Patent ID: 7270121

Claim:
A device to provide a steady supply of paintballs to a paintball gun, comprising: a backpack hopper which can contain at least 500 paintballs, which consists of a cavity defined by six sides made of plastic or a similar strong and rigid material, and two or more shoulder straps; a sensor mechanism which senses the removal of paintballs from the backpack hopper and conveys that information to a mechanism which causes the space in which unused paintballs are resting to decrease in volume; a positive feed device attached to or as a part of the backpack hopper; and a feed tube which carries the paintballs from the backpack hopper to the paintball gun, where the positive feed device comprises: a first belt device consisting of a conveyer belt rotating around two drive gears, where the conveyer belt has sets of spacers embedded on it which are located such that a paintball fits in between each set; a slot above the top of the first belt device where the walls of the slot are wide enough to accommodate one paintball; a second belt device consisting of a conveyer belt rotating around two drive gears, with an upper side and a lower side, where the conveyer belt has a series of clasps which can grasp a paintball when force is applied to the outside of each clasp; a sensor in the feed tube which detects when the player is no longer shooting his/her marker and releasing paintballs from the backpack hopper, where, when the sensor detects pressure building up between two or more paintballs in the feed tube, the sensor causes the first belt device and the second belt device to stop turning; a top slot above the top of the second belt device where two walls of the slot extend diagonally out approximate 60 degrees, thereby allowing for paintballs above the slot to filter down into the slot, the 60 degree walls allowing for the clasps to remain in an “open” position such that they do not grasp the paintballs; a bottom slot below the bottom side of the conveyer belt, the walls of which extend down at a 90 degree angle to the conveyer belt to a second belt slot bottom, thereby putting pressure on the clasps such that the clasps grasp each paintball as it is deposited onto the second belt slot bottom, such that each paintball is forcefully propelled along the bottom slot; a feed tube deflector which constricts the bottom slot such that it allows only the conveyer belt and the clasps to leave the bottom slot and continue around the drive gear, thereby forcing the paintballs into a feed tube; and where the feed tube additionally comprises a hollow, flexible length of plastic, rubber or other sturdy, resilient, and flexible material, which takes the paintballs from the bottom slot and delivers them to the paintball gun.