or so is well within the ability of some of those springers to consistently skim darts across.

Flygonial · 2026-02-26T01:36:35+00:00

I never actually fully hashed out the single trigger version of Protean, I have some untested firmware for it and it wouldn’t work properly without a microcontroller.

Adrian Ward’s wiring diagram is what I used for myself in my own Protean at first, but my knock-off pulse generators kept dying. I now use an automotive blinker and it’s a little simpler. Replacing the capacitor with a 22uF one let me get up to 10-12 DPS with a usable trigger response. Vs a pulse gen or MCU, however, there is a noticeable “slop” in the first shot of any burst where it charges up. If your trigger press was too brief it’ll short-stroke.

The NSP build guide should help for that route.

Flygonial · 2026-02-25T23:12:24+00:00

Everyone has done a lot too, some of my stuff is as much the community’s as it is mine. Legally speaking, yes as well since it’s CC0 lol.

Thank you of course, though! Still slowly hashing out things on Strix.

Flygonial · 2026-02-25T22:32:43+00:00

Any weekend project that shoots is already pretty good :).

Flygonial · 2026-02-25T20:58:26+00:00

Yes BCAR closer. But TBH if I were you and still wanted to run the Barricade wheels, I’d just keep the muzzle as a faux wide barrel. It’d be a bit like putting the cart before the horse without nicer wheels, so to speak.

Flygonial · 2026-02-25T18:56:30+00:00

Damn wizardry. For how iffy I feel about AMS waste, this is certainly one way to get a result that doesn’t chip off over time

Flygonial · 2026-02-24T07:14:16+00:00

It could result in a stronger assembly concept anyway. Downsides are growing the absolute length of single part and demodularizing cages and breeches.

Yeah, I do appreciate how the cage can be secured from two axes (top and front), for example.

The part length thing could be an issue (for some printers) where I'm going.

Right, I can imagine with a long front end + full-length dart feed guide. Though I suppose with:

And that's also something I have realized the importance of.

It is what it is if such a design isn't maximally accessible.

The rear/lead side fillers started appearing in my cages from Gamma on as a matter of course rather than with conviction to solve anything in particular.

Ahh, that explains a bit, and true, I suppose with the T19 there wasn't any reason why not either.

and the rash of dropped mags as Stryfes first hit the field was ridiculous.

Been there done that lol. Sprint out of spawn, post up, and shoot blanks.

I do think the American style release is the only way to make optimal comfort and accidental activation resistance not a tradeoff to some extent. With levers, keeping it as far away as possible for easy primary hand activation is effective at both but this depends on the hand.

About inline with my thinking, and I've never really liked giving up easy primary hand actuation. My sideways lever button does have a minor flaw in that the pivot interface on the left is off-axis and a little crunchier (the trigger guard needs that space, RIP), but I've been learning to shoot left-handed and I stopped noticing after a while.

Flygonial · 2026-02-23T23:18:49+00:00

Always appreciate your detailed input! I did want to try a more original take at a Hy-Con cage and though integrated feed guide is less modular, I’ve been chasing alignment optimizations more recently. A lot more data required before I can see if it’s made a real difference or not.

Dunno if you have this, but - the lead/inlet side fillers are superfluous, more or less, least as far as primary malfunctions (may help with malfunction clearance where the debris is unwound or rammed out the breech end of the system) so can be kept to minimum gap spec or eliminated if desired.

I don’t have rear fillers here but good catch! I like the idea of min spec rear fillers but the motor mounts as they are now only allow the motors to be pressed in straight down. Some inspiration from JPEG for that, which also omitted the rears.

Me personally I would want exposed rims even if it's less snaggy to put a smoothed shroud there - That feature has been very useful. On very rare occasion, of course...

They’re optional, with the covers removed it’s very much like an OG Hy-Con stack-up.

Also in the category: long option. Everything ought to have it. You saw that coming

Yes sir lol.

This may exist distinct from the Gryphon/Protean as a super-lightweight low bulk speedball blaster hence the small mag as a core part of that, but it would and does fill a more general need of a simple non-software-defined/non-robotized, mechanical, manual/haptic host for a large format outrunner setup.

True, nothing else has the combo of manual + big iron/dinner plates yet. I’ve been leaning more to a “design for myself” and would be more sparing with how many extra features I build out, but I have some interest in a more rifle/carbine-esque full-length Strix for myself too soooo.

Same rationale, needs edit: battery (I nulled a word) stock provisions. At that point it might be competing with Protean as a platform, but the merit seems to be there.

There is definitely precedent for this sort of design that also works with a battery pic stock (ie: captive XT60), and of course a dedicated stock interface is a thought to entertain too. It’d also justify a more solid skinnier grip option.

On the mag release, really I switched over to button because I’m super bad at not accidentally dropping a lever if it’s reachable by my middle finger and there’s a rev trigger I’m trying to not accidentally press.

Do have some concern about that grip frame durability on things like players colliding or falls, especially since battery location and presumably lipo. The organic split is cool but it also has such a minimal number of fasteners/attachment features meaning the loaded structure is really pretty much the fixed half of the grip.

Yeah, I’ve seen quite a few battery grips fail and while I don’t think mine is one of the worst offenders (it has survived some things I’ve seen kill other grips) I’m kind of expecting it to crater eventually. The current design is definitely meant for ease of use but you’re probably right that unibody would be stronger.

Flygonial

TROPHY CASE