Everything propane ... a depository for the C3

[XEMON]

Hello,

Finally got a bucket item of mine: a C3!
Post your C3 photo, trouble and tip, we can all learn helping each other.

Lets start by putting Warpig's amazing write-up: Tippmann C3 (by Bill Mills - Photos by Dawn Mills)
It goes in detail on how to take it apart and what to look for.

Edit:
Lets also add our own Cdn_Cuda Adventures With Tippmann C3!
He shares a lot of the inside and how he put his own back together; A great read!


They even made a little animation:

Credit to Warpig (by Bill Mills - Photos by Dawn Mills)

And here is the exploded diagram:


The Electronic is pretty simple, its a small high voltage spark circuit.
The spark plug is on teh top left corner. The white rectangle is a coil, the circuit charge the capacitor and it discharge in the coil.


This is the propane valve, it makes sure the exact same amount of propane is used for every shot.


The barrel/hammer assembly. Watch out for that twisty o-ring lodged between the combustion chamber and the barrel.

[XEMON]

And here is a picture of a complete. One with matching tank and hopper:




The main drawback (for me) is that they tend to have poor grounding and zap the operator from time to time.
This is EXTREMELY unpleasant!!!

I believe it is coming from the lubricant insulating some of the parts making poor connection to the ground terminal of the coil. I used H1 (food grade oil) for it, it seam to work well except for the occasional zapping ...

I have a few ideas on resolving this issue, but i need to test them before posting it here, i will update my progress as i have time for testing.

[GreenMan]

The main drawback (for me) is that they tend to have poor grounding and zap the operator from time to time.
This is EXTREMELY unpleasant!!!

i'm not laughing at you, but this is hilarious.

i always thought the C3 was the ultimate grab-and-go paintball marker, for all of its flaws in execution, its pretty cool as a concept, and an innovative tippmann product. i definitely wonder what could have been if it had worked out, especially since co2 is pretty much gone.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

Are any wires touching each other or bare wires touching the body of the gun? A loose wire bouncing around thats bare/ exposed touching the body or each other will cause an arc and can shock you. Bad grounding will cause the shocks too. If im not mistaken on the top right side of the grip frame pic i see some bare wire. (The wire wrapped on that screw head) That can be causing a shock?

[XEMON]

That bare wire is the ground voltage returning to the coil, it can be bare without a problem ...
i inspected the entire gun and I strongly suspect the voltage leak is coming from a weak path through the gun itself die to the grease ...

My plan is to add a second ground wire to the body and/or to the reg, just need to find the spot that makes the most sense ...

i'm not laughing at you, but this is hilarious.

You can laugh at me ... I'm still trying to use it

i always thought the C3 was the ultimate grab-and-go paintball marker, for all of its flaws in execution, its pretty cool as a concept, and an innovative tippmann product. i definitely wonder what could have been if it had worked out, especially since co2 is pretty much gone.

The idea to be unique and totally built from the ground up is what appeals to me. Someone put a lot of thought making something entirely new instead of making the same valve train as the next guy. In that regard, I see it a bit like the thumper or the Phoenix.
It is solidly built, but it could definitely get a few refinement to be more user/maintenance friendly.

[XEMON]

PS: I realized i didnt even put a picture of the entire gun anywhere ... I need to fix that!

[DavidBoren]

I feel like you really dropped the ball on a quality King of the Hill reference for the title...

[DAVID(GEN)]

Found some useful information about the C3 that helped me sort out some issues I was having with the board. It seemed like it was dead and I was out of luck but I ran across a thread from PbNation (https://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?t=3726585). If you read deeper into it you can bypass some of the more complex circuitry and get it to work by hooking the trigger right to pins 2 and 3 of the ignition board. Now I don't know if this will have any long term side effects but it helped me... if you do this I take no responsibility so do your own research.


Below is the post from pbnation, links to the wiring diagrams that are on imgur, and uploaded them to mcb as well just incase. Hope this helps someone!

Well I sort of kind of discovered a fix for the tippmann's ignition. Sadly it was by accident when I was deep into working on a custom circuit using a Pic12F675 as a driver chip...

In short, I "shorted" out two wires through a blown mosfet, and for the life of me couldn't figure out why the gun was all of a sudden sparking non stop.

