Mounting a LS2020 laser module

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As part of my Milestag LS2020 sniper rifle project I have designed a mount for the LS2020 laser module which allows adjustment for elevation and windage. Of course, when firing just photons the Earth's gravity and the wind speed are irrelevant. This adjustment will however allow me to align the output of the laser module with the gun sights:

Trigger Happy

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My Milestag sniper rifle needs a trigger, so I CADed one up today. It uses a small, sealed microswitch from Farnell.

I'm very limited by the amount of height and width I have available in the wooden stock. This switch enabled me to create a switch module only 20mm high and 15mm wide:

Here are the internals after printing, you can see the cam operation on the leaf microswitch:

And with the top section in place, note the countersunk self tap screws to keep the with to 15mm:

After marking the dimensions on the underside of the stock, I routed and chiselled a recess for the trigger unit to fit in. Here it is in close up:

And complete with fitted front barrel clamps:

Milestag sniper rifle: Continued

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This weekend I used a round routing bit and my routing table to make a semicircular groove in the stock of the gun. The barrel will fit into this:

I need a clamp to hold the 20mm barrel in place. I CADed a clamp with an integrated picatinny sight rail:

This will clamp over the top of the barrel, and will be held in place with screws into the wooden stock. Due to 3D print size restrictions, I've had to split this into 4 sections.

After printing the rear section:

This has an enclosed end section to hide the end of the 20mm barrel:

Here it is with the rear pieces fitted:

It was looking so good I couldn't resist fitting the 'scope I got for it:

Manchester Museum Mini Maker Faire

Took the kids to the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry Mini Maker Faire today. The second event of its kind. Nowhere near the scale of its USA counterparts, but a great day out.
I just took loads of photos, so here they are:

This guy had a mobile farriers:


But most of the exhibits were in the 1830s warehouse:


Nophead doing the stand, even though he wasn't supposed to be....


Hebden Bridge hackerspace...all the way from darkest Yorkshire.


Mary and my youngest.......Matthew seemed to have developed a robot obsession.


This guy had some cool POV clocks. I need to make one of these. Also had the pleasure of listening to him explaining basic electronics to nophead. To be fair he was taking the standard line of 'I'm assuming you know nothing about electronics'.


This stand was a commercial company that tests high voltage power distributions lines..they'd brought a Van de Graaff generator along. Ironically they had to move this as it was interfering with the POV clocks next door.


The guys from the Kickstarter campaign Picade had some playable prototypes. These were great and entertained the kids whilst I had a look around.


Alex on the Manchester Hackerspace HackMan stand. I've been a few times to Hackman and have really enjoyed it. Check them out here.


Making potato guns..


And testing them:

More spud gun testing:


The guys from London hackerspace, as featured on Hackaday, had brought their simulator along..wasn't able to check it out due to age restrictions :o{ (not me..the kids)

Milestag sniper: Stock complete

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My neighbour brought the formed stock today and what a fantastic job he has made of it. It has been transformed from this:

To this:

Here it is alongside the original:

I'm awaiting a few parts to arrive from ebay, then I can start fitting.

New Project: Milestag sniper rifle

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Ok, Missus is working nights. Two kids need entertaining during the day. Two solutions: XBox360 Lasertag
Here is my youngest in the garden tree taking at 20m shot:

The great thing about having loads of lasertag gear is that it reduces the cost of 8yo+ birthday parties to DIY. However, My oldest wants to be a sniper this year. So not to disappoint I've decided to make a one off.
This will be a wooden body based upon my old BSA Meteor air rifle:

0.22 calibre. A bit worn now after 34 years but I traced its outline and did a cut out:

The stock wood I was using was not wide enough to incorporate the butt. So I drilled a few holes so I could dowel in another piece:

I then used these dowel centres to allow me to drill holes to match those I'd drilled in the main part:

I then added the remaining butt section by gluing with 8mm dowels and clamping:

I traced the remaining butt of my air rifle onto this additional section:

And used a jigsaw to cut out:

I've ordered a LS2020 IR laser diode to give a several hundred metre range to this. My neighbour has access to a bobbin sander and will give it a working over next week. To be continued....

Modified UMT as a Milestag Domination Tube

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Steve (Scorpy) at Ochil Explorers asked me if it was possible to create a Milestag Domination Tube that had displays to count red and blue team hits.
It occurred to me that this could be achieved by utilising one of my UMT boards, and writing custom software. And as the UMT board also has audio support, I suggested adding some sounds as well.

I did a special version of my UMT code to drive two 20mm white displays from Sparkfun, and designed and 3D printed a fascia to allow me to mount the displays, the UMT board and key switch. This had to fit into a 200mm x 80mm area as specified by Steve.
I modified the design of the IR sensor holder that I made for my domination tube so that it could be fitted into the tube Steve wanted to use,and used Audacity to record myself saying key phrases, then reduced the pitch and filtered with a phaser to make me sound less of a Lancashire lad.
Here is a video I did for Steve showing the unit:
Steve suggested I replace the team possession audio with a simple siren sound which would be more noticeable at the Gala type events he is planning to use it at.
And here is the finished unit after Steve boxed it up: