The lower circuit board accomplishes many tasks. Firstly and most importantly, it houses the main part of the marker's electroincs, encompassing the microcontroller and all related components. This means it's the circuit that is "programmed" to operate the marker. The lower board connects to the battery by a standard 9v battery connector.
Please note that there is no reverse voltage protection on the stock board. If the battery is plugged in backwards (negative to positive), the board may become damaged and need replacing (expensive).
The lower board also has an integrated lever-actuated microswitch, which is used to fire the marker by the trigger. The stock switch weight on the board is 25-g (this is the lowest available return weight).
The lower board is held in place by the two roll pins that hold the trigger microswitch (above) in place. The board is removeable by removing the two roll pins, using a hammer with metal punch, nail, another roll pin, or whatever other tool you can find. Personally, I use a pair of needlenose pliers to remove the pins.
Be wary of scratches to the frame, since this spot is only slightly covered by the grip panels.
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Here is a video to demonstrate board pin removal. Push out the board pins, pull them out the other side, remove the board and wiring harness.
(right click, save as)
Care must be taken when reassembling the body with the frame. The wire harness connecting each board must remain out of the way of any parts. Please refer to the Powerswitch & Wire Harness page in the Related Links section.
Board Adjustment:
One of the other most important features of the lower board is that it is the platform by which the marker's electronic settings (dwell, ROF, etc) are adjusted. For instructions on how to adjust the board's settings, follow the link at the bottom of the page to the adjusting and maintaining section of the site.
Aftermarket Boards:
The following lists all of the drop-in boards for Shockers and Nerves, and some brief information on the board operation and programming. This is not a comparison list for board features (I have found that to be too subjective in the past). I make note of hardware advancements, such as adjustable eye sensitivity and the method of tournament lock. There are so many boards available that they are all very similar in general operation and adjustments; if you want to see specific differences between boards, check the Setting Electronics & Pressure page where you can find info on board settings. Suffice it to say there are ultimately very few differences from board to board, some have more modes than others, some offer more adjustments than others, but that's about it. Also, many of these are no longer available new-in-box at this point.
| Smart Parts stock Vision/non-Vision board | The original factory boards from 2003-2004. They operated only in semiauto and only offered adjustable dwell and recharge/ROF. A Vision upgrade kit was available that contained the Vision eye hardware and a new eye cover. Semiauto mode capped at 24-bps eyes on (18-bps eyes off). Programmable via push-button switches on the surface of the board. While limiting in adjustments and modes, these boards are unquestionably the easiest to operate. |
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| Smart Parts Nerve board | This is an upgraded version of the original semiauto Vision/non-Vision boards with an added rebound/ramping firing mode. These began appearing in Shockers in early 2005 as a way to boost their out-of-the-box firepower. Rebound mode capped at 20-bps eyes on and off. In 2006 Nerve boards were updated to reflect Shocker NXT eyes but there is no visual difference without powering the board and attempting to cycle eye modes. These boards were compatible with both a Shocker SFT and Nerve, even though a small settings adjustment is recommended to properly utilize the different eyes used in Nerves. | |
| Smart Parts "Team" board | Stock Nerve board equipped with additional firing presets and adjustments for PSP and NXL firing modes. These were used between 2004-2006 by SP sponsored teams, and as a result they found their way into the secondhand market. Team boards were discontinued when SP released the Blackheart upgrade in 2006; as a result they are compatible with Shocker SFT and Nerve reflective eyes only. | |
| Tadao Shocker board aka. "Dynasty" board Tadaotechnologies.com | Tadao released the first drop-in upgrade board for Shockers (2004), which has gone through many hardware and software revisions over the years. Programmable using trigger inputs and a multicolor LED. A push-button switch on the surface of the board toggles between locked and unlocked (tournament lock). Currently this and the Predator boards are the only boards that offer adjustable eye sensitivity for paintshell color problems, but it requires the newest Tadao hardware and cannot be patched onto older boards.
Tadao boards are currently on their 3rd hardware revision. All three boards look relatively similar; they share the same color and use similar programming systems. The difference between rev-A and rev-B was in battery detection hardware which was added to denote a low battery in 2005. Revision-C boards added hardware support for RF transmitters and the adjustable eye sensitivity circuit. Software versions range from the original, M3, M5, M6, M6.1, M6.1-10bps, and M7. Shocker NXT eye support was added at M6.1. Hardware revisions A-B can be flashed with any of the software versions except for M7, which can only go on the revision-C hardware. |
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| TAG Predator Shocker board
TAGsportz.com | Predator boards were only available as custom-installed boards until the drop-in Shocker version was developed in 2005. They're programmable via a numerical trigger input system and use a DIPswitch on the surface of the board as tournament lock. Currently this and the Tadao rev-C boards are the only boards that offer adjustable eye sensitivity for paintshell color problems.
