External Sensors Mark 2

by Bill Hindley

After my intial euphoria over the extra sensor mods I found that either helmet sensor or Tagger unit would register hits but not both. Gloom and dispondency? After much searching and going through mod suggestions from various people, I decided to go for the jugular and test out the common anode/cathode theory. Not having the suggested screened cable of small enough dia. to pass under the battery comp clamp I returned to my youth and remembered something about twisted pairs and grounding one cable. Found the mysterious extra sensor connection point to be the coil L1 (l/h lead near to capacitor C15) Thanks to the pinouts of the Rumble port I only had to add two leads, plus the twisted pair to the sensor dome and connect to Rumble port socket.

Until Spare Sensor units become available you will have to sacrifice one set of Team Ops deluxe to perform this Mod. Not likely in the UK until 2006!!! As Hasbro only seems to concentrate on the US market.

Someone has said that the external mod would require a screened lead. Not have such a lead small enough to fit under the battery compartment clamp, I decided to test out a twisted pair and to my surprise and delight it worked.

How to do the mod:

  1. Carefully remove all screws, remembering to unscrew moulding at base of handle, gently prise apart mouldings. Do this on two tagger units.
  2. Remove battery holders.
  3. Remove the two lugs of the Rumble socket in the base of handle using a small chisel or knife to allow the standard HUD plug to fit. Colour coding will be required to prevent mixing External Sensor Mod lead and Helmet speaker lead connections.
  4. Remove one Sensor dome from casing and cut all 5 leads midway from LCD panel and sensor. This Sensor will be later fitted to helmet.
  5. Remove sensor dome from second unit and cut orange and green leads midway between sensor pcb and LCD pcb.
  6. Cut two cables, (10/0.1mm), green and orange approx. 6 inches long, and solder ends to cut wires of corresponding colour to wires from sensor pcb. Fit heat shrink to joint and solder ends to cables to LCD pcb and cover joint with heat shrink sleeve.
  7. Take yellow and black cable (10/0.1) approx. 6 inches long, twist together as a pair . Attach to sensor dome pcb as follows. Yellow to coil L1( lead on l/h side closest to capacitor C15). Black to Ground 1 or 2 .
  8. Remove battery bypass clamp, clipping off l/h corner to make re-assembly easier. Dress green, orange and yellow/black twisted pair into channel. Replace battery clamp bracket, taking care not to snare cables.
  9. Cut brown and white cables to Rumble socket, connect and heat shrink sleeve orange and green from sensor pcb as follows; (orange to white and green to brown)
  10. Carefully tweeze redundant yellow socket pin from socket by gently lifting up white retaining lug and push out socket and discard. From trashed gun remove any spare lead from Rumble socket and insert into, now empty 'Yellow' position, connect end, and sleeve, to yellow of twisted pair from sensor dome pcb. Cut green lead to Rumble socket and connect black from twisted pair the ends of green (Ground) and sleeve with heart shrink re-connect other end of cut green wire
  11. Tagger unit mod is now complete.

Tagger Unit wiring Diagram

Mod to HUD

  1. Undo all screws from HUD units and remove cable with socket attached, cutting lead approx. 2 inches from sheathing. Remove lead from second HUD and strip off outer sheath, cutting all but red & green leads. Unsolder leads to speaker and remove mouldings, re-solder speaker (to fit in helmet later )
  2. Taking socket with cut leads 2 inches from sheathing and connect to sensor dome removed from Tagger unit earlier as follows:

  3. We took a White Water AP2000 helmet, cut a 34mm hole in top and glued in sensor, as in photo, using hot melt and araldite (Apoxy Resin) Metal roofing clamp modified and fitted to prevent possible damage to dome was added.

  4. Speaker unit was then glued in r/h of helmet and connected to HUD socket.

We now have a unit capable of receiving hits from both tagger unit and helmet, plus audio signals to speaker in the helmet. We have modified 16 units to enable same number to participate in games at the Camp Site. I think this is a great game for young people and adults alike, with the greater chance of all round hits and less likely for those who try and cheat.

Estimated modification times;

Oh yes, and when Hasbro decide to make separate sensor available in the UK we have 16 units to fit them into!

Still have to work out how to play all the hosted games, as I am not of the junior age bracket who can pick up TV video re mote controls very easily!!

Many thanks to Tiger Electronics and Shoot the Moon for a fantastic product. Also to Greg Gaub and Tag Ferret for all the background info to enable me to work out how to achieve the end result.

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