MkII 'Miranda' Pattern Magazine Holders

We've been working to refine our budget range magazine holders over the last few months. The current shock cord design is proving a little problematic in the price bracket it's in. To that end, we needed to find something that would fill the 'economy' price bracket magazine that we know the HvZ and student populations crave.

Meet our MkII 'Miranda' Pattern Magazine Holders. They represent something of a paradigm shift compared to our previous iterations and there are number of reasons for that. And yes, they are named for Miranda in Serenity.

First and foremost, you'll notice they're flapped. Too often have I lost darts at Green Cloaks events where I've been crawling through ferns and underbrush so these pouches solve that particular problem. Of course, I'm not a huge fan of flaps for ease of access. To that end, we added a small tab of Velcro to the inside of the pouch and made them deep enough to carry their required number of magazines. The flap can then be tucked behind the magazines in order to provide ready access without needing to fight through a pouch.

With a couple of these on your MOLLE vest or belt, you can have one in a 'ready' state while the others are in reserve. These pouches are designed to be both magazine holder and dump pouch in one. You cycle the magazines from front to back, removing from the front and replacing the spent magazines in the back. The weight of the magazine creates a handy aperture that's easy to re-insert a magazine into.

MOLLE Mounted Versions:

Our MOLLE mounted version still relies on our MOLLE Attachment Bar system (MAB) but the webbing has been reconfigured to accept MALICE clips, too.

Belt Mounted Versions:

The belt mounted versions are reverting to our universal belt loop system with the addition of a snap fastener at the bottom to really secure the hold. This feature was added after this weekend at Green Cloaks Event 3: Into the Rad where I had multiple failures of my Firestrike belt mounted holster that argued with my vest rig. In the end, adding a pop snap solved the problem.

UPDATE:  We've replaced the belt system with a new strap system. Installation instructions on that can be found here.


These versions will be available in our full range of colours rather than just black and camouflage. Black double and triple pouches will be £8 and £10 respectively with an extra £1 for colours. Camouflages with matched fittings and straps will be available, too.

The future of our shock cord retention pouches:
The shock cord retention pouches that we currently supply do have a future. However, we would like to do a better job on them and so they will be bumped up to our 'premium' bracket where they will have sewn, reinforced PALS legs that thread into MOLLE and the like. The price will rise to match and it's too early to say how much that might be.

UPDATE: Nope, the old shock cord pouches don't have a future. We're only supplying Mirandas from here on out. We can't commission the old versions even if we wanted to because the fabric we used literally no longer exists. It was made by 1 mill in the world (up in Lancashire, UK) who no longer supply it. We can't make the old design in any other fabric so we're only supplying these now.


The MkII 'Miranda' pouches go on sale on our website from Friday 10th July 2015.

Prototype: Full Tactical Vest

Tactical vests are an interesting thing. We've avoided providing a full one for a while because we figured that people could just grab one from their local army surplus store, throw some pouches on there and be done with it. Between a visit to our local surplus store and regular contact with the fine folks at Green Cloaks here in the UK, we found we were wrong. I spent an hour rummaging through our local store (Marcruss Outdoors here in Bristol) and found that, surplus Osprey body armour covers aside, the vests on offer weren't particularly appealing for the mil-sim LARPer. For example, this Mil Tec MOLLE Vest was available for £30. I checked the label and it's made from toughened polyester which seemed a little odd but I suppose you can't expect Cordura in that price range. Toughened polyester is fine but Cordura is infinitely better. There were others like it in similar price brackets and none of them had in built magazine storage.

Upon my return to the office, I started putting together a design for a vest that's built from our usual Cordura and had inbuilt magazine pouches. Sling loops were included, too, because I personally love the idea of a 1 point tactical sling run through loops on my left shoulder. We've adopted a new policy here in the office: the designer of the item has to produce the first prototype. The idea is to stop us from producing something that's impossible for the production team to build. While I don't have the world's best sewing skills, it's certainly worked to keep designs simple yet effective. Here it is shown over a set of black motocross armour for contrast and because it shows a typical usage case for something like Green Cloaks.

