Questions about 2012 Drone DX

[Slow_Roast]

EDIT: New question: Any benefit to upgrade to to clone GI/GTi board and/or solenoid except for the OLED screen?

I was wondering if any dx owners could offer some little insight on maintenance and upgrades.

1) what parts seem to need replacing or more frequent maintenance? Any recommendations for frequent and infrequent maintenance?

2) any experience with the gold bolt vs stock?

Thanks in advance!

[dano_____]

My drone dx needed occasional wiping down of the internals and light lube with militia lube. I just kept the outside and inside clean after playing and didn't have any problems. They are inherently simple and I wouldn't change anything out unless it leaked.

I didn't see any appreciable difference between stock and gold bolt unless I was shooting tiny paint. The gold bolt had less rollback due to the flat face.

There really isn't any upgrade you would need on it.

[Slow_Roast]

Do you think planet eclipse lube would be ok? I need to order some new Militia lube if not.

I had to clean out the reg because my younger self was having trouble with velocity one cold morning and it basically opened up and got some dirt in from the bottom portion. Everything looks pretty much brand new even the orings, I didn’t even get a chance to break it in properly. When we mean “broken in” does that mean something inside the in line reg?

[Trbo323]

Okay let's see I don't have the most experience with them but I just finished one up for Super Nova . Here's my impressions if they mean anything to you

It's a fairly typical unbalanced spool. I couldn't tell you if the upgraded bolt is worth it or not I'm not expecting it to be the most efficient which is also fairly typical of the era. For upgrades beyond the bolt the only few that kind of stuck out to me are maybe the trigger if there are any out there and the regulator. Regulator is a little bit more of a personal preference thing I just don't really like the Mac Dev ones. Otherwise the grips are fairly decent the ergonomics are pretty good

One thing I did notice that's worth mentioning if the battery gets low one of the first symptoms is first shot drop off. I would have expected shoot down because of the design but apparently not

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[Slow_Roast]

I totally noticed some FSDO one cold morning and thought it was my reg but I’m certain it was battery problems. Thanks for the heads up!

What’s your fav reg?

[tyronejk]

1) Any decent grease (including planet eclipse) should be perfectly fine.
2) "broken in" in the context of paintball guns generally means wearing down the dynamic orings somewhat. Anecdotally, some people believe the springs in regs "break in" after some number of cycles (I don't know enough material science to believe this one way or the other).
3) Personally, I do like the MacDev regs from that era. I like how they come apart, adjust easily, and seem to perform as well as any other decent reg out there.

[Slow_Roast]

Any benefit to Clone GT/GTi board and/or solenoid other than OLED screen and a change firmware?

[tyronejk]

The clone solenoid is different from the drone and won't work. The board just has the OLED and that's it. For what it's worth, I had a Clone VX and put a Drone DX board in it to move away from the failing OLED.

[Slow_Roast]

That’s what I figured. Thanks for the clarification and appreciate the insight.

[Slow_Roast]

Curious if anybody has felt or knows the difference between the 2012 and 2013 DX post board update. The pre update 2012 DX like mine has the black solenoid and it seems the new updated board started to use a solenoid that is blue probably similar to what the drone 2 uses.

I’m not replacing anything unless it leaks but so curious if the new solenoid and board on the 2013 update really makes an appreciable difference.