PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT    

 

Products In Development

 

This page is to give our customers a glimpse into the daily developments that go on at Wicked Air Sportz.

Although many products may be revealed here, we have no way of determining release dates or features for these products, so please do not email us and ask questions about what you see here.  This page is being provided due to the many requests from customers to see what we are working on.

 

 

ENFORCER(tm)

RELEASE DELAYED

U.S. and World-Wide Patents Pending

 

Prototype Enforcer(tm), commercial unit will have a dark display face making it easy to see in bright daylight

Click HERE to see a video of the Enforcer(tm) in action! WARNING!  This is 20MB download!

 

An end to cheating?

When the PSP announced that "ramping" would be allowed, we were outraged.  Our insurance company refuses liability coverage for this mode of fire (along with anything else that is not true semi-auto operation).  We firmly believe that this mode of fire is dangerous.  Since the ramping was introduced, every single PSP event has had players knocked unconscious due to having balls shot into a players head at the same location repeatedly.  This was the PSP's solution to the ever-growing problem of cheating, and it has actually made the problem worse as it is much easier to mask a cheating marker amongst every marker on the field shooting virtually in full auto.

PACT timers are used at PSP events to measure the rate of fire of markers, although they are not used throughout game play.  The refs using these devices openly admit that they are cumbersome to use, and they are not used correctly.  After shooting a string of shots over the PACT timer, the ref is suppose to review every single shot to shot time to see if it dips lower than the minimum requirement.  Almost every time, the ref just looks at the last shot to shot time and makes a call based on that reading.  Unfortunately, many of our competitors (and you know who they are) have learned this and are taking advantage of it by allowing a marker to shoot whatever rate of fire for the first trigger pull while in ramping mode (which is a 3 shot burst).  So the first shots after the last 3 shot burst could be 20+ bps.  When the trigger is released and not repulled, the 3 shot burst finishes, showing the last shot to shot time that is magically perfect!  This is the level of cheating now folks!

We developed the first high profile electronics in this industry.  Our hardware is fast and our code is written in 100% pure hand optimized assembly code.  You simply can not get any faster than what we give you LEGALLY, period.  We have dropped several manufacturers and turned down a few pro teams who wanted boards from us because we refuse to support cheating.  We're tired of the cheating.  Enter the Enforcer(tm).  Now, we have taken technology to the next level by providing the tournament promoters, and players that want to make sure their markers are legal, the means to know just how a marker shoots, and in real time.

The Enforcer(tm) is roughly the size of a hand held chrono with a convenient belt clip.  Unlike the bulky PACT Timer, the display is in easy to understand BPS, not hundredths of a second.  For those that need to see extreme accuracy, the Enforcer(tm) can also show the time in milliseconds, with a 10 microsecond resolution.  The accuracy of the Enforcer(tm) is far greater than the PACT timer.  Each unit has its accuracy calibrated to within +/-4 microseconds.  The PACT Timer's resolution is full one millisecond increments, which requires rounding up or down (perhaps as much a nearly one full millisecond) from the actual time.  We believe that the limited resolution of this device could have likely resulted in incorrect penalties this year.  Although the PACT Timers are excellent products, they are just not accurate enough for the limits imposed by the PSP and other tournament promoters.  PACT timers are great units for shooters of real ammunition and offers unparalleled accuracy for velocity, but the shot to shot time resolution is not sufficient for paintball, where accuracy can mean the difference between winning and losing.  If your marker resulted in a penalty for shooting 1ms under the limit, you may very well have received a penalty for no reason other than the limited resolution of a device.  If your marker showed 2ms or more below the limit, then your marker was definitely the cause and you "deserved" the penalty (more on that later).

Real time checking

Unlike the PACT timer, a ref can hold the Enforcer(tm) 1" to several feet away from a marker and measure the rate of fire right on the field, just as chrono refs use a hand held chrono to measure velocity during game play.

