Over on the Tinker's Guild, prompted by a fellow trying to resurrect an old Sandridge E-Cocker, there's been a bit of fresh interest in putting together a new "Morlock" board.
For those that may not recall, back in the early days of electros, more than a few backyard tinkerers would either want to convert a mechanical marker over to electro, or wanted to add anti-chop eyes to makers that didn't originally come with them, such as 'shoebox' Shockers, Bushmaster 2000's and Tribals.
As such, the guy that basically brought the eye to our sport, Curt, of KM2, eventually brought out a "universal" project board- basically a small board that could be easily user-configured to run basically anything with either one or two solenoids, and with either break-beam or reflective eyes. That board was called the Morlock, and there was also a slightly smaller version called the MiniMorlock, and at least one specialty board called the Predator Morlock, specifically for COPS/Sensei-era Angels.
The NEW idea here is that Curt found a very small commercially-available Arduino style board that could be easily made into a sort of "new model" Morlock, likely for about $40 out the door. After some discussion and noodling, he's considering having a from-scratch board made, which once finished and out the door, would be closer to $80, but also closer to the original Morlock form-factor. Here's an original Morlock in one of my early (actually pre-E-Blade) prototype E-cockers, probably circa early 2002:
The Big Question here is... is anyone interested in such a thing? I know the modern trend is to convert from electro to mechanical these days, not the other way around, and that basically no one is custom converting markers these days, BUT... this could also be used to resurrect older guns with dead boards, and/or add eyes to them. Old Shockers, Tribals, early blind Angels, seartripper blowbacks, Bushmasters and Defiants, you name it.
THIS IS NOT A PREORDER. We are not accepting any money yet. Basically we're just trying to see if there's any actual interest- we don't need hundreds, just a couple dozen would make it... well, maybe not "worthwhile", but at least not a total money-flush.
So, just for the moment I need to know first, if any of you would be interested in such a thing, second, how many, and optionally third, what you'd have in mind to do with it.
Doc.
For those that may not recall, back in the early days of electros, more than a few backyard tinkerers would either want to convert a mechanical marker over to electro, or wanted to add anti-chop eyes to makers that didn't originally come with them, such as 'shoebox' Shockers, Bushmaster 2000's and Tribals.
As such, the guy that basically brought the eye to our sport, Curt, of KM2, eventually brought out a "universal" project board- basically a small board that could be easily user-configured to run basically anything with either one or two solenoids, and with either break-beam or reflective eyes. That board was called the Morlock, and there was also a slightly smaller version called the MiniMorlock, and at least one specialty board called the Predator Morlock, specifically for COPS/Sensei-era Angels.
The NEW idea here is that Curt found a very small commercially-available Arduino style board that could be easily made into a sort of "new model" Morlock, likely for about $40 out the door. After some discussion and noodling, he's considering having a from-scratch board made, which once finished and out the door, would be closer to $80, but also closer to the original Morlock form-factor. Here's an original Morlock in one of my early (actually pre-E-Blade) prototype E-cockers, probably circa early 2002:
The Big Question here is... is anyone interested in such a thing? I know the modern trend is to convert from electro to mechanical these days, not the other way around, and that basically no one is custom converting markers these days, BUT... this could also be used to resurrect older guns with dead boards, and/or add eyes to them. Old Shockers, Tribals, early blind Angels, seartripper blowbacks, Bushmasters and Defiants, you name it.
THIS IS NOT A PREORDER. We are not accepting any money yet. Basically we're just trying to see if there's any actual interest- we don't need hundreds, just a couple dozen would make it... well, maybe not "worthwhile", but at least not a total money-flush.
So, just for the moment I need to know first, if any of you would be interested in such a thing, second, how many, and optionally third, what you'd have in mind to do with it.
Doc.
Comment