Hello reader!
As a newbie to electronics, I'm attempting to create an arduino-build for an airsoft gun. The modification is for the box mag that comes with this gun.(
From the time in the video, you can see the box magazine is actually housed inside of a cover. That's where the basis for this idea comes from:
The idea is to find a way to know how full the box mag is at anytime, by taking the difference in grams between the weight of the box and the added weight of the BBs in the reservoir: and then convert to an output LCD display to show a scale of 1-100%. (I'd have to reverse the percentage so that the display doesn't count up to 100%, or measure the max weight first and add resistors?)
I'm not sure how to go about actually measuring the thing physically: A couple ideas are as follows, feel free to add your two cents.
-I thought about buying one of those small kitchen scales to see if it will fit inside the box mag cover and then just cut the thing open and try wiring a display to it *somehow*.
-I'm considering from other resources on the net using a 'strain gauge' but I'm not sure it will be sensitive enough.
-From other forums, I was offered the idea of using 10 leds and sensors wired from the top to the bottom. Each sensor is supposed to be 1/10th of the capacity of the internal box. This may require drilling, which could interfere with the internal feeding mechanism.
-Some sort of pressure sensor sandwiched between the bottom of the box and some other flat hard piece.
Ideally, I'll splice it open and resolder the leads so that it will run off a standard 9.6v NiMH that the airsoft gun is using, otherwise I'll just use the 9v DC battery adaptor that comes with the arduino uno. to avoid losing output for the shooting.
If a working prototype can be made, I'll move onto making a plastic box to house it in from the weather.
But I don't know where to go from here.
What are your thoughts? Is this possible?
As a newbie to electronics, I'm attempting to create an arduino-build for an airsoft gun. The modification is for the box mag that comes with this gun.(
From the time in the video, you can see the box magazine is actually housed inside of a cover. That's where the basis for this idea comes from:
The idea is to find a way to know how full the box mag is at anytime, by taking the difference in grams between the weight of the box and the added weight of the BBs in the reservoir: and then convert to an output LCD display to show a scale of 1-100%. (I'd have to reverse the percentage so that the display doesn't count up to 100%, or measure the max weight first and add resistors?)
I'm not sure how to go about actually measuring the thing physically: A couple ideas are as follows, feel free to add your two cents.
-I thought about buying one of those small kitchen scales to see if it will fit inside the box mag cover and then just cut the thing open and try wiring a display to it *somehow*.
-I'm considering from other resources on the net using a 'strain gauge' but I'm not sure it will be sensitive enough.
-From other forums, I was offered the idea of using 10 leds and sensors wired from the top to the bottom. Each sensor is supposed to be 1/10th of the capacity of the internal box. This may require drilling, which could interfere with the internal feeding mechanism.
-Some sort of pressure sensor sandwiched between the bottom of the box and some other flat hard piece.
Ideally, I'll splice it open and resolder the leads so that it will run off a standard 9.6v NiMH that the airsoft gun is using, otherwise I'll just use the 9v DC battery adaptor that comes with the arduino uno. to avoid losing output for the shooting.
If a working prototype can be made, I'll move onto making a plastic box to house it in from the weather.
But I don't know where to go from here.
What are your thoughts? Is this possible?
