Well, if you flash the LEDs you can get a much higher output from the LEDs for the short period. Also, UV LEDs emit some visible light so you would be giving away your position before firing.

Then do it using the 4-1idea, like they do in real life for tracers, that way it would also add to battery life. I may have misunderstood that the reason for this was to pattern from real military, machine gun firing. I have never heard of any military firing 100% tracer.

 

Then do it using the 4-1idea, like they do in real life for tracers, that way it would also add to battery life. I may have misunderstood that the reason for this was to pattern from real military, machine gun firing. I have never heard of any military firing 100% tracer.

Unfortunately, because of the way airsoft magazines feed there is no way to determine firing order. The loading is bulk, in a hopper.

[EDIT: changed "buck" to "bulk" as nature intended it]

 

Consider a rather long flash that has a 5% duty cycle: you can have 20X the steady power in each flash and still have the same average power. AND with that very short flash, the heat sinking requirements are reduced also.

 

Yaakov seems to have been playing a few games as well! Indeed, the UV leds emit light from the "full spectrum", but most of which is the sub 400nm light we want to excite the glow-in-the-dark material best.

Thanks for the datasheet of the mosfet driver ic, definitely going to check it out.

I've been playing with a mt3608 module I had laying around. soldered a led string to the output, with an BC547 NPN transistor in series. i can make it boost 3.7V to 12V, but it seems to cap there. enough for 6 red leds. it's "working" on first sight, but i'll have to hook up a scope to have a more scientific look.

btw, I've got my hands on a BT lighter from Acetech, so i'm going to do what every sane person would do... void the warranty

 

Yaakov seems to have been playing a few games as well! Indeed, the UV leds emit light from the "full spectrum", but most of which is the sub 400nm light we want to excite the glow-in-the-dark material best.

Thanks for the datasheet of the mosfet driver ic, definitely going to check it out.

I've been playing with a mt3608 module I had laying around. soldered a led string to the output, with an BC547 NPN transistor in series. i can make it boost 3.7V to 12V, but it seems to cap there. enough for 6 red leds. it's "working" on first sight, but i'll have to hook up a scope to have a more scientific look.

btw, I've got my hands on a BT lighter from Acetech, so i'm going to do what every sane person would do... void the warranty

Well, I haven’t played any airsoft, I just make it a point of knowing about things. Since airsoft appeared on my radar a few times, I looked into it to get an idea of what it is about. So I am by no means in expert in airsoft, but because it necessarily shares attributes and requirements with other things, it is possible to reliably work out what should be there and then check to be sure it is correct.

 

Unfortunately, because of the way airsoft magazines feed there is no way to determine firing order. The loading is bulk, in a hopper.

I didn't suggest that. I suggested doing it by counting the shots fired. He knows the time of the firing so the UC would just do, when and how often to fire the LED.

 

So i'm going to put a wrapper on this thread. Thank you all for participating, you've been of great help. I've definitely got more information than I would have hoped.

For those interested now, and for those stumbling on this thread later:

I've cracked open the Acetech Lighter BT. They use a 'current-mode step-up DC-DC converter' IC to charge a 1000uF 16V rated capacitor to 15V. It's pretty obvious from the moment you glance at that part of the PCB, when you've been staring at datasheet examples for a few days

they cheat the feedback pin with a voltage divider, as i've mentioned in the first post. else the converter IC wouldn't work due to open loop. This is because the FB pin always wants to see a certain voltage, and the IC will 'work' towards keeping it at that.

The transistors that switch leds to ground, completing the loop, are being controlled by the mcu... which I find odd, because that surely brings extra latency... however, mcu's are fast when programmed right. I would've thought that the photodiode of the chronograph would also trigger the transistor of the flash circuit.

So thats it then, case closed for me!
Cheers!
Fabrikateur