HCG Korben Blaster - it's here! (Photos/Review)

Well, some bad news on mine, I'm afraid to report...

After unpacking it I played with it a little bit, then put it on it's stand. There were no problems with it, all seemed well. It's now been a couple of weeks. I took it off the stand the other evening, powered it up and...nothing. No lights whatsoever. Although I haven't tested their voltages yet, the batteries shouldn't have gone down so quickly, especially in the off condition. I have a feeling there's a short somewhere that drains them. Grrrr.....
 
Last edited:
Harbinger said:
Well, some bad news on mine, I'm afraid to report...

After unpacking it I played with it a little bit, then put it on it's stand. There were no problems with it, all seemed well. It's now been a couple of weeks. I took it off the stand the other evening, powered it up and...nothing. No lights whatsoever. Although I haven't tested their voltages yet, the batteries shouldn't have gone down so quickly, especially in the off condition. I have a feeling there's a short somewhere that drains them. Grrrr.....
Click to expand...

My friend received his about a week and a half ago, no problems, everything worked fine and the same thing. After not playing with it for a week it was dead. In his case he threw out the original batteries that came with it and started with Energizers which the pistol drained dead in a week.

He did not have a way to test the batteries so he went out and bought new ones, popped them in and the pistol works fine so there is a short draining the batteries.
 
Ok, so mine is back to not working either!!!:cry

As you can see from earlier posts i had problems from day 1, i discovered that the battery contact wasnt 100%, and after replacing the batteries with new energizers, the blaster started working correctly. This lasted about a day, before i ran into the same problems again. Now after a week or so, its almost completely dead.

My conclusion is there is a drain on the battery. When i had new batteries i had the blaster on for around 5 mins, when it proved to work ok, Then after a day of being switched off, the new batteries had drained.

Looks like there may be an evident issue with a battery drain.

So mines going back, i just hope the replacement is problem free

I'm beginning to wonder just how many of these blasters have had the same problem, and wondering about HCG's quality control.
 
OK,
Mine is also having electrical issues. The light sometimes is bright on startup, then dims down. The counter is off, will no longer light up. My batteries (Maxell CR2032 3v) that came with the gun show 2.57v on a multimeter.

Is it possible there is a drain even if turned off?

Disappointing, esp. after such promising beginning. I emailed HCG for advice.
 
The original batts were probably okay, but there's definitely a drain problem. I hesitate to send mine back as, mechanically, everything else was okay. Now, if there were an assured way of getting into the pistol without breaking anything, I'd find the short and document it's repair as the info would likely help others.
 
Didnd't someone here already crack their's open to fix a trigger problem? See if he's having the same battery problem, and maybe he'd be willling to poke around in the electronics a bit to try and find/solve the problem...
 
I just want to concur with what has been said - my batteries are dead as well, with the switch having been in the off position.
 
Is it possible that they've installed the switch between the PCB and the LEDs, rather than between the PCB and the battery? Something like that could explain it. :confused
 
The switch kills the display and counter, but the IC and circuit board is still powered (which is what u just said I think Mike).
I've temporarily had the wiring rejigged so the switch kills the supply from the battery altogether and the electronics still function correctly.
I'll post a before and after wiring diagram if anyone is interested.
So:
Bad news - the electronics are wired to keep the PCB powered which drains the batteries over time even when switched off.
Good news - problem solved by rewiring how the switch works (easy job).
Bad news - y'gotta open up the blaster to do the mods.

SAS
 
Yeah after looking at the stripdown thread I was a lot less impressed with the model. The internal work doesn't match the level of work done on the outside. It just looks like something I'd do in my garage with cheap wires and hot glue.

Now reading all of this battery drain business I have to wonder who the person in charge of wiring was, and how fast did they crank through all of this. No doubt it was a lot of work.

The model still looks great, and has a great price point. Here is to hoping someone at HGC takes note and finds a better way to wire up thier models!
 
Seems like it was just a poor engineering design in the first place that made it's way through all the correction levels without being fixed.
 
Here's the word from HCG.

Thank you for your email.

I'm sorry to hear of the problems you're having with your Korben blaster. We have had a small number of blasters with the same issue of battery drainage.

I will contact our warehouse manager and have him send you a prepaid shipping label so that you can return it to us, we will then replace it with a new one.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience.
 
Right ok, it seems like i'm not alone in the issues i am having.

And we have now seen that there is an evident issue with the wiring, so i'm thinking that every blaster will be the same, possibly some worse than others.

So, are HCG aware of the problem (possibly due to previous post)

Is the production run complete, can the wiring issue be addressed now, for the production of future blasters in the limited edition run.

Surely HCG must know, but what will they do about it, product recall?

I'm really dissapointed with the news, i was hoping that it was going to be an issue with my blaster alone, and getting a new one would solve all problems, but i'm now thinking whats the point, it will end up being the same as the one i have.

I think it would be good if HCG could give us some advice at this point. If there is a problem with the wiring in all blasters, is replacing the faulty ones really going to solve the problems? The way i see it, after a certain length of time, it will end up going faulty.

I've paid £175, for something that doesn't work here, and i'm far from happy, as money is not easy for me to come by at the moment, and i was really really looking forward to this replica.

Or am i making a mountain out of a molehill?

What are the thoughts of my fellow RPF'ers?
 
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