Originally, this mod was intended to be a TASC (I forgot what the letters stand for :), designed by Hawkewood. He helped me with several vital modifications in the beginning, but the TASC project was put on indefinite hold, and so my mod also was put on hold. Finally, after almost 2 years of gathering dust, I decided to just bring it up to base functionality. For that reason, I do not call this mod a TASC. I call this the BLAST mod, because it does not have all the fancy features that were planned for the TASC, it is merely LTTO Deluxe guts inside a Tiger Lazer Tag BLAST shell. If the TASC project is ever revitalized, I will continue my work on this unit until it is a fully fledged TASC unit. Until then, here are photos detailing the current mod.
As you can see, the BLAST Mod is mostly the same as the original BLAST toy. The most obvious modification is the new control panel cut into the side of the BLAST shell so that there is somewhere to have the LTTO Deluxe controls.
This photograph with a TMB is the easiest way to show how big the BLAST unit is. For those who don't have a TMB on hand, the BLAST is exactly 30" (2.5 feet) long.
This photo shows the control panel up close, so that you can see how the side of the BLAST was cut away. The Deluxe screen and keypad were installed into a piece of sheet plastic, which was then sized and fitted to the inside of the BLAST shell. This modification was one of Hawkewood's main mod ideas. A coat of black paint on the plastic piece and it almost looks like it was designed that way. The BLAST buttons and triggers have also been used. The main trigger is still the main trigger. The button below that was a "max blast" type function, which has been assigned to the shield button as on other LTTO taggers. The button at the thumb is the reload button, and the function button for the Deluxe is what used to be the BLAST Mute button. Note that the On/Off switch is not in use at this time, and is actually just glued in place inside so that there isn't a hole there. In the future, the switch may be used to enable/disable a feature in the TASC design. The 7 segment LED counter is also not used for anything, and is just there to keep the BLAST looking good.
Here we have the view through the BLAST sight, showing the red dot just as it flashed. Unfortunately, the dot is not bright enough to see when it is not locked on and flashing, so I added a dot and cross hairs on the two plastic pieces in the BLAST sight, to help line up the sight during daylight hours. As soon as the aim is true, the lock on will start flashing, ready to land a tag. (sorry for the bad focus)
The business end of the BLAST. You can clearly see the main emitter lens in the center of the barrel assembly, as well as the newly added receiver barrel for lock on and hit confirmation signals. The receiver barrel and widening of the aperture around the main emitter barrel are both thanks to Hawkewood.
Finally, for now, a close up of the beacon/receiver dome, another of Hawkewood's instructions. The dome itself is the original Deluxe dome, but the black part holding it in was from the BLAST. By chopping up the BLAST's dome, we were able to hold the Deluxe's dome firmly in place without any glue or fasteners. The speaker is the original BLAST speaker, wired in place of the Deluxe's original speaker, and it sounds great!
Ok, I did a range test with my son, and I'm quite happy with the range. I stopped locking on long before I exceeded range, but that's 'cus the lock on lens is much smaller than the emitter lens.
There were two primary factors at work on my range today. One, it was overcast. I've heard that the bouncing sunlight on an overcast day can add noise to the sensor and reduce effective range. The second, and I think much more important factor, was the sight. In a word, the sight on the BLAST sucks. My makeshift solution to a lack of a dot when aiming (dot on rear, cross on front "lens" of the sights) was problematic. As soon as I got them lined up in my near-vision, and switched to focus on my target, I would lose the alignment of the sight. I ended up just shooting tight circles around my target when the range got really long. I believe that if I were to remove the BLAST's stock aimpoint and put a real rail on it and mounted a real aimpoint or mag scope, I could probably get another 100' out of it, if not more. As we all know, the center of the beam is the most potent, so accuracy at long range is crucial.
So... without further ado, the range tested this afternoon was approxomately 550', according to where I and my target were standing and Google Earth.
