JaremyRykker
06-17-2004, 02:26 PM
With my experiences with the A-5, I found this article recently on the A-5 Owner's Group (www.a5ownersgroup.com), and wholeheartedly agree with its analysis of the A-5. For those of you who haven't used the A-5, please read this and you will better understand the qualities that the A-5 has as well as many of the common misconceptions about it.
By Kreeper-X Updated 04-04-2003 Overall: 5 out of 5 in it's class.
I've discovered, since the release of Tippmanns' latest marker, that there are a lot of misconceptions about the A-5.
One of the first things people said, before ever even seeing one in person was that the Cyclone feeder was far too large and made for a "huge" target on the right hand side of the marker. As you will read later on in this article, that's not true at all.
The prevailing "wisdom" among those who don't own the A-5 is that it's nothing more than a "rehash of the Model 98 Custom with a fancy hopper" and that there are few, if any, improvements to the overall performance of what's looked at by many in the paintball community as "just another Tippmann blow back semi."
It is for these people that I write this article.
The Similarities
Looking strictly at the design of the marker, the A-5 is what Tippmann has perfected and does best, an open-bolt blow-back semi-automatic paintball marker utilizing Tippmanns' extremely versatile CVX valve. The design is simple and extremely durable, so much so that Tippmann has changed very little in the valve and bolt system design since the 68 Carbine was released some time ago.
Like all modern Tippmann markers, the A-5 utilizes a rear bolt that is driven forward by a drive spring and returned to the ready position by blow-back gasses. The front bolt which opens and closes the breech and releases gas into the barrel is connected to the rear bolt by a linkage arm. As the rear bolt comes forward to strike the valve pin and release the gas, the front bolt forces the paintball into the breech and seals off the barrel before releasing a burst of gas into the barrel, launching the paintball.
The A-5 also uses Tippmanns' old velocity adjustment screw which works not by changing the gas output of the valve, but creating turbulence in the power tube, slowing the air down. This system wastes some gas and a good Rear Velocity Adjuster will fix this.
The Look
Once you get past the basic operation of the A-5, the similarities with the Model 98 begin to end the differences become apparent.
The very first thing that anyone notices about the new Tippmann A-5 is the look of the marker. The M98 and M98c really didn't look all that great in my opinion but they were far from ugly (except those darned gills on the M98. The A-5 has a decidedly "real world" look to it without a hopper and tank on it, resembling an H&K MP5 right down the foregrip, cocking knob and trigger grip frame. Players need not worry about being arrested though, as the A-5 with the Cyclone and a hopper and a tank looks less like a real firearm and more like a paintball marker.
Also noticeable is the MP5 style trigger grip frame which is made primarily for right handed players. Some people prefer 45 style grips so Tippmann made the grip frame removable to accommodate 45 grips or aftermarket Lefty grip frames. J&J performance is working on an aluminum 45 style grip, and Tippmann has recently released an electronic sear tripping E-Grip. The stock A-5 grip frame is made of a plastic polymer to reduce weight, but it's not just cheap plastic, it's ballistics quality stuff and can take a serious amount of abuse.
In fact, a lot of the A-5 is "plastic" instead of aluminum both because of cost and weight. The grip frame and foregrip as well as the main cyclone body and cocking knob are plastic. This reduces weight, so it's not a bad thing, though some people are scared to death of plastic. Tippmann made this marker to last and you need not worry, it's not a Brass Eagle marker after all, it's a Tippmann Marker and we all know how Tippmann stand behind the products they make.
The overall size of the A-5 is a little longer than the M98c and a bit heaver, but this is because the M98c is weighed without a revy hopper and the A-5 has the Cyclone built in. However, due to the low profile and the fact that the hopper and Cyclone feeder fit so close to the marker, the A-5 has a better overall balance to it than the M98c.
The Cyclone Feed System
The second thing that they notice is the Cyclone Feed System, which looks like about half of a soda can with a five arm "star" agitator inside it. The Cyclone Feed System resembles the Star Feed System on the old Tippmann Factory F/A markers from the mid nineties. In fact the Cyclone is the next generation of the same feed system.
The Factory F/A was a fully mechanical Full-Auto paintball marker that, for the most part, wasn't allowed on most fields or in tourneys, and Tippmann needed a reliable and fast feed system to keep up with the F/A, and they came up with the Star Feed system. The Star Feed system came only on the Tippmann Factory F/A markers and used spring tension to load paintballs into the breech each time the bolt opened when a shot was fired. The paintballs rest in the gap of the star arm and as the bolt opens, the feeder turns one stepand loads a paintball into the breech.
The main problems were that the F/A had some timing issues with the delay sears and shocks so the marker could fall out of time and become a blender and everytime you filled the hopper, you had to turn a crank on the bottom of the Star Feed that wound the pring so the marker could fire another 150 rounds before doing it all over again. These problems were solved by Tippmann by linking the Star Feed to a gas powered piston and thus the Cyclone Feed System was born.