Typical WAS features

It seems that when we set out to design something, it always turns out to be better than expected.  Such is the case with the Enforcer(tm).  This device was originally designed just to determine the rate of fire in BPS.  This device not only can do that, but it can store 2-32 shots that can be analyzed and replayed.  The analyzation can be either a rate of fire cap limit (PSP mode), or shot to shot analyzation (NPPL mode) to determine if a human is pulling the trigger based on spacing between shots and other unique signatures, including trigger bounce!  A programmable game timer is also built in and runs asynchronous to the analyzation.  A ref can switch back and forth between the game time and checking markers.  Powered by a single 9 volt battery, with a typical lifespan of a complete paintball season, the Enforcer(tm) has 10 different programmable features:

  • Range.  Adjustable from 1" to several feet.  Short range is recommended during game play.

  • Timing Mode.  PSP or NPPL.

  • Display data.  Either in BPS or milliseconds.

  • Number of shots to record and analyze (2-32).

  • BPS Warning.  Maximum BPS rate allowed before causing "OL" (over limit) to be shown and flash display during replay.

  • Display brightness control (10 levels).

  • Display flip.  Allows display to be inverted while in timer mode so a player can simply look down at the display when clipped on on a belt.

  • Timer Minutes (0-99). Game timer minutes.

  • Timer Seconds (0-59).  Game timer seconds.

  • Timer warning (0-59).  Number of seconds remaining before flashing the display, signifying the timer (game) is about to expire.

Other features include a powerful 8MHz CPU (compared to 4MHz typical for marker electronics), automatic power off after 30 minutes, belt clip, tough washable membrane overlay, and our standard lifetime warranty.

Marker Electronics Competitors choosing low-end CPUs

It is not uncommon to read blurbs (usually from our competitors) about the accuracy of a chosen CPU being 1% of the CPU's internal clock rate.  These CPUs have built-in clocks, typically running at 4MHz.  1% of 4 million "ticks" per second is 40,000 microseconds.  This means that potentially, a CPU's clock could be off as much as 40,000 microseconds (which is 40 milliseconds) every second.  In simpler terms, it means that the CPU could be doing everything right, and the clock is running too fast and so the time between shots would be too quick.  At 10bps, the CPU could actually be off by as much as 4ms!  Technically, 1/1000th of a millisecond over the limit is a penalty!  Imagine have 40 times the possibility of this occurring!  With exception of our Tippmann board, our marker electronics use more expensive CPUs, having external precision clocks with a typical accuracy of 4 ppm (parts per million), resulting in a +/- 16 microsecond error range.  Our DM4/DM5 chip, Proto Upgrade, and A5 electronics are each hand calibrated to correct any timing inaccuracy.  No whining here, just results.  The penalty that you "deserved" might be courtesy of a competitor more concerned about making a profit than the reliability of their products... or they simply don't care if people cheat... take your pick.

End to an age old argument!

Everyone thinks they shoot fast.  With the Enforcer(tm), you can now determine with perfect accuracy, who the fastest shooter is on your squad!  No more arguing, it's time to put up or shut up!

Gunsmith's best friend!

For those that want to squeeze every bit of performance out of their marker, this is the tool to have!  No more guessing about what happens to your rate of fire when you change your dwell, debounce, BIP Delay(tm), etc.  Now you can determine the best setup for your marker.

Affordable as usual

At roughly 1/3rd the cost of the same PACT MKIV timer used by the PSP, Wicked Air Sportz once again comes through for the player.  Although this might be the single most important accessory that you may need, we are not going to soak you for it. Suggested retail $59.95.

 


 

Equalizer for Halo-B or Reloader

RELEASE DELAYED

U.S. and World-Wide Patents Pending

 

 

This is a replacement board for the Odyssey Halo-B and Empire Reloader hoppers.  One board will work with either type of hopper.

This product was started shortly before the belt driven Halo was introduced.  It has been in active development for nearly 2 years, with real-world testing over the last 6 months including a complete re-design to add support for the Reloader.

Motor control circuitry with forward/reverse, speed, position, & torque feedback, piezoelectric resonance sensor, anti-jam logic, and numerous other patent filings were due to the creation of this product.

