Paintball

[Justus]

Thanks to those who helped me do this, OneSelfLost in particular for the info on polarity and connector type. This tutorial is a result of my previous thread, asking about how to make an Emag to Warp cable, found here: Automags.Org Online Forums - Emag to warp cable...

Let's get started!

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- - - PARTS LIST
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2-position 1.25mm Molex Picoblade housing
Manufacturer (Molex) Part # 51021-0200
Digi-Key Part # WM1720-ND
Link: Digi-Key - WM1720-ND (Manufacturer - 51021-0200)

300mm (12") 28 AWG red 1.25mm pre-crimped cable
Manufacturer (Molex) Part # 0006660013
Digi-Key Part # WM2320-ND
Link: Digi-Key Part Search

2.5mm (3/32") mono headphone plug
Manufacturer (CUI Inc.) Part # MP3-2501
Digi-Key Part # CP3-1004-ND
Link: Digi-Key - CP3-1004-ND (Manufacturer - MP3-2501)
I list this part from Digi-Key because the RadioShack equivalent has gotten bad reviews, with the main problem being that the plastic within the plug will melt before the solder terminals are hot enough to melt solder. This plug from Digi-Key will require solder on the terminal for the tip.

22-gauge stranded hook-up wire
Manufacturer (RadioShack) SKU # 278-1224
Link: 75-Ft. UL-Recognized Hookup Wire (22AWG) - RadioShack.com

And other items, such as solder (I like 60/40), a soldering iron and station, wire strippers, wire cutters, and heat-shrink tubing.

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- - - MAKING THE EMAG JACK
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Start with the pre-crimped wire and the 2-position housing. Each end of the wire will go into one of the positions of the housing. Make sure to position these the right way. Aside from the main holes on the top and bottom of the plug, there will be two extremely small holes on one side. When you put the female crimps into the housing, there will be a tiny tab that hooks on these holes to keep the crimps in place in the housing. Look at the pictures for more details. When you're done, you will have made the Emag jack. I call this a "jack" rather than a "plug" because it is actually the female side of the connection. Look at your Emag board where the warp cable connects, and you'll see two pins that will fit into the two holes on this housing.










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- - - EXTENDING THE WIRES
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Cut the red pre-crimped wire in half, separating the loop and forming two wire leads coming from the Emag jack. Next you need to extend these wires by soldering a good length of 22 gauge stranded hook-up wire to each. Make note here of how the wires come off the Emag jack. Go ahead and plug the jack into the male plug on the Emag board. When plugged in, the lower wire will be your black wire, and the upper wire will be your red wire. When extending the wires, make sure to not mix them up!

To extend the cable, strip about 3/8" off the bottom wire and also strip about 3/8" off one end of your black 22 gauge hook-up wire. Twist the wires together as pictured, and apply solder as pictured. Be sure to not over-do it.





Once soldered, insulate the joint. You can use electrical tape, liquid electrical tape (pictured), or, if you planned ahead and slipped a bit of heat-shrink tubing onto the lead coming from the Emag jack, you can slip fit that over the joint and apply some heat.



Repeat that process for the red extension wire.


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- - - FINISHING THE CABLE
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To finish out the cable, slip a bit of heat-shrink tubing over both the black and red wires, all the way up to where the wires will exit the Emag grip frame. Any part of the original pre-crimped wire (which, by the way, is a smaller 28 gauge stranded wire), should be left without heat-shrink tubing so that the wire can be easily routed from the board to the exit point on the grip frame. Mark this position for the heat-shrink tubing, remove the jack and then apply the heat.



Now, at the other end, you need to connect the 2.5mm (3/32") mono headphone plug. FIRST SLIP THE RUBBER OUTER JACKET PART OF THE PLUG OVER AND DOWN THE WIRES. THIS IS NECESSARY TO FINISH THE PLUG AFTER SOLDERING. Clip the red and black wires so only about 3/4" to 1" extends beyond the heat-shrink tubing. Strip about 1/8" off the end of the red wire, and about 3/16" off the black wire. Trim as necessary for a proper fit, and then solder the black wire to the outer terminal of the mono plug. The easy way to do this is to put the bare end of the wire through the hole in the outer terminal, and solder on the outside edge of the plug. Then crimp the tabs down onto the black wire to hold it in place. After that is done, apply a bit of solder to the tip terminal coming from the center of the back of the plug. On the plug that I listed in the parts reference, this terminal is a solid conductor, about 1/8" in length. Do not over-do it with the solder here! And stay away from the plastic terminal insulator on the plug!

(A picture of the properly soldered plug - this is as focused as I could get with my cell phone)


Now bring the jacket back up and screw onto the finished plug. You're finished with the cable!




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- - - TESTING
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Plug the Emag jack into your board, and route the red wires around the solenoid and around the LED screen. Bring up the slack until the heat-shrink tubing is in the groove at the bottom of the grip frame, and then put the grip panel back on. Open your Warpfeed and make sure the pins by the intelli-jack have the jumper installed on the middle two pins. Plug in the Emag-to-Warp-Interface-Cable you just made, and power up your Emag. On each trigger pull the Warpfeed should spin. If it doesn't, go over everything from the top down. Make sure all of your connections are good and soldered properly. Also make sure all of your connections are insulated from one another. When the Warpfeed does spin on the trigger pull, success!



By the way, when you have your grip panel off, it's a good time to swap out your LED screen if you so desire. You can get a new screen from various sources. A green LED screen, the color I wanted, is available from Digi-Key with no minimum quantity. You'll need to trim down the pins on the new screen to fit the grip frame properly, but other than that it's just plug-and-play. Pics!

Before:


After:

(It's not really blurry in person, that's just the best my cell phone camera could handle the green lights)