This is the first prototype out of the gate. There are a couple of bugs to fix but we've tried to balance affordability with efficacy. It's built from our usual high quality Cordura nylon and is padded with our 3mm spacer mesh for full breath-ability and comfort. The sling loops are just about visible on the shoulders but come as standard. The design is supposed to offer a complete off the shelf solution without needing to add further pouches and such. The MOLLE coverage allows for optional additions as and where necessary.

Most importantly, this particular line will be our first offering in a variety of sizes. While custom sizing is our preference, sizing options will give us the ability to sell things in a way we're not used to. Players and clients will be able to choose from a range in the field without having to wait for us to produce something fitted to them. Of course, we'll retain the custom option at no extra charge for those that are prepared to wait.

Changes for the final production version include:

• Reinforced magazine pouch apertures for easier magazine insertion - the current single layer of Cordura and edging tape isn't enough
• Change the edging tape colour from olive to army green
• Altering the position of closure buckles to prevent gaping
• Droping the neckline by a few mm to prevent it getting all up in your throat
• Velcro loop tape at the top of the vest will be replaced by just MOLLE Velcro loop tape rather than the current alternating system.

We're also exploring the option of adding interior pouches for armour panels. A number of LARP systems require rigid plating to count as armour for role play purposes while other players have requested space for extra padding simply to deaden the impact of a round travelling at 300FPS (I'm looking at you Australia :P). We'll probably have that as an add-on option for an extra £10 or so. Plates will be sold separately and we'll probably provide a template for them to make life easier for people wanting to make their own.

Current working price for this off the shelf in black will be £60 inc VAT or £70 inc VAT for Flecktarn and British Woodland DPM (as shown above). It'll be a couple of weeks before we get all the bugs worked out but the prototype will certainly see action next month at Green Cloaks Event 2. Watch this space. :)

EDIT:

So we tested it Event 2 and it came through with flying colours. We'll get a black one made up in the not too distant future and get it on the website. It's pictured above with the sling loops in action and Velcro patches in place. :D

Stampede Wiring Kit: Revision 2

In our first new product for 2015, we've added a few new upgrades to the Stampede wiring kit. There have been a number of tweaks including adding an LED mount for your master power switch and some key protections added for this ageing fleet of blasters.

Inline fuse holders, fuses and relays!

With more modern N-Strike Elite magazines, we've identifed a failure mode that is fatal to the Stampede motor when using high powered Lithium chemistry batteries. The differences in the moulds between N-Strike magazines and the newer N-Strike Elite magazines are sufficient to cause a misalignment in the bolt during the firing cycle. This causes a collision with the forward dart tooth and resultant stall. Given the high discharge capacity of Lithium packs, it's often the case the battery is able to continuously discharge enough current to oxidise the motor coils and set fire to the internals of the blaster (literally in one case).

To that end, enter car blade fuses. We've determined that a single 10A car fuse soldered into the battery tray will happily protect the blaster and its internals from the aforementioned failures. Yes, it might mean you have to tape a set of fuses to the inside of your blaster but we figure most people would rather have a dead fuse than a blaster. We did look into resettable options but the blade fuses are far more economical compared to PTCs and methods that would have introduced a significant current restriction. The other advantages of a blade fuse is that it can handle burst currents for the necessary length of time without tripping. This sort of behaviour is commonly seen in the automotive industry so it seems like a sane standard to adopt here.

New 12V relays!

A second change sees the replacement of the firing micro-switch with a 12V relay instead. This changes means that the blaster can now use its stock trigger switch to fire the blaster using low current wire through the relay. This solves the problem some users were experiencing with placing the switch and removes the need for the trial and error placement process that is required by the Version 1 system. There are also advantages in preventing timing bugs that may occur as the white trigger plate inappropriately triggers the next trigger cycle when using our current micro-switch set up. It is important to note, however, that our kit now requires either 3S LiPo or 3S LiFe to fire, anything higher than 12V will destroy the relay coil and render your blaster useless.

