Cocker Tech

Well, I figured that since I've got a working eBlade, now would be a good time to write a guide for it. So let's start out with the basics. The Planet Eclipse eBlade is an aftermarker electronic grip frame for Autocockers and cocker-like markers. It uses two solenoids to control the firing and recocking of the marker, whereas a normal trigger requires the operator to both drop the sear and recock the gun manually via the trigger. The eBlade can cycle extremely fast, somewhere up in the 30 cps (cycles per second) range if I recall correctly. It also has an available reflective anti chop eye that comes with all eBlades. The trigger is very adjustable; it has pre-travel and post-travel set screws to shorten or lengthen the pull to your liking, as well as a set screw and magnet to adjust the tension of the trigger pull, making it as soft or as strong as you like. The eBlade runs off of a single 9V battery and is available for around $400 dollars at most stores and online.

The eBlade has a few brother products, namely the WGP WorrBlade and the SystemX Xonik. These frames are both eBlades, just with slightly different options. The WorrBlade has an integrated rail and comes with a new delrin bolt and hammer, making it a very good choice for an upgrade kit to a stock marker. The Xonik has an integrated snatch grip, a removable trigger guard, and a full auto mode. Both are good quality products, though I have not had the chance to test a Xonik (wink wink to SystemX, I'd love to test one).

Installation of the eBlade is fairly straightforward for most intermediate cocker users. The basic principle is that you are replacing the 3-way and grip frame. The manual that comes with the eBlade is also very descriptive as far as installation of the frame. So, with that said, there's a few basics that you'll need:
Wrench to remove your LP reg.
1/8', 5/64', 1/16',3/16' allen wrench
Blue loctite
9V Battery
Optional: Needle nose pliers

Before I begin the installation guide, a few notes. For the eBlade to work properly, you have to have a hammer with a flat (called square) lug. If you have a stock 'cocker from WGP, you have a flat lug. If you are unsure, remove your grip frame and look at the lug coming down from the hammer. If it's flat on the bottom, you're ok. If it's rounded off, you'll need a new lug. If you need a new lug, I'd highly recommend getting the WorrBlade, as it comes with a hammer with a square lug as well as a new bolt. As with anything else, if you are uncomfortable working on your marker, please, please, please take it to a qualified airsmith, paintball pro shop, or someone that knows what they're doing.

First, start by removing your existing grip frame. Using your 1/8' allen wrench, remove the two bolts that hold the frame to the body of the gun. With these bolts out, rotate the frame and remove the timing rod from the frame. Now that the frame is off, we'll remove your old 3-way. First, remove all the low pressure hoses from your 3-way. Then, take your wrench (should be either 7/16', 1/2' or 9/16', depending on what reg you have. Stock size is 9/16') and remove the lp reg from the front block, turning the reg counter-clockwise. If you have a stock lp reg and haven't taken it off before, it will be on very tight, as WGP uses red loctite from the factory. Just keep tugging on it, and it'll come off. With the lp reg off, unscrew the 3-way from the front block with your fingers. With the 3-way off, remove the rear set screw from the timing collar (connects 3-way shaft and timing rod) and unscrew the timing collar from the timing rod. Remove the timing rod and 3-way shaft, and you should now be ready to install the eBlade. (Optional: If you will be installing the eye onto a stock body that has not been drilled for the eye, drill the holes for the eye now. PLEASE have a knowledgable machinist or pro shop do this, don't try it yourself unless you KNOW what you're doing. Hint: if you're considering using a hand drill, don't even think about it. Take it to someone and have it done.)

Now that you're done removing your old parts, begin by screwing on the front solenoid that came with your eBlade. It attaches the same as a regular 3-way; run the solenoid wires through the 3-way hole in the front block, then attach the solenoid to the front block, screwing it all the way until it won't turn any more, then back it off one turn so the barbs are on the top. With the front (cocking solenoid) attached, reattach your low pressure reg. Clean off any old loctite (either with an awl or rubbing alcohol) and apply a dab of blue loctite to the tip of the threads. Now, screw in your lp reg by hand until it stops turning, then use the appropriate wrench to turn the reg once more, leaving the nipple pointed upwards. You can now reattach the low pressure hoses. You may need to purchase new hose, as the stock hose has a large inner diameter and may not fit the eBlade's nipples (I'm not sure about this, would anyone like to correct me?).

With the solenoid mounted, let's turn our attention to the grip frame. Remove the 3 screws on the right side of the eBlade grip with a 5/64' allen wrench, revealing the battery compartment and the area you will need to plug in the solenoid cable at. Route the solenoid cable through the groove on the top of the eBlade grip frame, and down into the grip. With the wire routed, carefully attach the eBlade grip to the body of the gun, being careful not to pinch the solenoid wire. Use the bolts that came with the eBlade to do so; they take a standard 1/8' allen wrench. Now that the grip is attached firmly to the body, you can plug in the solenoid cable to the circuit board. The cocking solenoid plugs into the top-most plug on the circuit board, located just to the left of the sear solenoid. The plug is keyed such that the cable can only be plugged in one way. You should see the notch in the plug, and align it up with the notch on the circuit board. If it does not easily go in, do not force it, rather remove the plug and try it the other way. Use an allen wrench to softly push the plug into place, and make sure it's seated properly.