When we set out to design new hardware for the Halo we had several goals in mind:

Make it feed as fast as possible

People like to throw out big numbers for marketing reasons.  We like to provide the facts.  The facts are simple, too much pressure on the stack of balls with too brittle of paint means you have broken balls, and then a VERY slow hopper!  How fast can the Halo go?  Well, in practical applications the Halo will exceed what any marker can shoot (today).  The Equalizer board can spin the motor roughly 50 times faster than gravity will allow the balls to become caught in the drive cone.  So, it is fair to say that the Equalizer board could drive the motor faster than the Halo mechanics and gravity will allow for proper feeding.  In real world testing, anything over roughly 40 balls per second passing through the drive cone assembly will result in balls being missed or crushed by the drive cone fins.  The Equalizer's motor control circuitry and logic is extremely easy on paint and spins the motor only as fast as needed.  Maintaining extreme pressure on the ball stack is not necessary and only results in broken drive cones, sheared drive cone fins, and burned out motors.  The Equalizer board's microprocessor is the latest state-of-the-art version with a code execution speed of 2 MIPS (million of instructions per second), and having an operating frequency of 8Mhz.  This is twice as fast as any Equalizer board we make for markers!

Fixing the problem causing paint to break in the breech when the hopper is nearly empty

This problem requires the ability to determine the exact motor speed and position.  By knowing the exact motor speed, motor position, and the drive ratio (motor pulley:drive cone pulley), you can determine the exact position of the drive cone.  The electronics use EMF feedback to determine the exact motor position.  You don't need to have a sensor on the drive cone assembly (like the patent recently filed by Odyssey would suggest).  If you know the drive cone position and monitor the motor's torque and use the eye system (if it exists) you can deliberately slow down the hopper when the balls start "bobbling" in the hopper.  The end result is that no matter how fast you are shooting, if the hopper runs out of paint you will not get any breaks as a result of the Halo.  This approach is so unique that we have applied for several patents pertaining to this.

Reduce jamming and fix jamming problems that occur

How many times have you sat in a bunker with the Halo blinking red/green?  It's jammed and now you have to fight with manually fixing the jam using your finger or the rip drive (if you have one) and turn the hopper off and back on.  5-10 seconds have easily gone by with a marker that is down.  In X-ball, you probably just got bunkered!

The Equalizer's patent-pending motor control hardware and logic not only reduces the chance of jam occurring in the first place, but also has the ability to know when a jam has occurred!  If a jam does occur, the motor is reversed to clear the jam and then the drive cone is wound back to the same position without putting excessive pressure on the stack of balls!  This anti-jam logic detects a jam and clears it in as little as 1/4 of a second!

Detecting any type of paint

Everyone knows that the Halo has a problem seeing dark colored and transparent paintballs.  The Equalizer board's 10 bit ADC and programmable eye power level allows you to use any type of paint.  The circuitry is so sensitive that it can determine the amount of time between balls falling into the breech, even between two balls falling together.

Reduce battery consumption

Unlike the stock board, the Equalizer is OFF when it is turned off and does not drain the batteries just sitting in your gear bag.  Although power consumption is relatively low with stock board turned "off", you will find after a month of sitting that your Halo-B's batteries are very depleted.

The stock board uses old microprocessor technology and motor control logic to control the motor speed.  The motor frequency is 100Hz, which means that the motor is turned on and off 100 times per second.  Although this might sound fast, it's not!  The efficiency suffers greatly and you do not have much resolution for controlling the motor speed.  The efficiency equates to how much battery life you get.  The Equalizer board's engineers came from the R/C market, having designed numerous products for the R/C industry including electronic speed controls used for R/C cars and planes.  The Equalizer board's PWM motor frequency is 20,000Hz!  The efficiency is enormously better than the stock board, giving you a battery life of several times of what you get with the stock board!  The Equalizer for the Halo might be the only product in paintball that actually pays for itself in battery savings!

Extend motor life

By using a high frequency PWM motor control pulse, the motor brushes are not subjected to high current startups like with the stock board.  A lower current startup reduces brush arching, which pits the motor's commutator.  Lower current startups also reduce power consumption, saving battery life.  A high frequency pulse allows you to drop the startup current without sacrificing the needed initial startup motor speed.