Unfortunately, it does mean that the kit will have to increase in price to accommodate the new features but we don't really have a way to avoid this and we've kept the increases to a minimum.

The new version will be available as of Monday 19th January 2014 for £18.50 (including UK VAT at 20% so £15.41 for non-EU customers). All orders placed on or after that date (UK time) will be filled with the Revision 2 kit and priced accordingly.

Fresh Magazine Holders

We've been doing some work with our suppliers and generally developing our range of 18/12 dart box magazine holders. Since we converted them to MOLLE Attachment Bars back in October, we've been expanding the range of available of camouflage fabrics. We've been working with our suppliers to reduce the cost of trim matched variants and have managed to pass those savings onto our clients. There are a number of price drops and changes. We've removed singles as they didn't sell terribly well and aren't a great economy in terms of production. Our Hex and Quad stacks still offer great value for money and exploit the full flexibility of the MOLLE system.

Early stage Woodland DPM holder, the Khaki thread has been upgraded to Olive

Rather than producing multiple listings, we've streamlined them all into one listing and simplified the options. This has allowed us to introduce drop-leg variants across all camouflage fabrics at the click of a button.

The other great news about our 18/12 magazine holders is that they can hold the 15 dart curved 'Worker' magazines that are currently coming out of China. They're good and secure in there and don't occlude any box magazines they might be alongside.

The new listings are available here, subject to our usual 2 week lead time. We're currently closed for a Christmas break (auto-posting bot FTW!) so any orders will be taken as being placed on 5th January. :)

Blastersmiths UK & BlasterTECH announce partnership!

Blastersmiths UK and BlasterTECH today announced a working partnership that they hope will be beneficial to both companies. BlasterTECH is an emergent wiring loom and electrical modification company based in Brisbane, Australia. They have recently started selling wiring looms through their website, BlasterTECH.com.au with the aim of lowering the threshold to entry for the average Nerf modder. Blastersmiths UK already sells an array of un-soldered kits and 3D printed parts so a trading partnership seemed like the natural step forward for the two companies.

The two companies first encountered one another through BritNerf.co.uk, the UK's primary Nerf forum. Mike, from Blastersmiths UK, and Dean, from BlasterTECH, got chatting around electrical modification and the potential of selling modified blasters. Regrettably, the regulatory environments in both the EU and Australia prevent the sale of fully modified blasters on their own at the commercial level but kits and pre-soldered looms can be sold in the EU and Australia respectively. BlasterTECH moved forwards with their wiring looms and accepted the offer of distributor in order to resell 3D printed components and some tactical gear in order to fund future development.

Australian customers can purchase BlasterTECH wiring looms direct from their website (www.blastertech.com.au) with immediate effect and from the 1st November 2014 will be able to access a wider array of Blastersmiths UK products without the risks of international shipping or the wait that comes with lead times for custom made goods. All Blastersmiths UK products listed on BlasterTECH.com.au will be available in stock for immediate dispatch in accordance with BlasterTECH shipping policies.

Looking to the future, the two companies are looking to work closely on further developing kits and looms for the full range of electronic foam dart blasters, including Nerf's Elite Demolisher 2-in-1. There is a great deal of untapped potential in the many electronic blasters out there and the two companies are looking forward to tapping that and bringing new products to the foam dart blaster marketplace.

/pressrelease

So what does this all mean?

In the midst of all the hype about our MABs and such, we're lucky enough to be able to announce our first Australian distributor for our second largest market. No more international shipping risks or waits on lead times, it'll all be there in your back garden without the fuss of international orders. From November 1st, it'll be there for you to buy straight up. From holster and slings to Rapidstrike kits, it'll all be either Blastersmiths UK original stuff or Blastersmiths UK Certified stuff. :)

Better yet, the folks here at BSUK and over at BlasterTECH are teaming up to feed into some pretty exciting new projects for electrical blasters in the coming months.

It's an exciting time for the hobby, keep your eyes open for more stuff as it develops.