Now, it's time to set the height of the lug. For this you should have a hammer with a set screw for the lug so that it doesn't slip out of place during high rates of fire. Remove your bolt, and using a 1/8" allen wrench down the sear adjustment hole in the top of the body, adjust the lug. You can test to see if the gun is cocking by pulling back on the cocking rod. If it doesn't stay cocked the lug needs to be lengthened. When you finally get the lug low enough to cock, it's time to test the height. Push on the bottom of the sear solenoid very slowly. This simulates the sear being tripped. You ideally want the gun to fire when the solenoid is in the top 2/3 of it's travel. So, if you push on the end of the solenoid, and the hammer releases right away, screw in the lug clockwise a bit more, and test again. If it releases too late, or not at all, screw the lug counter-clockwise to make it shorter. Setting the lug at this height ensures reliability during recocking (it makes sure the hammer doesn't slip over the sear) and it also lengthens the life of the sear solenoid.

Optional: Anti chop eye. If you have a hole drilled in your gun's body for the anti chop eye, you can attach it very easily. First, plug in the end of the anti-chop eye that has a connector to the circuit board. It attaches just below where you plugged in the cocking solenoid wires. It is also keyed and should only go in one way. Now, with the frame removed, route the eye wire up through the groove in the eBlade and out the notch in the right side of the eBlade frame, just in front of the grip. Run the eye up to the hole the eye goes in and insert the eye. If you have excess cable (you should), pull the excess back down into the eBlade's grip. With the cable at the proper length, place the end of the eye cover into the eBlade's frame (as per the manual's instructions) and reattach the eBlade frame to the gun's body, again being careful to not pinch any wires. With the grip attached, use a 1/16' allen wrench and attach the eye cover to the body using the supplied screw.

For WorrBlade owners: If you're going to replace your current hammer/lug with the one that comes in the WorrBlade kit (you probably should), follow these directions for replacing it. First, remove your bolt and cocking rod. Remove the back block from the pump arm, and using a 3/16' allen wrench, remove the IVG (velocity adjuster), followed by the hammer spring (mainspring). Drop a 1/8' allen wrench down the sear adjustment hole in the top of your body, and turn counterclockwise until the sear is high enough that the hammer can slide out the back of the body. Lube up your new hammer with an appropriate lubricant, and insert it into the body, with the lug facing down. Put your 1/8' allen wrench back into the adjustment hole, and drop the lug down so that the hammer won't come out of the body. Replace your mainspring and IVG, screwing the IVG in to the same spot it was at before you removed it. Replace the back block, cocking rod, and worrBlade bolt, and you're set. With everything re-installed, go ahead and follow the above directions for setting the proper lug height.

For Xonik users: While I have not used or seen a Xonik frame, examining the manual appears to show two slightly different things. First, the Xonik uses 10/32 screws to attach the grip to the body. Second, the plug for the cocking solenoid is located in a different spot; please refer to your manual for a picture of the correct location.

Your eBlade should now be installed. The only thing that's left is to install the battery as per manual instructions (the positive terminal goes closest to the trigger, the negative terminal closest to the beavertail).

Well, now that your eBlade is installed, it's time to give it a test run. Right out of the box it should work beautifully, eye or not. But of course, as cocker owners, we can't go without tweaking the thing to it's fullest potential. Having said that, a few basic guidelines.

The eBlade is very adjustable, it has many parameters that can be set to tweak how the grip works. Often one could get lost in these settings, which is why the factory settings are so nice. First off, to adjust the firing settings, you need to open up the grips on the eBlade, specifically the right-hand side of the grip (the solenoid side). Once opened, you'll see a red button right above where the battery is. With the eBlade turned on, push this button, and a settings menu will show up. This menu has four choices, TIMG, FILT, FACT, BACK, which are the timing menu, the filter menu, the factory menu, and the back button.

The eBlade comes with 3 factory settings, slow, medium, and fast. They are pretty much suited for what kind of loader you're using, and tailors the bolt movement to that to prevent chopping. If you're using anything from an X-boarded revy on up, you can get away with factory fast. When I first set up my eBlade, I put it on factory fast, and then tune each individual setting from there. Plus, if something doesn't work right, and you can't seem to fix it, just go back to the factory settings and start over.