Predator boards are unique in that they offered an optional connector on the side of the lower board which could be connected to a custom-installed beam-break eye set instead of the Shocker SFT's factory reflective eyes. An extra adjustment setting can be used to operate the special eyes rather than using the eyes attached to the Shocker's upper board. However, these boards couldn't operate Shocker NXT beam-break eyes which are attached to the upper board hardware. Only Predator boards programmed in 2006 or later (or reflashed afterward) could operate Shocker NXT eyes. Predator boards are currently on their 3rd hardware revision. Rev-A boards featured two small blue LEDs toward the bottom which pulsate while the board is active. Revision-B boards switched to a single multi-color LED which ran through multiple colors instead of just blue. Revision-C boards are simply a different color and offer no hardware change from the rev-B type. |
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| Virtue Shocker board
Virtuepaintball.com | The 3rd upgrade board available for Shockers, released in 2005. Programmable using trigger inputs and a multicolor LED. A DIPswitch on the surface of the board toggles between locked and unlocked (tournament lock).
Virtue boards have gone through three hardware revisions and many software revisions. Hardware revisions A and B are the same except for the color change. Hardware revision-C added a low battery detection circuit. Support for Shocker NXT eyes was added in 2006. Virtue's "redefined" software was released in 2007 which was also the time of the hardware revision-C update. |
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| AdvantagePB Speedy2 Shocker board | This was the first upgrade from the company AdvantagePB, which was later rebranded into Virtue Paintball. Speedy2 chips were also available for Dye DM4 markers and offered programmable "cheater" systems made to fake semiauto firing while on the field. These were discontinued in 2004. The boards appear identical to the green Virtue rev-A hardware. |
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| Tonton Reloaded board | These boards were used by Team Tonton Flinguers and were also available for sale from the company FCP distributed out of France. Programmable using trigger inputs and a multicolor LED. Inlcudes a vibrating motor and buzzer. These boards are unique in that they also had an "Extend LCD module" that could be used to visually adjust settings after opening the grips and plugging into the Reloaded board. However, the LCD module is too large to be mounted on the marker.
Reloaded boards underwent one hardware change, and at the same time the programming was also updated. Revision-B boards were available in both red or black color. Features between the boards are smilar, however the programming menu was completely re-ordered after the update. |
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| PB Warehouse Nitro board | This mysterious Shocker board showed up in early 2006 but I have literally no information on it. The original company is long gone and no records remain. All I remember about these boards is they came with an 3-mm computer interface cable (using a 9-pin RS232 serial port) that could somehow adjust board parameters quickly using a PC. |
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| Smart Parts Blackheart Shocker board | Similar hardware as the previous factory Shocker/Nerve boards, but with an added pair of new LEDs on the side to offer a more intricate programming menu with additional adjustments. These boards finally brought stock Shockers, Impulses, and Ions up to the level where they could compete with other marker electronics easily out of the box. Like the previous Vision upgrade boards, the Shocker Blackheart also came with Vision eye hardware and a new eye cover, just in case the owner was upgrading an older non-Vision marker (same for all Blackheart packages).
Initially these boards were only programmed to switch between Shocker and Nerve eyes. Shocker NXTs were released shortly after, which added an additional setting for NXT beam-break eyes. |
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| Lucky Spitfire Shocker board aka. Un1chip | Spitfire boards are the only Shocker/Nerve board that come with a new upper and lower board pair. They are meant to be a drop-in upgrade for markers using a Humphrey solenoid, which have a connector for the upper board to be easily detached. The most interesting benefit is that the new upper board comes with a multicolor LED for the power button, instead of the factory blue LED color. This multicolor LED is used with the programming mode and also for board operation. Programmable using trigger inputs and the new multicolor power button LED. A DIpswitch on the surface of the board toggles between locked and unlocked (tournament lock). |
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| Hyperdrive Engage Shocker board | Rebranded version of the Lucky Spitfire Shocker board. The only change is the Lucky logos on the surface of the boards have been masked out. |
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| Shocker NXT markers were released at this point in the timeline. Boards above this row were originally programmed to opreate Shocker SFT markers (unless updated). Boards below this row were programmed to operate both types of eyes from the start. | ||
| NoX Unleashed Shocker board
buynox.com | These boards appeared on the scene following the release of the first private label Shocker NXT (Naughty Dogs Shocker) and naturally Team Naughty Dogs used these boards in their markers. Programmable using trigger inputs and a multicolor LED. A push-button switch on the surface of the board toggles between locked and unlocked (tournament lock). These boards offered multiple sets of LED patterns that could be tailored to match the color scheme of its marker, so long as you could see the board through transparent grips. |
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| APE Rampage Shocker board
goAPEonline.com | The unique APE Rampage board first appeared available for Shockers back in 2007. These boards are programmed differently than virtually every other board available, a byproduct of featuring probably the highest number of adjustments. However, the complexity is also very high when controlling all these features. Programmable using trigger inputs and a series of colored LEDs on the surface of the board. A DIPswitch is used to toggle between locked and unlocked (tournament lock). These boards also have dedicated solder connection points for an RF transmitter connector. |
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| Virtue RL Destroyka board | Board used by Team Russian Legion. Based on the Virtue Redefined programming but with unique board hardware. Includes a small speaker that can play short sound effects and other features. Also has a dedicated connector for an RF transmitter. When bought new-in-box, these boards also came with new Russian Legion grip wraps. |
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| Virtue OLED Shocker board | A Shocker version of the Virtue OLED series available for some other markers. They use an on-board OLED display screen, meant to show through a transparent window in the side of a new set of Virtue grip wraps that ship as a packaged part. Compared to the earlier Virtue boards, these ones also offer a dedicated plug for an RF transmitter. Programmable using trigger inputs and the onboard OLED display screen. A DIPswitch on the surface of the board toggles between locked and unlocked (tournament lock). |
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| Seventh Element Shocker LED board | Shocker version of the other 7E LED boards. Programmable using trigger inputs and a multicolor LED. A DIPswitch on the surface of the board toggles between locked and unlocked (tournament lock). There have been two versions of 7E board programming available for Shockers (v6.0 and v7.3) however there's no way to tell them apart outside from activating the board and cycling the programming menu. |
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| Hater Hatred Shocker board | Shocker version of the other Hater boards. Programmable using trigger inputs and a multicolor LED. A push-button switch on the surface of the board toggles between locked and unlocked (tournament lock). |
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Unreleased boards:
The following boards were never released for public use. Information is displayed here in order to provide a complete picture of all Shocker/Nerve boards, even those that never made it out the door.
