Laser Sight
he second mod came after I realized that the upper ‘dot’ in the tri-barrel piece has enough space for a small laser diode. By doing this, the Sharpshot would now have the same aiming features as the Nitefinder except that it cannot be adjusted.
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Carefully using a drill bit, slowly drill out the hole.
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Now, we prepare the Laser Diode. You can get these almost anywhere nowadays and this one costs me RM7.50 but I believe you can get it for less. But there is one very important fact; get the latest one. This is because the lastest Generation has a plastic chromed cap instead of metal to save cost. Which is good news because it can be pulled out very easily without destroying the laser diode inside. |
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The reason why mine costs so much was because of the chip inside which controls how the White LEDs are lit when you press the second button. The first press activates one LED while the second press activates two LEDs. A feature which I am not going to use. |
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The first thing you need to do is to desolder the pair of White LEDs and also the connector spring as shown by the yellow arrows. |
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Yellow: Override |
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In order to solder the positive wire to the Laser Diode itself, you need to unscrew the lens assembly first. If you do not, the heat from the soldering iron would melt the black plastic and the whole assembly would pop out. You need the lens as they are very important. |
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This is how the Laser Diode looks like without the lens. Once the metal tube of the Laser Diode has cooled down, screw back the lens and apply 4.5v to the module. Slowly turn/screw the lens until the red spot becomes a bright dot. |
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Align the Laser Module on the inner wall of the tri-barrel so that the darts shoot correctly on the horizontal axis. We want the Laser to be ‘correct’ on the dart’s side-to-side direction only. But for those who have modified their Sharpshot, you might want to realign the laser to match your new distance. Once you have confirmed the alignment, you can secure it. |
Wiring
Although the circuit looks very simple, there was some problems at this stage. For one, the Muzzle Flash was working very well on its own but once the Laser Sight was activatd, the White LEDs became very dim. Therefore, I had to rewire slightly to give the White LEDs 4.5 voltas instead of the planned 3.0 volts. Secondly, because of that, the wiring was slightly affected too. Note that because of the compactness of the Sharpshot's shell, There is no other way to house the batteries other than to stuff it inisde. As I do not have the skills to crate an access hatch, the only way to change the batteries is to open up the Sharpshot. Because of the demand of the current, I could not use coin-cell batteries.
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At this stage, the modification is almost complete. Now all you need to do is to wire it up correctly. |
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This is how the Sharpshot looks like on my prototype before I close it up. |
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Once it is closed up, the Sharpshot looks normal with the exception of a small hole located at the front of the tri-barrel. |
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And this is how it works: Slight pull of the trigger, the Laser Pointer activates. |
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When the trigger is fully pulled to launch the dart, the muzzle flash will activate.. |
Afterthought
The sharpshot can be modified further at the cowl area. This is because of the wonderful 'bullseye' motif which can be lit. However, because its moulded in yellow, the only suitable LEDs are the White LEDs and also the Yellow LEDs.
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This is a very nice pattern which begs to be lit up. However, you would need to widen the hole of the inner shell to fit the design. Which is a good thing because the inner shell would be the natural mask for blocking the extra lights. Unfortunately, because of the AAA battery holder in there, you would need to remove both modifications or dremel out more space in the shell. |
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As you can see from the 'motocycle' cowl, the plastic is thin enough to be lit without any sanding to thin the plastic walls. However, you would still need to mask from inside. |
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