Blackheart is Smart Parts' upgraded board. It provides several more versatile features comapred to the stock boards.
Note: This is only a guide for HOW to adjust the board. Information regarding WHAT to set adjustments at can be found on the Setting Electronics and Pressure mainpage.
Upgrading: This is the current version of the stock board. No upgrades are necessary.
Board Operation:
Blackheart uses two small buttons to operate the adjustments: the power button and the programming button (same as the stock board in this regard).
The power button is accessible right behind the top of the trigger; push the ION jewel to actuate it. The programming button is located on the surface of the circuit board when you remove the left side of the grips; it's only used to adjust the electronic settings on the board.
To turn the marker on, press and hold the power button for two seconds. The board will chirp and the LED will light up blue. You are now in Vision mode, ready to fire.
You can toggle between Vision on and off by pressing the power button anytime. The board will chirp to denote you've switched modes (if it doesn't chirp, then you haven't switched). The LED patterns are different for Vision on and off, and are explained below. To deactivate the board, hold the power switch until you hear the low chirp to denote the board powering down.
LED Patterns:
The blinking red LED behind the Ion jewel denotes the status of the board during gameplay.
· Non-Vision mode: two rapid blinks each second (blink blink, pause, blink blink).
· Vision mode, ready to fire: continuous blinking, four times each second (blink blink blink blink blink...).
· Vision mode, no ball loaded: one blink each second (blink, pause, blink, pause)
Programing:
To adjust any of the settings on the circuit board, you must remove the left side of the grips (or the entire grips, it doesn't matter) and push the programming button once. There are two additional LEDs located under the grips as well (yellow and red). When you enter programming mode, one of the LEDs will light up, signifying you're in programming mode. Pushing the programming button will cycle through the eight adjustment modes, each with its own LED color/pattern:
Solid yellow - dwell
Solid red - recharge
Single blink yellow - Firing mode
Single blink red - Debounce
Double blink yellow - ABS dwell
Double blink red - Ramp activation speed
Fast blink yellow - Ramp sustaining speed
Fast blink red - Ramp activation shot count
Steps for adjusting the board:
· First, select which adjustment mode you want by the LED pattern and color. For example, select solid yellow to change dwell, single blink red to adjust debounce, etc. Take note that this is different from the stock board; each LED color/pattern on the Blackheart will adjust the setting up and down, instead of just one direction as with the stock board.
· Once you've selected which setting you wish to adjust, pull and hold the trigger. After three(3) seconds, the board will chirp five(5) times, denoting you can now adjust the setting.
· Don't release the trigger; keep holding it down. You can now use the power and programming buttons to adjust the setting up and down as much as you wish. The power button is used to increase the setting, whereas the programming button decreases it.
· The board will chirp each time you adjust the setting one interval. When increasing the setting, the board will chirp a high-pitch tone. When decreasing the setting, the board will chirp a low-pitch tone.
· At some point you will reach the maximum or minimum setting, denoted by a rapid chirping tone. This means you can no longer adjust the setting in that direction.
· Once you've arrived at the new setting for the adjustment, release the trigger to return to the programming mode. You can now select another setting to adjust, if needed.
· To exit programming mode, pull the trigger once. After pulling the trigger, turn the board off to save the settings. If you pull the battery, the adjustments you made will be lost, and the setting(s) will revert back to whatever they was last set to.
· Example: if you want to adjust your dwell, select solid yellow then told the trigger. Once the board chirps five times, you can increase or decrease using the power/programming buttons. For example, to increase the setting by four, push the power button four times. Once you've adjusted the setting, release the trigger. To save and exit, pull the trigger and turn the board off.
If you wish to know what the current setting is, select the adjustment and don't press anything for four(4) seconds. The board will chirp back to you the current setting.
Shortcut key: If you wish to revert the setting to whatever you had it last set to, push the power and programming buttons both for one(1) second. The board will chirp and the programming LEDs will light up to signify your adjustment has been reverted.
