Mini breaking paint in hopper.

[<IONFREAK>]

I have had my mini almost a month now and when i first shot it i used my halo and it was doing great. then when i shot some more it started going everywhere. I thought no biggy its probably a barrel break... nope. I looked in my halo and there was paint everywhere. took it apart, cleaned it, shot it, and it happend again. By this point i was starting to get pissed. The next practice i had to resort to a VL 200 gravity fed hopper because of this recurring problem. I was still getting barrel breaks so i bought a new hopper (VLocity Jr.) and a barrel kit (PL Sceptor). The next practice (today) was the first time for me to use my new hopper and barrel kit and while it was shooting straight it still broke paint in the hopper. So i decied to try my hopper and barrel kit on my ion. worked flawlessly. This is what confused me beacuse its not my hopper and i couldn't think of what my gun could be doing to cause paint to break in my hopper. I have absolutly no blowback (i tested this with the trusty ole' tissue on feedneck). My guess is that when shooting the bolt hits the bottom of the next ball in the stack causeing it to put extra pressure inside the feedneck on the balls causeing them to break and get into the hopper. Please tell me if this is even close to logical answer to my problem and how could i fix it?

My settings are:
Input pressure- 200psi
Dwell- 26 (tried on 28 but i had more barrel breaks and even worse efficiency then i already have)

Thats another thing. I have heard of people getting up to 1000+ shots per 45/45 fill. This is an ungodly high number i belive but i'm getting better efficiency with my ion. And thats just bad. especicaly for a poppet compared to a spool. Please also give comments on this issue to.

Thanks for devoting your time to this... if you read it all. :dodgy:

[splatter effect]

Try setting your Velocity to the lowest setting so it's easy on the paint. You should break in your gun too. No Hopper, No paint, Just air and put it on NXL full auto for a full tank or two to break in the spring. That should help you with your problem.

[Uziel Gal]

It's a VLocity Jr. so stock, it's non-adjustable.

[<IONFREAK>]

It was fine on my ion so i know the vlocity was not the problem with the tension. and i have shot probably 2 cases through it so the spring should start to be broken in, shouldn't it? Or does it take more like 6 cases?

[AmbushOrigin]

well as for paint being in the hopper i had that problem with my reloader B, was just bad batch of paint so it blended. Have you tried other paints in it?

[<IONFREAK>]

Yeah. the first time it was with Empire Ramp and the second was with RPS Premium (sp?). Didn't try with the Ramp but the RPS only broke with the vlocity on the mini not the ion.

[AmbushOrigin]

are the eyes turned on, on the mini? thats only other problem i could really see, since your dwells about right. or what about the BIP...

[<IONFREAK>]

BIP is 6 which i know is more than high enough with a force fed. In fact thats the BIP setting i use on my gravity fed also. Its a nice little happy medium for both hoppers. Its not high enough to really slow it down any but its slow enough for a gravity fed.

[4x4le]

well, you gotta love that sceptor kit! Man, it really shoots through paint dont it? Anyways, have you ever taken the mini fully apart? Do you know if the little check valve fell out? That can cause it. After you get breaks/chops, I would make sure the eyes are clean and that the detents are clean and not sticking. The slit in the back of the feedneck will make the tissue test lest accurate so try 2 paintballs in the feedneck, if when you shoot the one blows out of the feedneck, you have too much blowback. I never have used more than 1 bip.

[jmac{NT}08]

You might have a bad board. When I first got my mini I had the board problem with the battery draining and the eyes not working on psp and NXL modes.

[<IONFREAK>]

Yeah the sceptor kit is great and it does shoot through breaks but that doesn't help to much when every ball in the hopper has paint on it.

I took the mini apart the first day i had it. I had seen the videos so i wasn't oblivious to what i was doing and theres not too many parts inside so theres not to much too loose. Even still i took it apart on top of a white towel so if anything did fall i could have easily seen it.

My eyes was clean and still are after all the paint going through there.

I just got my mini 2/22/07 so i know it wasn't a bad board and i have already looked to make sure it was the optimas v1.2. Its not draining batteries either. And i always have it on "clicking" the solenoid. Could that affect anything performance wise?

