Break beam eyes vs. Bounce beam eyes

[Jaredistheman]

What the difference?

[Algernon]

here's the short version. bounce beam, or reflective eyes (smart part's vision), as they are also known, emit a light into the breach of the marker. the eye is two peice and the second part of the eye reads, or measures, the optical density of the light in the breach. one part emits light and the other measures it. got it? the light is 'bounced' off of oposite side of the marker's beach and the eye measures what has been bounced back. if there is no paint balls in the breah, then the light reflected back should register at some minimum value that the marker knows to mean "there is no paintball in the breach", "do not let the marker fire" because that it what eye'd markers are suposed to do.

in the case that there is a paintball in the breach, the optical density of the light being illuminated from the eye will be reflected off of the paintball and will be much greater than the density in the breach with no paintball inside. the eye knows to read this increase in density to mean that there is a paintball in the breach and the marker can go ahead and fire. it works well enought, but it's overly complicated and is more prone to failing than a beam break anti chop system. things like the color of the shell of the paintball can affect the amount of light being reflected off of the paintball. in some cases dark colors of shell can absorb too large an amount of light (it's what dark colors do. hence 'dark') and the eye can be fooled into thinking there is not any paint in the breach when there is. the result? you pull the trigger and the marker refuses to fire becasue it thinks there is no paint in the breach. dirt and debris can also have negitive effects on the eye too.

beam break anti chop eyes consistis of one laser source 'eye' and another laser reciving 'eye' locaded on opposite sides of the breach. beam break eyes do not rely on optical densities of light, and that alone makes the anti chop system more robust. the beam break is like any other laser eye in that if anthing breaks the beam of laser light (hense break beam) the switch trips. paint color, grime and debris have little to no affect on beam break anti chop eyes. anti chop eyes are just much more reliable than the reflective (bounce beam) and much more fool proof.

[Jaredistheman]

Are break beam eyes hard to install, like if i wanted to do it myself?

[Cheungman]

yes

[Algernon]

Originally posted by Jaredistheman
Are break beam eyes hard to install, like if i wanted to do it myself?

it depends on the application. if you're T-boarding a spyder or clone then you probably could do it yourself if you had acces to a machine shop. careful measurments and drill press is really all you need. you're better off contracring it out IMO. eye alignment is key in a beam break system.

[Jaredistheman]

So my best bet is to give it to my local pro shop and ask if they can do it?

[Algernon]

yes, but you need a new boad first. you can't add eyes to the stock board.

[Jaredistheman]

I see, okay. Would you reccomend the tboard when it comes out?

[Algernon]

yes.