So having said that, there's five major settings that you can fine tune to tweak your marker to it's optimum point. They are SON, CDEL, CON, CTO, and COFF, which can be found in the TIMG menu. For those of you who haven't read the manual, SON (how long the firing solenoid stays down, a lower value is generally better for battery life), CDEL (time delay in milliseconds between the firing and beginning of recocking), CON (how long the solenoid stays open to cock the gun), CTO (how long the gun waits to close the bolt if the eye is on but no ball is detected), and COFF (how long the solenoid redirects air to close the bolt).

There are no real concrete numbers to use for these settings, as each gun is unique based on the parts on it. Generally, the factory fast settings work great with the eye. The best way to set each of these settings is to go through and manually change each one (with a fresh batter) and test it at the same time. When testing, the object is to cycle as fast as you can while still having the gun shoot reliably, so you'll need air and paint as well. Start out with the gun set to factory fast, and then change one setting at a time. Start with the SON setting, and lower it until the gun won't shoot properly. Then, bump up the number by two. The reason for upping it by two is that the battery life on the eBlade is horrible, and at or below half a battery, you'll start to notice the gun won't fire reliably (or at least I have). This should guarantee you the best firing reliability throughout the battery life.

Next, go to the CDEL. This is where you're going to try to eliminate blowback. Drop the value of the CDEL until you get blowback (you can test this by doing one shot at a time), and then raise it again until you no longer have blowback. This should optimize the firing cycle. Factory fast has the value at 4, and you probably won't have to vary too much from that.

Next up is CON. Up until now, the settings didn't matter if you were using the eye or not. The CON setting is only really important if you're not using the eye, as you have to almost match it to the speed of your loader. Faster loaders can get the CON down quite a ways, say to 40 ms or less. Gravity fed loaders should use a higher time. Basically, fire as fast as you can (without the eye on of course) and keep lowering the CON by 5ms intervals until you start chopping or misfeeding paint. Then, bump it back up by 5-10 ms, and you should be good. If you plan on using the eye, don't even bother changing the CON setting, its completely overridden by the eye settings, which I'll discuss later.

Next up is the CTO, which is only important if you're using the eye. When you run out of paint and still try to fire, if the eye doesn't detect a paintball, this is the setting it uses to figure out when it should close the bolt. I generally leave it at the stock 255ms setting, as it'll give me a very clear warning when I'm out of paint. You can go as low as you'd like with it, but you should follow the same rules as setting the CON, too low and you may end up chopping that one last ball that bounced up. I'd recommend dropping it to maybe 100ms if you have a faster loader.

Finally, we have the COFF. This one makes sure that the solenoid is on long enough to fully close the bolt. I've found that on my STO ram, the stock setting of 28 is right where I want it to be, any less than that and I end up misfeeding. The same rule applies, lower by 1ms and fire as fast as you can until you misfeed, then bump that number up by one or 2ms, and you should be good. Those of you with QEV's can lower this number to the low 20's or high 10's and be good.

Now that you've got the core settings done, you should be in good shape. But, for you eye users and tourney player's, there are a few more settings that you're going to want to take a look at.

In addition to setting the basic parameters for how and when the gun fires and recocks, the eBlade allows you to set some filter parameters that control the interaction between you, your paint/loader, and the gun. These filter settings are accessible in the FILT menu in the setup menu. They are BALD, EMPD, TPUL, and TREL, or Ball detection time, Empty Breach detection time, trigger pull time, and trigger release time. The Ball detection is the time, in milliseconds, that the eye must see a ball for it to know that a ball is in the chamber. The EMPD is the time that the breech must be empty, in milliseconds, before the eBlade will begin to look for a ball.

The way the eBlade uses the BALD and EMPD is as follows: Once the bolt begins to open, the eye will begin to search for an empty breech. Once it detects that there is no ball in the breech, it begins to count, and when it hits the value set in EMPD, it determines that the breech is open and is ready to be loaded with a ball. Then, it looks for a ball. Once a ball is detected, it continues to monitor that ball for the time set in BALD. Once that time has run out, it senses that the ball is fully loaded, and then will allow the bolt to be closed. So, in effect, changing these settings alters how fast the eye works. Having them lower may reduce cycling times by a bit, but you risk chops, as a ball may still not be fully loaded when the BALD time is hit and the ram begins to close. I've found no real reason to alter these from the factory settings of 4ms, but you may want to experiment with it.

The TPUL and TREL settings are much more noticable and have a drastic effect on your trigger pull. TPUL is the time, in milliseconds, that the trigger has to be pulled in order to be a valid trigger pull. TREL is the same, but it's the time that the trigger has to be released to be a valid trigger release. The lower these numbers, the faster (theoretically) the gun can fire, because it can determine many more trigger pulls per second. However, with guns that have higher amounts of recoil and lower settings, you can end up with bounce, which is when multiple trigger pulls are detected with one actual pull. You'll have to fine tune these settings particular to your gun. I'd suggest starting with the settings quite low, say 5ms each, and then try to make your gun bounce. If you can get it to bounce, then up the settings until it won't.