FX-onics Formerly known as FX-tronics, this is a company name that I used to use back when I worked under Terran Entertainment Group.   I've decided to bring that compnay back to life and start bringing the products back into production (well some of the old ones anyway).    But first and foremost, I'm going to start developing a new laser tag system with myself and the hobbyist market in mind (If you want proffessional gear, I suggest looking at Steradian and Battlefield Sports equipment.)     What I develope is what I develope.   If you don't like what I've developed, then I do take constructive sugguestions.      If you don't have constructive suggestions and you don't like my gear - my constructive suggestion is that you go make your own and keep negative comments to yourself!  WINK WINK, NUDGE NUDGE --- SAY NO MORE!   Here is the photos I've been promising... .the 360 degree programmable sensor system! (I know..not the best picture of me...your supposed to be looking at the hat and the sensor box! It was late at nite and I just didn't care anymore ...lol  ) As you can see the main unit uses a web belt system to strap the main box around your waist.   The box in this photo is the larger version which has an external 9V battery door, which gives you the ability to disconnect the battery without having to unscrew the back cover.   I personally feel it is a bit bulky.   I have a few different versions of a battery door box on order that I will be trying out.     In the mean time I prefer the smaller box in the picture below which is not attached to a sensor (its actually being used to hold the sensor cable in place in this photo).      The box in the lower left is the smaller box and works alot better with the belt clip system, the main disadvantage is that you have to unscrew the back lid to get to the battery.   The clip on the lower right is bolted to the back of the controller and can be attached to any belt that can fit through the flanges.   Above is a closer picture of the flap attached to the larger box with the battery compartment. Above on the right is the full circuit (minus buttons and switches). The picture on the right is the circuit plus buttons, switches, and battery installed in the small box (yes the circuit is not fully stuffed, I grabbed the wrong box for the photo).   In the photo on the right, the circuit at the top is the main circuit board, and you will notice that there is alot of empty holes on the board...this is for the switches that attach form the case as well as openings for future expansions.  The smaller circuit board on the bottom is an audio amplifier that you can buy from the FXonics or LaserTech Catalog for about $8.00(once I put them in there).   It works great and has a relatively low amperage draw(saves battery drainage).                    The above photos is to give an idea of the circuit board sizes.   Here is the electronics stuffed inside the large box.   Notice there is alot more space, although this results in it being kind of bulky.   Some of you may have noticed alot of jumper wires on the PCB.   This is due to me making the mother of all assumptions when I decided at the last minute to use the through hole version of the processor chip which you see on this circuit instead of the surface mount chip which is only a 1/4" x 1/4" and a pain to solder.   The mother of all assumptions was that the pinout would be the same since the part number only varied by 1 letter........WRONG!   Luckily the design of the processor chip and the way I laid out the board made it to where about 4 wires and 5 cuts saved about $500.00 of circuit boards from becoming unusable.   So the first 100 boards will come with these modifications in place...even if you just buy the bare board.    Also too, notice that with all the switches and wires hooked up, there are still plenty of pins not hooked up to anything...so there are plenty options still available...although 3 more pins will be used up for James' system as we are adding a bi-colored LED for teamlights to the tower, and a wide beam I.R. LED to make a collateral damage device and create a game called "CONTAMINATED" lol.... Okay, lets see...what haven't I shown........OH! The box on the top is the big box and the one on the bottom...yep you guessed it, the small box. The ON/OFF switch requires a key...and if this isn't enough to keep people from cheating to reset their sensors, you have to use the serial port to give anyone hit points in the first place.   When you first turn the box on with a key, you are virtually dead.   The serial port is a 2.5mm stereo jack that allows you to hook up the sensor box to a computer through an RS-232 port (requires adapter box),  or to a med kit box.    For now the only settable features is how many hit points you have (0-255), how much damage a full hit will take (-128 to 128), and how much damage a richotte hit will take (-128 to 128).    Many other features are planned for the future when I or someone else has time to actually program them.   The Hit Indicator LED is used to let you know when you've taken a hit, or to indicate how much health you have left after you hit the general purpose switch during the game (this is all open for change in the programming).   The general purpose switch is used to start the gameplay mode at the beggining of a game, to check your health during the game, or to activate a medpack that you've taken during the game, and to shut the death siren up when you've been tagged out at the end of the game.    Simple and expandable.   Last but not least is the tower design...the basics are very simple.   I used a hard but flexable plastic tube, at the top are two TSOP1856's back to back covered by a red lense that I found a supplier for.     The red lense serves two purposes: One it helps redirect incomming light from all angles into the sensors (without it, you don't get 360 degrees of coverage).   Two, it helps filter full light for Infra Red.   Testing with a CdS cell and a phototransistor, it cut most ambient light down by roughly 45% (if I didn't screw up on my math, as I did the experiment late one nite).    I chose the tube for is diameter size, its stifness, durability and flexability.   Being that the bottom part of the sensors are laying partially embeded into the tube, the translucence doesn't hurt when it comes to catching I.R. signals hitting at an angle that the sensor is not directly facing.   You will notice 4 holes at the bottom.    Originally I was riveting the tube to a baseball cap.    This works well, but if you want to wash the hat often, I'm sure the tube would wear out.    I'm planning on trying a new design which puts the holes off-centered and all the way through the tube to see if I can find a way to comfortably bolt the sensor to the hat so it can be removed to wash the hat after a long sweaty game.    The tower could also be mounted to a strong headband like the ESS headband, but I've yet to find a source for such a critter....and I've seriously been looking.   Welp...that's it for now....need to get some sleep for tommorrow!                         Here are the pictures I promised of some of the gun shells I'm considering converting. I guess I should probably sweep the kitchen floor before I use it for a background again next time! Anyway...thought the top was a distorted MP5, but I guess it is closer to a G36 The bottom gun doesn't seem to match anything I can find on the market, so I will just call it a full size assult rifle.. The WoW rifle is just there to give you a size approximation. Notice that the nozzle from a LC UltraWide fits perfectly in the end of the gun muzzle! This makes this gun good for that size of a lense system...won't make a "GOD GUN" but will make a good stock gun.   Here is a picture of the gun dissassembled. Notice that there is PLENTY of room in the gun stock for batteries and electronics,  I didn't take any close ups but the trigger can fairly easily be used to open and close a microswitch.  The ammo clip is a standard size and I'm relatively sure that extra clips could be bought, this could be used to house a simple I2C memory chip circuit that could hold be programmed to simulate different amounts and types of ammunition.......or the clip could be used to make an easily changed out battery pack. If you want to leave any comments on this...use the BLT CAT forum... >>CLICK HERE FOR BLT CAT FORUM<<   Here is a photo showing the guns again.   In the middle you see the assult rifle with the original barrel on it.   Here are some other guns I'm thinking of converting.  The WoW pistol in the middle is just for size comparison.    The gun on the left which Iwill call the ROBOCOP gun, can be converted, but would be only good for encounters with people withing 20-50 feet of you.   The gun in the upper right would make a cool gun, it already has an electronic trigger and a lensed front (although the lense on it would have to be changed).  Plenty of room for electronics, speaker, and battery (already has a battery holder built in)...the only draw back is that the case has more screws on it then a battleship! If you want to leave any comments on this...use the BLT CAT forum... >>CLICK HERE FOR BLT CAT FORUM<<   OH!   And here is my the casing for my "GOD GUN" contribution to the tag community...    Hoping to make this one....SWEEEEEEEEEET! I can dream can't I? BTW....there is a guy selling these in the TAG SPORT CLASSIFIEDS, under GUN SHELLS.