Patent ID: 8312870

Claim:
A method of operating paintball equipment, comprising: providing a plurality of paintball loaders having circuitry including a microcontroller, and providing associated paintball markers having circuitry, each said loader being a device initially separate from and insertable into and removable from a respective one of said markers; establishing a wireless link between each of said microcontrollers and a separate computer, and synching each of said microcontrollers with the computer so that each of said microcontrollers are identified as a communication group, each of said microcontrollers is assigned an identification code over said wireless link; broadcasting a message from one of said loaders, said message including information identifying said one of said loaders or at least one loader in the communication group; receiving said message by at least one of said loaders, wherein said message is sent to the microcontroller of said at least one receiving loader; and sending said message to a visual or auditory output associated with said receiving loader.