The cyclone Feed System works by directing a small portion of the excess blowback gas released by the CVX valve into a piston which forces the cyclone to turn one step. So each time you pull the trigger a paintball is force fed into the chamber and ready for firing again. No matter how fast you shoot, the cyclone loads the next ball just as fast. A common misconception about the Cyclone is that it sucks up extra gas, this is not true, the Cyclone requires a small amount of gas that is normally wasted in the normal operation of a Tippmann blow back.
The Cyclone main body is connected to the marker by a single bolt on the left and two guide pins on the right side and connected to the CVX valve via a valve tap and banjo fitting. There is also a cylinder that houses both the air piston that works the Cyclone and a manual feed knob that you use to force the first paintball into the breach at the beginning of a game.
As paintballs fall into the main feed body, they fall into one of five "star slots" that effectively pre-load the next five shots and keeps them in stand-bye to be fired, just like a gumball machine. As the trigger is pulled, the cyclone advances the "star" one step, forcing the next paintball into the chamber.
The Cyclone acts as a force-feed system, not just an agitating hopper and was factory tested to 16bps and it can handle every bit of that and then some, though you will have to get the Tippmann Reactive Trigger Kit or E-Grip as well as a good flowing High Pressure Air (HPA) tank to realize that potential. To see the A-5 RT w/HPA in action, CLICK HERE and then download the video.
Some of the earlier Cyclone Feed Systems could malfunction when used with HPA or in markers that cycled a ton of paint on a consistant basis, so Tippmann released a Cyclone Upgrade that fixes these problems and will install it free of charge if you send the marker to them or they'll send you the parts if you feel secure enough to install them yourself.
The hopper for the A-5 is a little different looking and has an odd flat face, but it functions just as well as any other hopper. There were reports of Early A-5s having hopper that would break if they took a direct hit from a paintball. These hoppers will be replaced by Tippmann for free if you do break one, and Tippmann has replaced the old plastic hopper with a stronger hopper made with thicker plastic on all new A-5s leaving the factory.
Now a lot of people have been yelling about the size of the cyclone system and how much larger it is that a "normal" hopper such as a Revolution or Evolution. But the facts are that the hopper has a lower profile and is tighter to the marker than any other marker on the market. The Hopper sits a full two inches lower on the A-5 than on a Model 98 with a Revolution on it. the hopper itself is smaller than a revy, only holding slightly more than 160 rounds, but the size difference is really telling. Check out the Cyclone Size Review, also on this reviews page, to see the pictures for yourself.
By Kreeper-X Updated 04-04-2003 Overall: 5 out of 5 in it's class.
I've discovered, since the release of Tippmanns' latest marker, that there are a lot of misconceptions about the A-5.
One of the first things people said, before ever even seeing one in person was that the Cyclone feeder was far too large and made for a "huge" target on the right hand side of the marker. As you will read later on in this article, that's not true at all.
The prevailing "wisdom" among those who don't own the A-5 is that it's nothing more than a "rehash of the Model 98 Custom with a fancy hopper" and that there are few, if any, improvements to the overall performance of what's looked at by many in the paintball community as "just another Tippmann blow back semi."
It is for these people that I write this article.
The Similarities
Looking strictly at the design of the marker, the A-5 is what Tippmann has perfected and does best, an open-bolt blow-back semi-automatic paintball marker utilizing Tippmanns' extremely versatile CVX valve. The design is simple and extremely durable, so much so that Tippmann has changed very little in the valve and bolt system design since the 68 Carbine was released some time ago.
Like all modern Tippmann markers, the A-5 utilizes a rear bolt that is driven forward by a drive spring and returned to the ready position by blow-back gasses. The front bolt which opens and closes the breech and releases gas into the barrel is connected to the rear bolt by a linkage arm. As the rear bolt comes forward to strike the valve pin and release the gas, the front bolt forces the paintball into the breech and seals off the barrel before releasing a burst of gas into the barrel, launching the paintball.
The A-5 also uses Tippmanns' old velocity adjustment screw which works not by changing the gas output of the valve, but creating turbulence in the power tube, slowing the air down. This system wastes some gas and a good Rear Velocity Adjuster will fix this.
The Look
Once you get past the basic operation of the A-5, the similarities with the Model 98 begin to end the differences become apparent.
The very first thing that anyone notices about the new Tippmann A-5 is the look of the marker. The M98 and M98c really didn't look all that great in my opinion but they were far from ugly (except those darned gills on the M98. The A-5 has a decidedly "real world" look to it without a hopper and tank on it, resembling an H&K MP5 right down the foregrip, cocking knob and trigger grip frame. Players need not worry about being arrested though, as the A-5 with the Cyclone and a hopper and a tank looks less like a real firearm and more like a paintball marker.