EDIT: I tried the tissue test again and this time i put tape over the slit in the feedneck. It had blowback but not much. Only enough to make the top ball of the 2 bounce out. Is that enough to make it break paint? And how do i fix this? Turn down the input pressure while opening the valve more?

[lear-pilot]

this almost sounds like the problem I am currently having with my mini, lots of breakage, I have tried 3 different hoppers 4 barrows, I have my dwell at 26 bps 20 and eyes on 1, i have tried to turn the input pressure to about 150-175 same thing, I have also tried like 5 different kinds and quality of balls same thing, I cant get a hopper though with out breakage that is very sad, I have tried all modes too, and yes I have the v1.2 board, and my gas useage is very high, when i had a tank on i turned the imput pressure all the way off to make sure it was zero and it was, I am starting to run out of things to blame it on other then the gun itself, I have called the help line and they are saying it must be your balls, perhaps if i shoot marbles they wont chop

[4x4le]

it is still possible that you lost your check valve then. It is white and uber small. Look at that page that someone posted labled disasembly guide. On that page there is a pic of the valve and where its located. It is very important. Plus I have been hearing tons of problems with halos and reloaders and pulses..... I have had no problems with my egg and vlosity jr. I just installed the blitz chip in my velosity and I will see if I have any toubles on full force.

[protofreak]

4 barrows

thats funny try a cheaper paint some thing with a thick shell i mean really cheap walmart cheap

[trolleyman98]

like stryker

[lear-pilot]

yup the check valve is MIA that for the 411

[<IONFREAK>]

Yeah my check valve is gone. They should make an important piece like that more noticable in the manual. They have that small *** black ink that you can barely F***ING read!

Anyways... do i have to contact invert now just to get that one little piece?

[protofreak]

dude how the hell can u lose a piece like that

[lear-pilot]

I called paintball solutions, (invert told me to contact them) and guess what, they dont have any mini parts they can send, so they want me to sent them the gun, hmmm that makes a lot of sense, one little check valve and a stamp or waste the time of a teck and the cost of mailing the whole gun and box. I wounder what is more costly for them? hmmm i wounder

[4x4le]

I called paintball solutions, (invert told me to contact them) and guess what, they dont have any mini parts they can send, so they want me to sent them the gun, hmmm that makes a lot of sense, one little check valve and a stamp or waste the time of a teck and the cost of mailing the whole gun and box. I wounder what is more costly for them? hmmm i wounder

To be more cost effective, humm, maybe actually......
To be honest, People like me would have me and a couple of friends call telling them to send them out just so I could have a few extras. Im considering removing mine and sending it in after I play this weekend just so I can have a spare...... But I might just wait till the boss can get me some extra spare parts.

[<IONFREAK>]

Yeah i e-mailed invert asking how i could go about getting a new check valve and they replied saying that it will be $3.95 not including shipping or i could send my gun in for warranty work but it would still be just as much and i would be out of a gun. besides my ion. which at the moment is performing better anyways.

[protofreak]

new valve= 3.95
shipping= 10.00
shipping insurence= 5.00
losing the new valve= priceless

[4x4le]

So id defenatially just have them send it to me.... I guess its not warrenty work since they are saying that you lost it. Im thinking about ordering 1 just because it would be nice to have. That even though it is cheep, is kinda steep for all it is!

[protofreak]

some post a pic of the valve i cant find one

[4x4le]

dude, go to the mini disasembly guide thred on here, its on that page

[<IONFREAK>]

I already sent my mini in. Since i e-mailed invert and the warranty serive goes to paintball solutions they probably won't make a connection between my e-mail and my mini. Plus i put a note in the package saying that it needs warranty work for a new check valve and it didn't have one in the first place.

[4skins23]

I had the same problem with our mini, I just took it back and bought something different. It's too bad this company doesn't have their stuff together, because this mini is really a nice gun. It doesn't sound like the customer service is that great. EVERYTHING should be paid for,shipping included,its not your fault the marker was broken when you bought it.

[<IONFREAK>]

Yeah but its a new gun and it understandable to have problems but i just sent it back thursday so if its broke when it get it back its going back to where i bought it from.

[protofreak]

did you get it from cp or somplace else

[<IONFREAK>]

i got it from www.paintballgateway.com (http://www.paintballgateway.com) they do really good business. you can't blame the distributor for the manufatorer's mistakes.