Extend drive cone life

By having complete motor control feedback, there is no need to wind the drive cone up for some arbitrary period of time.  It is the constant winding (without stopping before excessive pressure develops) that causes the drive cone pin and fins to break off.

Support for new high-tech batteries

With the recent release of high power lithium-polymer (LiPo) batteries, electronics can now be powered by light weight and long lasting power solutions.  A three cell pack (4.2v peak each cell) generates roughly 12.6 volts and is ideal for this application, but this voltage is too much for the stock board.  Many people have been doing a mod to their Halo that uses two 9v batteries in series (18 volts) and the result is a lot of burned up boards!  Other companies are also offering Nicad and Nimh battery packs with higher output voltages also damaging boards as well as the motors.  The Equalizer can handle up to 35 volts (and up to 20amps of current), making it an ideal candidate for a LiPo conversion.  We will be offering a LiPo battery pack when the Equalizer board is released.  The battery will last an entire tournament week (a dozen or more cases of paint shot) on a single charge with the Equalizer board!

Dual hopper support (Halo-B & Reloader)

The Halo-B has an optical ball sensor ("eye") system and the Reloader uses sound activation.  The Equalizer board supports the eye system, but instead of using a microphone to "hear" the sound of the marker firing (like the Reloader does) we developed a custom piezo-electric sensor that we call the "EVS(tm)". The EVS(tm) generates a voltage proportional to movement of the sensor.  Sound itself will not trigger the sensor, so a nearby marker can not trigger the hopper.  As an added bonus, if the eye system fails or is deliberately disabled, the EVS(tm) will take over and allow you to keep feeding.  Realistically, an optical sensor system is a better method as the computer can correlate the required motor speed with the rate at which the balls are being put into the breech, however, knowing how fast the motor is spinning, its rotational position, and how many rotations are necessary to load a single ball, the computer can calculate the feed rate with a fairly high degree of accuracy.

Make it adjustable

Just like every Equalizer board, we give the user the ability to adjust settings to suit their needs.  The stock settings will always outperform what a marker is capable of shooting (today), but we think ahead and give the users what they want... tweakability!  The programming is similar to all other Equalizer boards, using LED flashes and button presses to check and change settings.

Keep it affordable

It doesn't make much sense to spend $100+ for a hopper and buy an upgrade board that is nearly the same price as the hopper!  The Equalizer board will  retail for less than $50. 

The Equalizer board will also come with a new back plate sticker.

 


µEQ(tm)

micro-Equalizer

RELEASE DELAYED

U.S. and World-Wide Patents Pending

 

Left - µEQ shown with a U.S. dime (production model will be 75% smaller!), Right - µEQ with AKA Viking header

Left - µEQ shown with Intimidator header, Right - µEQ with AKA Viking & Intimidator headers

 

While the competition is still trying to play catch-up with our technology, and are busy copying things that we invented (trigger programming, Debounce(tm), Forced Eye Modes, etc.) we have been taking hardware to the next level.

The µEQ(tm) [micro-Equalizer] is the latest hardware that we are close to releasing.  This hardware features a CPU that is twice as fast as anything we previously have used, offering a hardware level trigger scan rate of an unprecedented 2 million times per second!  The pictures shown above are of an early prototype that is nearly twice the size as our current model!

This new board is a universal board.  Simple header plugs for whatever application you might need (DM4, Intimidator, Viking, Shocker, etc.) will be readily available.  By using a single board for all markers, we can keep the cost of the board down due to the large volume.  The various header plugs will be priced based on their complexity.  We hope to keep the board itself in the sub-$50 range!

Remote updating will be possible using our new patent-pending communication interface.  This interface offers a simple wireless solution for updating boards, obtaining information, and tweaking settings.  A simple plug-on adapter for the Equalink will be available.  No more opening the grip.

Of course, all of the normal features that you come to expect from Equalizer boards will be part of the standard programming.

 

 

....more products coming soon!