For example, if you have your dwell set to 15, then a few days later you increase it to 20, you can then use the shortcut key to revert the setting back to 15.
Dwell: solid yellow
Dwell is the amount of time the solenoid remains on, which is the amount of time the bolt will remain forward.
· Dwell is required to allow the bolt to fully cycle and give the marker enough time to fire the ball.
· If you set dwell too low you will have velocity problems (dropoff, won't be able to achieve a certain velocity, etc).
· If you set dwell too high, you'll waste air each time you fire and get slightly less shots per tank.
· The stock dwell setting is 52 blinks, and will work however you may be able to decrease it to get more shots out of your tank (this varies from gun to gun).
· For information on recommended dwell settings, go back to the electronics and pressure page.
Recharge: solid red
Recharge is the name for the amount of time the board waits between each shot. This is used to determine the rate of fire (ROF).
· When you increase recharge, you increase the time between each shot, which lowers your rate of fire. And vice-versa.
So, if you want to increase your rate of fire, you want to decrease recharge. If you want to decrease your rate of fire, increase recharge.
· Diagram of the firing cycle with adjustments:
This diagram shows that when you increase your dwell setting, the recharge will stay the same, thus the ROF will be lower since the firing cycle takes longer. To compensate you need to then lower the recharge. This is an example and uses example numbers.
· The lowest speed the marker can be set to is roughly 9.5-bps, whereas the maximum speed is 20-bps (Blackheart board only).
· If you wish to set the marker for maximum speed, simply decrease recharge all the way to the bottom. Your Ion will now be set to 20-bps max.
· If you wish to "cap" the marker at any particular speed, you must reference the speed using an Ion BPS chart like this one.
Firing Mode: Single blink yellow
Blackheart is equipped with four firing modes, in this order from highest to lowest:
4. PSP rebound - First three shots are semiauto, but after the third shot the marker will fire in rebound ramping mode. One second reset.
3. NXL fullyautomatic - First three shots are semiauto, but if you hold the trigger down for the fourth shot the marker will fire fullyauto at the max ROF. One second reset.
2. Rebound ramping - Assisted firing mode (ramping). Increases your ROF to the maximum speed once you hit the ramp enabling speed and shot count (below).
1. Semiautomatic - One shot per one pull semiautomatic firing. No ramping.
Debounce: single blink red
Debounce is the amount of time after the marker fires that it will accept new trigger pulls, adjusted in milliseconds.
ABS dwell: double blink yellow
ABS stands for anti-bolt stick, and is also known as "BSA" (bolt stick adjustment). This is the amount of dwell that will be added to the first shot after the board doesn't fire for a givin period of time. If your ion is experiencing bolt stick and the velocity of hte first shot is less than the rest of your shots, then anti-bolt stick settings can be used to increase the dwell for the first shot so there is no drop. However, if you set anti-bolt stick too high, the first shot will fire at higher velocity and be illegal.
Ramp activation speed: double blink red
This is the speed that you must fire in order to engage your firing modes.
· Adjusted between 3 and 10-bps. In other words, the bottom setting when adjusting the board is 3-bps, then 4, 5, 6, and so on.
· Effects all firing modes except semiauto.
Ramp sustaining speed: fast blink yellow
This is the speed that you must keep firing in order to maintain ramping. If you fire less than this speed, the board will stop ramping just as if you pulled the trigger too slow.
· Adjusted between 3 and 10-bps. Minimum setting when adjusting is 3-bps, then 4, 5, 6 and so on.
· Effects rebound and PSP rebound firing modes.
Ramp activation shot count: fast blink red
For NXL fullyauto and PSP rebound firing modes, this is the number of times you have to pull the trigger before the firing mode will act. For instance, if you want three semiauto shots before fullyauto (this compies with NXL rules) then you would set this to 3. If you want four shots before fullyauto then set it to 4.
· Adjustable between 3 and 10 pulls.
Demonstrational Videos:
This is a demonstrational video to show the operation of the board. in this video, the fire mode is set to PSP ramp, then was set to semiauto.
(right click, save as)