From: wb9omc@dynamo.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick)
Newsgroups: alt.sport.lasertag
Subject: Re: Mattel compatible guns (any quantity)!
Date: 23 Nov 92 18:29:55 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network

adam@gizmo.co.uk (Adam Kerrison) writes:

>Hi netters,

>it may be of interest that there is a company in the UK that produces boards with 
>single and auto "starlyte" compatible guns.  They are called "HI RANGER", and produce
>a number of interesting bits and pieces as well as starlyte-clone guns.

>I _don't_ have the actual address, but you can mail a person who does. If you are
>interested, mail Darren Hatcher at:

>hatcher_d@web-cs.bt.co.uk

>and he can put you onto the manufacturers (he has no commercial interest and is a
>live role player himself).  I hope for no flames on commercialism for this item, but
>I know how tricky it is to get hold of mattel compatible hardware in assured quantities.

>_Please_ make any inquires to Darren and _not_ myself. 

>Thanks again, and happy netting ...



	Thanks for posting the info. for us!

Now a point of correction.  NOT Mattel.  LazerTag (r) was made by Worlds
of Wonder, INC., who is now belly up in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  I am
attempting to determine who actually is the right-holder at this time,
but so far have had no luck.  It is NOT HASBRO, the US distributor
of Electronic Survivor Shot.  ESS is made by TOMY - and I am still
waiting to hear from them.

Somebody had made a comment about sensors, I think, with reference to
a "555 timer and some capacitors".

Ya gotta get the whole picture here.

A LazerTag (r) compatible signal needs more than a single component -
there is a carrier wave at about 58.8 KHz, +/- some amount.  There is also
a "magic" recognition signal that is in the 1.1 KHz area, +/- some
amount.

When a LazerTag (r) compatible sensor sees the gun emission, it is picked
up on a photodiode with a weak signal that is sent to a preamplifier
IC, typically a Sharp IR3T07 or equivalent.  The preamp does a bunch of stuff
(high tech description there...) :-) including simple amplification
and sends a signal off to an LM567 Tone Decoder IC.  The 567 is preset
to recognize the "magic" signal of 1.1 KHz (+/- x amount) - and when it
sees that, it toggles its output briefly between TTL-compatible
(5 volts = logic high, 0 volts = logic low....more or less) levels.

And THIS tells the 4-bit microprocessor (that's right, MICROPROCESSOR
....I didn't believe it either at first) to set off the bells and whistles
and increment the hit counter by "1".

Now, on the emitter side.  You *can* use 555's (a little easier to use a
556 DUAL timer IC) to generate the required signals.  BUT.....as I
have played with this, it is less than perfectly stable.  The output
of the timer IC is barely sufficient to drive an IRLED without making
the whole circuit even LESS stable, so one would be well advised to
use some kind of transistor buffer circuit between the timer output
and the IRLED.

Which incidentally, is *exactly* what WOW did.

You need to get both signals pretty close to spec., although the "magic"
signal seems more finicky than the carrier.  I have run carriers as
low as mid-20 KHz and can still trigger the sensor.  But if that
"magic" signal goes off very much, she don't do diddly squat.

(Interestingly enough, Radio Shack had a non-compatible set for a while
which ran about a 20 KHz carrier......)

Since we're on the topic, The Galoob LazerPro 9000 (r) [another non-
compatible product] does NOT use a "magic" recognition signal.  Instead,
it uses a simple carrier-only signal that falls in the mid-30 KHz
range - in fact it is SO simple that my RCA TV remote control sets
it off nicely!  :-)

Now, as to making a pistol that is WOW-compatible.....I really can't give you
any $$$ figures or parts lists because quite honestly, I haven't really
sat down to figure out how to do it (yet) !  Since I know how to use
the 555/556 to actually get the signals I would be inclined to use
a fairly simple generation scheme BUT with a quartz crystal oscillator
to help keep some stability in the thing, and with a little better
timing and wave shaping than the straight timer circuits.

I would probably make it an auto-fire gun using some re-triggering
scheme.  I would also include TWO IRLEDs, one with a very narrow
beam and one with a short-range, wide beam.

Anything more specific than that I really haven't bothered to design yet.
Hell, I'm still trying to figure out what makes all these CURRENT
generation guns tick!!!  :-)

Duane