Also noticeable is the MP5 style trigger grip frame which is made primarily for right handed players. Some people prefer 45 style grips so Tippmann made the grip frame removable to accommodate 45 grips or aftermarket Lefty grip frames. J&J performance is working on an aluminum 45 style grip, and Tippmann has recently released an electronic sear tripping E-Grip. The stock A-5 grip frame is made of a plastic polymer to reduce weight, but it's not just cheap plastic, it's ballistics quality stuff and can take a serious amount of abuse.
In fact, a lot of the A-5 is "plastic" instead of aluminum both because of cost and weight. The grip frame and foregrip as well as the main cyclone body and cocking knob are plastic. This reduces weight, so it's not a bad thing, though some people are scared to death of plastic. Tippmann made this marker to last and you need not worry, it's not a Brass Eagle marker after all, it's a Tippmann Marker and we all know how Tippmann stand behind the products they make.
The overall size of the A-5 is a little longer than the M98c and a bit heaver, but this is because the M98c is weighed without a revy hopper and the A-5 has the Cyclone built in. However, due to the low profile and the fact that the hopper and Cyclone feeder fit so close to the marker, the A-5 has a better overall balance to it than the M98c.
The Cyclone Feed System
The second thing that they notice is the Cyclone Feed System, which looks like about half of a soda can with a five arm "star" agitator inside it. The Cyclone Feed System resembles the Star Feed System on the old Tippmann Factory F/A markers from the mid nineties. In fact the Cyclone is the next generation of the same feed system.
The Factory F/A was a fully mechanical Full-Auto paintball marker that, for the most part, wasn't allowed on most fields or in tourneys, and Tippmann needed a reliable and fast feed system to keep up with the F/A, and they came up with the Star Feed system. The Star Feed system came only on the Tippmann Factory F/A markers and used spring tension to load paintballs into the breech each time the bolt opened when a shot was fired. The paintballs rest in the gap of the star arm and as the bolt opens, the feeder turns one stepand loads a paintball into the breech.
The main problems were that the F/A had some timing issues with the delay sears and shocks so the marker could fall out of time and become a blender and everytime you filled the hopper, you had to turn a crank on the bottom of the Star Feed that wound the pring so the marker could fire another 150 rounds before doing it all over again. These problems were solved by Tippmann by linking the Star Feed to a gas powered piston and thus the Cyclone Feed System was born.
The cyclone Feed System works by directing a small portion of the excess blowback gas released by the CVX valve into a piston which forces the cyclone to turn one step. So each time you pull the trigger a paintball is force fed into the chamber and ready for firing again. No matter how fast you shoot, the cyclone loads the next ball just as fast. A common misconception about the Cyclone is that it sucks up extra gas, this is not true, the Cyclone requires a small amount of gas that is normally wasted in the normal operation of a Tippmann blow back.
The Cyclone main body is connected to the marker by a single bolt on the left and two guide pins on the right side and connected to the CVX valve via a valve tap and banjo fitting. There is also a cylinder that houses both the air piston that works the Cyclone and a manual feed knob that you use to force the first paintball into the breach at the beginning of a game.
As paintballs fall into the main feed body, they fall into one of five "star slots" that effectively pre-load the next five shots and keeps them in stand-bye to be fired, just like a gumball machine. As the trigger is pulled, the cyclone advances the "star" one step, forcing the next paintball into the chamber.
The Cyclone acts as a force-feed system, not just an agitating hopper and was factory tested to 16bps and it can handle every bit of that and then some, though you will have to get the Tippmann Reactive Trigger Kit or E-Grip as well as a good flowing High Pressure Air (HPA) tank to realize that potential. To see the A-5 RT w/HPA in action, CLICK HERE and then download the video.
Some of the earlier Cyclone Feed Systems could malfunction when used with HPA or in markers that cycled a ton of paint on a consistant basis, so Tippmann released a Cyclone Upgrade that fixes these problems and will install it free of charge if you send the marker to them or they'll send you the parts if you feel secure enough to install them yourself.
The hopper for the A-5 is a little different looking and has an odd flat face, but it functions just as well as any other hopper. There were reports of Early A-5s having hopper that would break if they took a direct hit from a paintball. These hoppers will be replaced by Tippmann for free if you do break one, and Tippmann has replaced the old plastic hopper with a stronger hopper made with thicker plastic on all new A-5s leaving the factory.
Now a lot of people have been yelling about the size of the cyclone system and how much larger it is that a "normal" hopper such as a Revolution or Evolution. But the facts are that the hopper has a lower profile and is tighter to the marker than any other marker on the market. The Hopper sits a full two inches lower on the A-5 than on a Model 98 with a Revolution on it. the hopper itself is smaller than a revy, only holding slightly more than 160 rounds, but the size difference is really telling. Check out the Cyclone Size Review, also on this reviews page, to see the pictures for yourself.