A poster at the LTAG board using the nickname "TylerDurden" had a clever idea for a mod for a Deluxe tagger. By connecting the wire that blinks the Lock-on indicator LED to the wire that comes from the trigger, whenever the tagger gets a lock on an opponent (or any other tagger, actually), it will automatically fire! While this would seem to give the player with that tagger a distinct advantage, it also gives them a disadvantage in team games because it will tag a teammate just as quickly. It also doesn't launch tags as fast as a person can, since when a hit confirmation is detected, the hit confirm LED blinks instead of the lock-on LED. Still, such a mod adds a small advantage to that tagger... but I also happen to have a tagger that has a bit of a handicap: My "Reload Button Mod" tagger from a while ago. The reload button mod actually makes the tagger more awkward and difficult to reload, especially for kids. So to even things out a little for the kid who gets that tagger, I'm implementing the Auto-Fire-On-Lock mod. This will be my only tagger with this mod, though.
The following picture shows a sort of testing phase of the mod. The first part of the mod is stripping away a small portion of the white wire coming from the trigger board, as well as a small portion of the pink wire on the second ribbon (the one further away from the top edge of the board) of the HUD board in the tagger's handle. That's the wire that controls the lock-on LED in the HUD. In this experimental step, a connection between those two wires is made with a temporary wire. By connecting this wire AFTER an LTAG game is started on the tagger being modded, you can verify that a lock-on will trigger the tagger to launch a tag by holding up another tagger in LTAG mode.
The main problem is that at this point, the REAL trigger is no longer functional, and the mod is also always on. A diode is needed to allow the real trigger to work in conjunction with the lock-on triggering, and a switch is needed to be able to disable the mod when needed or desired. Since I wanted a switch, I needed to find a suitable location for it. It can't be in the handle where someone will be gripping the tagger, because after a while, it would irratate the skin of the hand, or even get switched off or on accidentally. After a bit of searching for spots big enough for the switch I had (left over from the IRT-2x I gutted for my Starbase mod), I found this spot in front of the trigger. With a little dremeling, I made a nice opening for the switch to stick through.
The next step is to add the diode (a RadioShack #276-1101, 1N4001 Micromini Silicon Diode, 50V 1A) and switch in the loop of wire for testing. The diode will provide the appropriate load/resistance (or something like that) on the line so that the trigger will still work normally. Without it, the trigger stops working, and you won't be able to fire without a lock-on, or even start a game easily. The switch is so that this modification can be disabled if the user is advanced enough to not need it, or wishes to prevent unwanted team tags. Here's a photo of the diode and switch temporarily in place for testing.
I then glued down the switch, soldered the temporary connections, and put black electrical tape over them. I ran the wires from the switch in the channel where other wires already are, and dropped a little superglue in there to help keep them in place. With a little folding, wrapping and tucking, I got all the wires and stuff in places where they shouldn't interfere with reassembling the tagger halves. I will note that using superglue on the switch wasn't the best choice. While I didn't put the glue anywhere detrimental, capillary action caused some glue to go up inside the switch. Fortunately, I caught it before it was completely cured, and was able to break the glue. I would recommend a more gelatinous glue, or hot glue to hold the switch in place.
With everything in place, we can reassemble the tagger, and get back into the action! From the outside of the tagger, all that is seen is the switch to turn auto-fire-on-lock on or off.
I hope you enjoy this mod, and use it wisely. Some ideas include connecting the modded tagger to some kind of rotating or oscillating system to guard an area by automatically firing at any opponent that enters its sights. Or, if some kind of motion tracking device is found or made, then the tagger could be mounted to that. Thanks go to the man a.k.a. TylerDurden for the idea for this mod. May he continue coming up with such things.