What I discovered is that the entire second control board of the tippmann marker is not needed, it's simply a 555 circuit in monostable form putting out a pulse for the length of the normal ignition period (around .6-.75 seconds). Without this control board, it will now simply go into "taser" mode as I like to call it, for as long as you hold the trigger - eliminating any kind of BPS cap it had before.

This solution was so simple it's actually kind of frustrating, because I'm really trying to learn how to apply my damn Electrical engineering course work to real world projects lol...

Anyways, here is the original circuit about...


And here is the "ghetto rigged" circuit which will pretty much allow this gun to fire as fast as you can pump it! Note - the reed switch is not needed, and I've actually tried "autotriggering" it with the switch constantly held down (and in taser mode lol) and it will fire normally probably 90% of the time if you pump fast enough, if not you get a "misfire").


So as you can see, the little FLC10-200 chip is really doing a lot of the hard work. That's suiting because it's designed specifically for CDI ignition systems - to discharge the capacitor at a predetermined frequency if it is fully charged. This is good for stuff like oil burners or CNG powered water heaters. It does exactly what a hall sensor or "points" would do in a engine powered ignition system - tells the capacitor when to discharge into the coil and create a spark.

So sadly folks, no magic here. If you want to have an "uncapped" tippmann C3, simply desolder the control bored and solder the existing trigger wires into pins 2 and 3 of the ignition board - they are long enough to reach.

As frustrating as it is, it's always cool discovering a free mod to achiever higher BPS's. Sorta like the old switch mod to get "turbo mode" on the shoebox shockers, or any other gun that uses a 3 prong, SPDT microswitch!


Castro, the only special/odd seals on the gun are on the main pump piston and they are simply wiper seals like this http://www.mcmaster.com/#wiper-seals/=fnldyi

https://imgur.com/OVcV8jn

https://imgur.com/R1Ne3G5

[CGPro856@aol.com]

HELP with Tippmann C3

I just bought a mint looking C3. It doesn't look like its ever been fired, but the ignition module is dead. or mostly dead anyway. it will spark if i short the outputs but won't jump any gap and certainly wont spark the igniter. anyone have the module for sale? or any good ideas how to repair the one I have. my guess is that the coil is bad. it had a sticker 0540 on it but my searching has turned up nothing.

[XEMON]

It's very unlikely you'll ever find a board.
Your 2 options are:
1) found the problem on your board and fix it (hopefully it's not an obsolete/property component).
2) reverse engineer is and make a new one.

[CGPro856]

HELP with Tippmann C3

I just bought a mint looking C3. It doesn't look like its ever been fired, but the ignition module is dead. or mostly dead anyway. it will spark if i short the outputs but won't jump any gap and certainly wont spark the igniter. anyone have the module for sale? or any good ideas how to repair the one I have. my guess is that the coil is bad. it had a sticker 0540 on it but my searching has turned up nothing.

[CGPro856@aol.com]

I’m pretty sure my problem is the output coil. The input side measures 0 ohms while the output side is 222 ohms. Anyone have a source for a replacement?

[CGPro856@aol.com]

It is definitely the output coil. I smashed open a grill igniter and used the coil out of it to test my board and it works great. Makes a nice big spark, but the coil and all its epoxy does not fit in the grip. Can somebody tell me what would work as a replacement for this coil?

[XEMON]

They are obsolete parts and have not been manufactured for years, I work with electronic components all day long and reached out to several manufacturers and noone has a working alternative. Briefly thought about making a batch, but we're loyat 2-5K minimum order for a custom run ...

[CGPro856@aol.com]

So who makes the coil that’s inside a 1.5v grill igniter. There’s thousands of them available somewhere… I’ll keep working on busting apart the grill igniter I bought. The coil is potted inside a big block of epoxy and the epoxy is mixed with some white crunchy quartz looking stuff so it’s a pain to get apart but it’s possible that I can whittle it down enough to fit.

[CGPro856@aol.com]

Maybe?

[XEMON]

This looks so promising!
please keep us posted if this works 👍

[CGPro856@aol.com]

It works. It took some work to mod the coil to fit in the grip but it does work. The marker is functional again!

[XEMON]

Congratulations, that great news!