Bringing Back Electric Autocockers

[Myrkul]

To your point, one of my buddies showed up to the field last weekend with a B2k4 with the stock board and good god it was insane. Haven't heard anyone lay down paint like that in ages.

[Euphie]

I mean if you want one, it isn't too hard to make an E-cocker. I did it ages ago with an open bolt conversion, but you can also just use a ram to pull the trigger plate/3-way and keep the timing mechanical, or go all in and use a clapper noid though that seems a bit more challenging to me as you then have to mount the noid and get electronics that have dual solenoid control (though the Morlock does and it is great)

Heck you can even do things the E-blade didn't if you want, if you use a ram to pull the trigger and a hall effect switch, instead of using a normal spring return ram or a MPA-3 or whatever, you could use a double acting ram and actually have a cocker with an RT effect that could be controlled by a second LPR hidden in the grip frame automag style. The sky is the limit on what you could do if you wanted to as a custom job. However, I don't expect Planet Eclipse to start making E-blades again, though if they did, they could make 100 of them and sell them for $1000 apiece and people would buy them, they could probably make 10 custom 2022 Eclipse cockers with E-blades and sell them for $5K and they would sell out in a week. Still making $50K doesn't really seem all that worth it to them, especially since it would be a one off thing, they couldn't keep making them at those prices as they simply wouldn't sell more than a few dozen and it wouldn't be worth it for normal prices

[kevin qmto]

I'm all for new E-cockers. These are my two chariots these days. Both happen to be System X versions (both have swapped to Eblade boards), one plain, Ol' Blue, and one flashy, the Dragon.

[Meleager7]

it would be fun to see a company bust out a new electronic frame kit for todays autocockers (Inception, Shocktech, Freeflow, etc ) but Mech play is so hot right now, and that is what is capturing manufacturers attention these last few years .

[DocsMachine]

Kinda just wish someone would make some of the less common parts.

-That's basically my job description. What are you looking for?

Doc.

[maggot]

The companies you see making cocker parts are all labor of love deals. There's no money in it, so you can forget about any large companies making parts unless they decide to do it out of the goodness of their hearts.

Take your pro stock cocker example where you said: "what was a $180 pro stock is $300 easy if it’s pristine". That $300 gun would cost in the ball park of $500 to $800 to manufacture right now depending on scale.

[MrBarraclough]

Every time I think about buying this or that part to upgrade/tinker with my beloved old Automag, I resign myself to the realization that no matter what I do to a classic Automag, my upgraded EMEK will run circles around it at a fraction of the weight. It's a little bittersweet.

But then I look around the staging area at all the different single-tube spool valve markers and remember that in the very core of their designs lives the Automag. They are all part of Tom Kaye's legacy.

[MrBarraclough]

From the perspective of a long time Automag guy, cockers have always seemed like insane Rube Goldberg contraptions and it was always a marvel that they worked at all, much less that they could even work well if properly maintained. Adding the complexity of an eblade seemed even more insane.

[Knuckle Dragger]

Pumzele here was or is working on his Styn valve. Brandon at Sci-Fi did a video on a prototype sent to him. Pumzele also has a plan for a board, frame and cocking solenoid system. Neat ideas and I hope to see some updates on his valve and other projects

[flyweightnate]

I think a mech Excal might be the more interesting closed bolt throwback, in today's market. Especially if someone could design it down to two tubes.

Would it be better than a modern spoolie? Nope. Cooler? Oh yeah.

[masterchiefmurph]

Kinda just wish someone would make some of the less common parts.


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[devilzcall]

I think a big part of the cocker craze is also the resurgence of mech play, which e-cockers don't qualify for. A factory built pneucocker frame in the style of the emek with integrated reg and possibly from composite would be pretty dope though.

[devilzcall]

I mostly agree with your sentiment, but designing and fabricating an assembled pcb has never been easier (and cheaper, but only if you stay away from popular microcontrollers)

A solenoid could be picked with a manifold that is threaded for barbs directly and it could make use of a nylon sintered mounting bracket.
Similarly you could also have your frames 3d printed which would be a much more straightforward process than multi-axis machining (which has also gotten cheaper).

I can not imagine that the common clapper solenoid is a particularly difficult or expensive part to source

Modern hoppers are far more consistent so eyes could be left somewhat optional if the board defaults are timed accordingly.

[Ecapnation]

Pipe dream.... The whole point back in the day with eblading cockers was to make them shoot faster and keep up with the electronic guns.

Now the same electric guns are regulated down to shoot 10.2 mrof and most struggle to be as fast as early electric guns because they were never designed to do 20 bps.

In today's market an eblade is almost a downgrade

[Grendel]

No sweat, this question comes up in some form around the Autococker. There are 10s of thousands of Autocockers out there and not all of them natively are desirable by the hip crowd of collectors. Nothing is stopping you from doing your own builds and make them as competitive as possible. I have a friend who's go to marker is an Osiris he bought back in the late 2000s and he refuses to "upgrade" to a newer marker. We (MCB crowd) in general are enthusiast paintballers/collectors as a group. I am sure you will find many members who share your love of electronic Autocockers (sorry I am not one of them never really was a fan of the Autocoker to begin with I prefer it in its proper form as a pump). If you stick around here long enough you will see a very eclectic group of people with an even more eclectic assortment of markers.