In-depth: MOLLE Attachment Bars

We're always striving to find new ways to improve our products here at Blastersmiths UK and our use of the MOLLE system of pouch and holster attachment has always been at the centre of that. The flexibility offered by the system is a cornerstone to our ethos of bespoke gear to every individual player. However, we feel our current Velcro attachment system using interlocking loops of Velcro loop tape is far too limiting and has some serious drawbacks. Instead, we've created a unique fusion of the 3D printed and the sewn.

Introducing our new 3D printed PLA MOLLE Attachment Bar (MAB) designed for use with our webbing equipment. Inspired by MALICE clips, PLCE webbing clips and other extant items, we sought to bring such extant technologies into the Nerf and general foam dart blaster space. The flexibility of the printed PLA plastic allows the bar to be woven between the webbing straps of two compatible items while the small raised ramp locks the items in place in a fashion that will not shift.

MABs have further advantages insofar as they offer rigid support to magazine pouches. By providing a spine to slide the magazine along, aperture fouling becomes less of a problem so there's less faff with your gear and in turn you've more time to be playing the games you love with the kit you've bought.

To release the bars, you simply twist them gently and with a rocking motion, you can ease them free of the webbing for use elsewhere. We will supply 2 variants, the 3 strap version demonstrated above and a 2 strap version that will cost less and lacks a feature we will discuss presently.

With the long, 3 strap MAB variant, simply skipping a row during the weaving process, creates a belt loop that will readily accommodate a 2" (50mm) tactical belt as pictured above. For the first time, we can offer true belt and MOLLE compatibility in a single product. Better yet, a true belt mounted MkIV Pistol holster is viable as proven during combat testing at the 2nd BritNerf Annual General War in September (more on that in another blog post but no more half drops or thigh straps!).

The development of our MOLLE Attachment Bars has also offered us the opportunity to redesign and respecify a few of our key products. All our magazine holders will now be compatible with the system as will our zip dump pouches. The upshot of the MOLLE/Belt compatibility will be a more streamlined website experience which in turn allows us to offer a wider array of colours and camouflage patterns compared to our current black only option.

These bars will be available on the following products from 17th October 2014 via order from our website.

• Zip Dump Pouches
• Magazine Holders (Box and Drum varieties)

Further products will be converted to the new system in short order. Oh and there won't be any price difference, just an enhanced experience for foam dart players everywhere! :)

Burst Fire Module - Features and Development Plans

We've been working pretty hard on this one in the background - it's something people have wanted for a while and something we feel we can provide. A module that allows your fully automatic blaster to select a size of burst but to retain full firing functionality in the event of failure. The first bit is the easy bit. The second, a little harder.

This demonstration video from Foam Data Services shows off the current Revision 2 module as it stands. It has an annoying firing action that we have a fix for, we're just waiting for the new prototype boards to arrive from the manufacturer.

 

As you can see, we've made the interface on the Rapidstrike variant as streamlined as possible. The interface stack is all within ready reach of the user's trigger finger and can be manipulated without removing your hand from the pistol grip. As left handed users ourselves, that's a little annoying but given the handed nature of the internals (due to the clam shell design) it's far more parsimonious to leave the interface on the right hand side. A lefty friendly version is possible but it will involve ribbon cables and our technical team crying.

We'll take you through a quick walk through of some of the nifty features and tricks that make this build really come to life. So you have the module itself, our in house version is currently fitted to our Rapidstrike test development mule in a big ugly black box. As you can probably see, there's a lot less vertical clearance in OldNoob's version, we've already managed to slim down the box and think we can go even further with it! Getting it flush is the aim but we'll take anything we can get. This blaster is a little dusty after combat testing at Green Cloaks Event 2 back in June. The interior has been thoroughly cleaned but the exterior has some left over to a little bit of 'character'.

Note the power switch tucked away in that little recess. That location was chosen to prevent you accidentally turning the module off during play. The volt meter is placed so you can get a decent read on it while holding the blaster and the grilles in the case are there for a 40mm north bridge fan. We've since been able to eliminate the need for a fan (slim line heat sinks and proper power management FTW!) and that's gone a long way to dropping the vertical ceiling of the case. We could readily substitute the grilles and volt meter for logos and text. Given that there are internal LEDs there by necessity, you could easily have light up text and logos on your module.

