Just got finished reading the 3rd part of your DuinoTag article. I can see you put a lot of thought into this. Good job. I am looking at this to use this as a base for our Laser Tag group to make our own gear. I was working on something similar for the Arduino, but, I put that on hold when I saw the first part of your Article.

Good luck with your project! Keep me posted on how it goes, and I’ll certainly post links.

Jamel,

Thanks for coming by. I’m happy to offer any advice I can.

The normal, pre-built Arduino board runs about $35 bucks, pretty much anywhere you go. This is easily the most expensive part of the gun, but you can use that same board as the brain for any number of other projects.If you shop around, you can sometimes save a buck or two.

The rest of the electronic components can be had for just a few dollars, and I’ve assembled some component kits that are reasonably priced. If you wanted to buy the parts yourself, you can get them for a little less if you shop around online, but the added shipping may not make it worth your while.

If you had a board, and the parts listed in the parts kit, you would only need some wire, a short length of PVC pipe, and a gun chassis. If you re-purpose an old toy gun chassis, then there isn’t really any significant cost. But if you wanted to build something slick and custom, you could spend much more if you wanted machined or custom molded parts. If you have the tools already, you should easily be able to assemble a gun from stock parts and an old toy gun for under fifty bucks. There are options out there that would reduce this number to about 30 bucks, once you’re comfortable using the Arduino board and can move to something more complicated (self-assembled, Freeduino, etc).

Making the Receiver separate from the gun wouldn’t be much of a challenge really. The IR sensor, and it’s associated resistor and capacitor, fit nicely onto a small perf board, and you’d just need a length of wire to connect it to the gun. You wouldn’t really even need a housing for it, but I would recommend one. If you look at how the Miles Tag system is put together, they have multiple sensors for their system that are external.

My advice to you as a newbie is:

1 – For your first couple projects, buy the basic, pre-built Arduino board. Once you are accustomed to working with this, there are cheaper and smaller options out there, but you’ll enjoy your first project more if you start with something pre-assembled.

2 – Buy some extra parts. It’s likely that you’ll mess something up the first time around and THAT’S OK. Everyone does it. If you’ve got a couple extra component parts lying around (LEDs, etc) then breaking a component won’t keep you from proceeding.

3 – Use the Arduino resources. There’s a huge code library out there at http://arduino.cc and it’s filled with useful examples and tutorials.

4 – Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you can’t get something to work, look for help. There’s lots of people out there, just figuring this stuff out for themselves, just like you. So don’t feel shy about asking for help if you can’t get something to work right.

I, too, am a developer by trade. I had to learn a lot of things to put this project together, so I know right where you’re at. I’ve been really happy with what I’ve learned and how I’ve felt since the day I went from “I’ve never done anything like that before” to “I’m going to do this.”

Good luck! Keep me posted.

Duane,
Quick question. By any chance do you have any pictures of you finished board (what it looks like all soldered up). I went through the tutorial (just reading it this time through) and I understand, or least think I understand, the connections to the breadboard. I don’t quite get how you would attach everything more permanently.

Thanks.

Thanks Duane, this is way too exciting. Some friends and I are starting a street unrest theatre laser tag group, stage relevant quiet revolutions.

Hi, I am making a team fortress laser tag game, enough for 10 players. The guns will have seperate head sensors, waveshield sounds, lights, vibration, and LCDs. There will be 5 classes (scout, soldier, medic, HWguy, sniper) and 4 flags that you spawn at, capture and do research for upgrades. It’s quite exciting. I’m currently stuck on the prototype because the emitter using the tutorial you posted is not working. I can get my sony remote to report bad bits, so that tells me the rcvr and hardware/software are working and it must be the emitter fire software or hardware. I can see the emitters light up w/ my digi cam, but not working. I’m using VISHAY parts, TSOP4138 rcvr and TSOP6100 sender IR LED. Any ideas??? I know the IR LED probably needs more current then the micro can provide so I probably need to use mosfets or something to boost it over 40mA.

Help make my dream a reality?

Would it be possible to add a scoring system into the code, which would be able to be transfered to the ref gun at the end of the game, and then to a laptop in a text document or something along those lines.

Hi Zachtos – did you ever get your problem solved. I’m having the same issues with a similar setup… Thanks!