Yes I think I could do something like that.
The company making the continuous rotation servos for the upper extending red barrel have discontinued that product (need a particular high speed variety that isn’t available anywhere else) so I’ve also swapped that out for a small DC motor (no more trimming that servo, no ‘servo creep’ and less power draw when idle!)
However that meant designing in a small motor driver IC. The atmega328 chip’s IO ports were completely used up so I’ve now also redesigned the front LED boards with a shift register which means 5 wires running to the scope rather than the previous 8. This has freed up 3 more IO ports on the chip and allowed me to include sound effects! I’ve been careful to maintain the original board foot print and mounting holes so this will be compatible with earlier kits I have sent out. Same for the scope LED boards.
New boards below. No more JST plugs as these were causing headaches with people when needing to unplug/plug stuff in so this solution stops that. It also means a lot less crimping for me! (JST plugs replaced with small screw style terminal blocks)
I now also have dedicated ports for a speaker, red RS button and my remote control receivers. The front laser LED and red button LED also have dedicated ports (these were previously pre-soldered into the board)
New front and rear LED PCBs. These are now connected with a cable and will have the 5 cable loom soldered to the front board (this used to be a separate cable, sheafed with steel conduit) Prototype boards pictured below.
You can see in this image where the speaker is mounted. This new base will also need to be included in the upgrade set along with the new sliding DC motor holder for the extending barrel.
I have to say I think I’m at the end of the line with the control board/functionality side of things. Aside from developing a kit to transform airsoft AK74s into BB gun firing ZF1s I can’t really see what else needs improving!
I’m tempted on getting some more metal parts machined to replace the blue components and the large orange/gold flamer components but we shall see. There’s quite a few parts and the sets would probably run into the hundreds of pounds. We will see! The good thing about the parts they replace is they all unbolt easy enough so upgrading shouldn’t be a major hassle.
Thanks again everyone for the continued enthusiasm you’ve shown over the years.