| Fourson Doublecross board | This board appeared on the internet in early 2005 as a "coming soon" product from a new company called Fourson Technologies. The unique feature about these was a small array of six separate colored LEDs instead of the more common multicolor single-LED that most other boards use.
Later, it was revealed that these boards were actually created by Tadao as a special project based on their existing Shocker hardware, and were using a variation of the then-current M3 programming (which is why the boards worked right from the start without any real development time). The owner of Fourson refused to pay Tadao for development of the board, so Tadao shelved the project. The board you see is one of the three prototypes, which is as far as the project advanced. |
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| Euclid Shocker board (gamma version) | This was one of my own projects back in 2005. The idea behind this item was to provide easy adjustment through the 10 side-mounted superbright LEDs in conjunction with the three on-board pushbuttons (plus the trigger). Instead of counting LED blinks, each of the 10 LEDs represented one number (1,2,3, etc) so adding or subtracting value to the various firing settings was made a little easier. That was the idea, at least. The boards also had an additional connector for custom-installed beam-break eyes, similar to that of the Predator Shocker board.
I developed the hardware but I'm not an experienced embedded programmer, so an associate of mine created the programming. Ultimately we never ended up selling the board because it wasn't unique enough of a product. |
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| Wik Shocker board RC2 | A very interesting project from a pair of engineers looking to develop new hardware for markers, in this case Shockers being the primary subject. The Wik board was meant to use a separate LCD display screen module for easy adjustment, somewhat similar to the concept behind the Reloaded board's Extend LCD port, except the Wik display board also had an additional set of buttons to make adjustment easier. It was planned to release alongside a modified set of grip panels to allow the LCD module to be moutned on the marker.
The board was prototyped (as shown) but the developers were unable to finance its production due to the cost of licensing and other issues. |
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Stock Board Technical Specifications: 
Here are some technical specifications for the stock Smart Parts lower board (Shocker/Nerve).
· The only part of the board that functions off 9-v is the powerswitch, which is carried to the upper board through the wire harness.
· Lower board regulates straight battery voltage to 7-v using a Linear Technology LT1962 voltage reg, which supplies 300-mA to the solenoid through the wire harness, and also to the rest of the lower board.
· Most of the board components run from 5-v, regulated through a National Semiconductors LP2981 voltage reg. This includes the input switches (pull-up type), board speaker, and microcontroller.
· The microcontroller is an Atmel ATmega8L AVR. The board programming is locked and the circuit is designed to prevent cold booting.
· Trigger microswitch is a 25 gram leverswitch, Omron part number D2F-FL.
· Power and programming switches are subminiature side-actuated tactile switches, ITT CANNON part number KSS321G (7mmx3.5mmx1.6mm).
· Wire harness connector is a 10-point, shrouded, side-entry type JST eSH series header, JST part number BM10B-SRSS-TB. Wire harness is 32 AWG wire connected between two protrousion-less housings, JST part number SHR-10V-S-B.
Lower board pictures:
· Reverse-engineered circuit schematic:
Specifications for the upper circuit board can be found on the upper board page in the Related Links section.
Overview:
· The lower board controls the main functions of the marker, and is the method by which the marker is electronically adjusted.
· Shocker runs off a standard 9v battery.
· The lower board is held in place using two small roll pins, placed through the trigger microswitch.
Related Links:
· Adjusting the electronics settings
· Upper circuit board (Shocker SFT)
· Upper circuit board (Shocker NXT)
· Powerswitch actuator & wire harness
· Flipped microswitch mod
· Microswitch tensioner mod