I-LEB is the name of my beam-break converter project, which is meant mainly for Shockers. I-LEB stands for "inline eye board" which describes the function of the final product; it allows any Shocker board [programmed for reflective eyes] to operate a beam-break eye system without programming changes. I carried out this goal by designing a modification for the stock wire harness, which reverses the eye signal and tells the board what it needs to know. It works with ALL Shocker boards out there, and works very well!
Conceptual:
Originally, this was a mod that involved a secondary microcontroller that would take in inputs (eye signal) and correctly output the new signal to the lower board. This method indeed worked correctly, but it was physically larger and also more complex than I wanted. To be specific, I had to actually program a short subroutine on the new chip in order to tell it what to do.
After toying with that idea, I went back to the drawing board and redesigned the circuit from scratch. The next version (early production version) uses no modified programming components, instead utilizes only semiconductors. This means I don't have to program anything; it's all automatically carried out by the hardware logic. To test the functionality of these parts, I assembled a prototype wiring harness by hand which you can see below.
In short, this test harness worked perfect! I quickly came up with a few PCB circuit boards that would house the new design. They were designed to splice directly into the wire harness and override the upper board's control of the eye system. To help me figure out what the best position and mounting methods were, I copied my designs into solid models and tested them out in my pre-made assemblies. One such version of the board is seen here:
I considered designing the converter so it would be soldered onto the lower board instead of being spliced into the wire harness (some wires of the harness would have to be cut). I liked this idea for reasons relating to how much room there was inside the frame, however the downsides to this is that it required more modification compared to my drop-in harness concepts. The other thing is I would essentially be the only one that could install it, since I'm just about the only independent that has knowledge of all the lower boards out there (I'm the only one that would know where to connect the wires, which would be different for each type of lower board). It would also invalidate the warranties for most of the boards at the same time. For those reasons I decided to go with the drop-in harness and design that instead of the solder-attach version. This could be installed by anyone and is a little more self-contained.
Anyway, I scrutinized on the design of the circuit boards for an extremely long time (several weeks), before eventually deciding on the final layout. I then sent out the order for the boards. In the meantime, I decided to install a hand-made version of the converter hardware integrated into the harness for one of my personal guns at the time.
Production:
Skip ahead a few weeks and I finally received the production boards. These consist of blank circuit boards which I send out to an IC developer, who then assembles the board with the proper circuit components (known as populating the board). I didn't have time for this at first so I went ahead and assembled the first few by hand (seen below).
As mentioned, the production version works by splicing the board into the middle of the stock wire harness. This is a task that I have to do myself since a machine can't be programmed for it (there's no logictical way to have it done otherwise, I'm certainly not going to pay anybody else to do it).
When installed onto its harness, the completed I-LEB assembly looks like this:
In April 2007 (after I had been using these chips for over a year) I was feeling discouraged toward how seemingly fragile the assemblies were. I had taken great strides to make sure the wires won't pull apart, and as far as I know this hadn't happened, but the harnesses still felt fragile during disassembly. At this point I checked around and ended up applying some large heat-shrink onto all my converters. This helps to hold the wires together, which makes the reassembly of frame to body much easier. The wires move as one and can't be easily bent in any direction so this makes the completed harnessed much more resilient and reliable. To implement the addition of the wrap, I gently notched the sides of the converter chips so the heat-shrink would literally shrink down onto the side of the chip, helping it from being pulled off, even if you specifically tried to do it (the only way I could get it off was to actually cut the wrap, so if that ever happens then I can just put a new layer on there).
Unfortunately, the use of heat-shrink wrap probably makes the whole thing look more homemade and ghetto-rigged. I'm willing to stand that though, since the wrap makes the converters so much easier to handle (as the designer, it helps me to sleep at night knowing less people will have trouble with it).
Details:
I specifically designed the board to reside inside the frame exactly how the production version is shown above. Careful observers have already noticed that these pics are different than the conceptual CAD model I posted above (the board was in a different orientation, plus it used a larger connector). I arrived at the final product only through extensive torture-testing and experimentation, in regards to both the reliability and natural shape of the wires, as well as how easy it would be to retrofit into the wire harness.
The board itself is more or less the smallest I could make it; it consists of the connector located right in front of the hardconnects for the wires. It uses pretty small components, but fortunately I wasn't forced to use components that were too small to be soldered by hand. I always try to avoid making things that I can't solder/repair by hand, unless absolutely necessary. I've found it's invaluable to assembly circuit boards myself so if I can't do it then I don't want it to be done. I can solder 0603 package resistors (which this device uses) but anything smaller is too much hassle for me.
The performance and adaptability is second to none. The I-LEB takes total control of the eye system from the stock circuitry and involves a totally re-wired detection method from scratch. This method is completely compatible with all Shocker/Nerve lower boards out there (tested and proven). I've fine-tuned the detection method to the point where it requires only the smallest change in light intensity to trip the beam. However, at the same time, there's no such thing as the "overexposure" problem with this eye system. The overexposure problem is something that some markers experience, whereby the emitter light is too bright and will actually bounce around the ball when it loads, making the marker think there isn't a ball loaded when there actually is one. This is usually the downside to using bright emitter with a sensitive detector, but I was able to completely disregard this as a problem.
I-LEB will function with literally any superbright visible emitter LED (meaning, any color visible emitter) given reasonable "superbright" intensity. The system will additionally function with infrared emitters, no modification needed (typically you would need to use a different resistor; not the case here). The detection system will function with just about any detector eye out there (visible eyes need a detector with no visible light filter; infrared eyes will work with one that has the VLF or not).
Put simply, I don't screw around when it comes to anti-chop eyes. There isn't much else to say about that.
The connector I chose to use for the beam-break wires is the same as the eye wire connector for an Ion daughterboard. I chose this because it allows installers of the I-LEB to purchase their own Ion eye harness, cut it in half, and then be able to use the two ends for I-LEB eye installs. I also didn't want to restrict people to using only my own wire pigtails, since that would just be unfair unless I had a good reason for it. The connector I used for this is small in size, and that's basically all I needed of it. I provide precrimped harnesses but you never know what will happen. Below is a picture I used for the dealer installation instructions sheet.
Installed:
When correctly installed, the wiring looks like this:
The I-LEB is totally reverse-compatible and can be removed for complete disassembly and cleaning, or for whatever other work that is needed.
Some sample visible eyes can be seen on the visible eye page.
Applications:
Even though this was designed mainly for Shocker SFT markers, the same converter boards can be used in other types of guns as well, such as E-Blade autocockers or E/X-Mags. It can also obviously be used with a Nerve, although I've only done this install once (besides for my own gun) since it uses external eye covers, and most people don't want those.
In terms of the other markers I just mentioned, the same board could be applied but I haven't looked into it as of yet. The market isn't as large for those markers (or at least their conversion to beam-break) so the main benefit would just be custom work.