From this side, we can see the control stack. The first thing you ought to notice is that it's theoretically possible to eliminate the need for a lid all together and that's our ultimate goal. All of those controls are reachable with your trigger finger so you don't need to adjust the position of the blaster to fire in the event you want to change modes. The switch at the bottom of the stack is the select mode switch, it sends a pulse to the micro-controller which tells it to change mode and the LED at the top changes accordingly. In the photo above it's flashing red because the magazine inserted into the blaster is empty. The middle switch is the 'stealth mode' switch which allows you to run the blaster without any lights. This doesn't interfere with the operation of the module at all but of course, you will need to un-stealth in order to determine which mode you're in. Finally, the top LED is an 8mm through hole NeoPixel LED with 24bit colour, combine that with the micro-controller's onboard memory and you can get up to 400 controllable burst sizes with this prototype alone. Of course, you've got to find 400 readily differentiated colours in order to make that happen but hey, it's a possibility.

A view through the grilles begins to give you an idea as to why this isn't a user serviceable item, yet. All that wiring is just the start. Granted, the Reaper that OldNoob displayed in his video is much neater and hasn't been developed on but it's still not the friendliest thing in the world.

Remove the lid and you can see the beating heart of the system. The MOSFET in its TO-220 package are buried under wires on the left while the system's thriving brain, a Digistump Digispark is hidden in the bottom right under the JST plugs for the fan and voltmeter. The electrical tape, while an electrical sin in production builds, is a necessary part of the development process!

Single shot in blue

3 dart burst in green

5 round burst in white

The three images above illustrate the three firing modes and their respective indicator LEDs. These colours were chosen to avoid problems with red/green colour blindness but of course, people would be welcome to alter the code to make things different colours as this will be an Open Source project (more later).

Dart sensing is done via simple IR photo-diode and LED. There is one here in the magazine well and another in the pusher mechanism. They provide a reliable (mostly) way of tracking the state of the blaster. That's a 3D printed insert for the photo-diode in the picture above and there is a mirrored version on the opposite side.

The red light is coming from an LED sitting above the pusher mechanism housing to the right of this picture. It's a standard feature in our RS builds these days and serves to protect your night vision when clearing jams in low light conditions. It's a handy reuse of the extant jam door switch.

So what's for the future? Well, I've already said we've got a fix for the annoying trigger action. The functionality there will allow us to add some new and other interesting on board sensing stuff in the future if we wanted to. Additionally, we're looking to internalise the interface as much as possible. Having a big box on the side isn't the world's best solution and we'd like to fix that. However without losing the collapsible stock, or taking up large amounts of space in the forward battery tray, there aren't a great deal of options.

Once we get to Revision 3, this project will be Open Source. We'll publish the schematics and parts list for public, non-commercial use so hobbyists and modders can make their own, remix it all and support the project with commits.

For the rest of us mere mortals, we'll be looking to crowd source the funding for deployment of a plug in version of the module including necessary regulatory clearance for sale in the EU and North America. That's our biggest sticking point at the moment, EMC test certification is awkward and expensive. More details on that will follow once we've got Revision 3 up, running and Open Source. Aim price point is £65 inc VAT but that may go up or down depending on how the process works out for us.

Both Revision 2 and 3 modules are cross compatible with the Stampede and Vulcan, too. The Rapidstrike is the much more technically challenging build because of the flywheel system and so there's plenty of backwards compatibility right there. We have a Stampede inbound that will get the full BF treatment and there will be photos when that's done.

So there you have it. The early days of the first Open Source hardware for an after market dart blaster product. We'd like to thank Foam Data Services for making this one possible, without them they wouldn't have been able to get this project out of our notebooks and into reality. We'd also like to thank the lovely folks at Trinity Games for providing us with a willing victim (or 80) to test this on at Green Cloaks Event 2. Without all of you, this wouldn't be possible. Onward, to getting this into the hands of our loyal fans!