General Review
The Rapidstrike is an automatic flywheel-type blaster. The flywheels have ben optimized for maximum performance and minimum damage to the darts, making power mods pointless. It is already rather powerful, anyway. It has an accuracy of about a 6 foot radius at 30 feet in stock form, giving it a substantial, but not very useful, range. At 15 feet it gets about a 2 foot radius.
Unmodified, this blaster is most useful as a dogfight/swarm blaster, but its weight and bulkiness make the Rampage significantly better for this task. Even for $40 at Target, this blaster is not quite worth the money.
The best advice I can give is that it's best if you use the jam door to stop the flywheels instead of letting them just coast. Holding down the acceleration trigger with the jam door open will create a closed circuit between the motor terminals, which quickly and forcefully stops the flywheels.
Reverse Engineering
This is a photo of the internals of the Rapidstrike from Coop772:
Safety Switches and Lockouts:
1. Forward Clip Sensor: No power flows when this is released.
2. Rear Clip Sensor: This is a mechanical lockout that keeps the launch trigger from being pulled.
3. Jam Door Switch: This switch is depressed when the jam door is open or partially open. It cuts off power to the flywheels, and also stops them when the door is opened.
4: Trigger-to-Trigger lockout: This is a mechanical lockout that keeps the launch trigger from being pulled when the acceleration trigger is not pressed.
Triggers:
1. Acceleration trigger: This cuts off all electrical connection from the flywheels when it is not pressed.
2. Launch trigger: Gives the dart advance system the command to cycle continuously.
More on the dart advance system:
The dart advance system is comprised of a motor, a gearbox, a crank, a shaft, and a switch. The switch is depressed once each cycle when the shaft is fully retracted, cutting power to the motor. The switch is wired in parallel with the launch trigger, so when the launch trigger is pulled, the recetion switch does not stop the cycle of the shaft. If the clip is removed mid-cycle, the forward clip sensor cuts all power and the cycle remains uncompleted until the forward clip sensor is depressed.
Modding Advice
The rapidstrike uses C-type batteries for a reason. It has the rating stated on the side of the blaster as 6V DC, 30W. The C batteries have lower internal resistance, and can uphold the high current demand of the blaster without too much voltage sag. I used a 9V rectangular battery for a while, but it made the blaster significantly less powerful. The only significant battery upgrade would be to install a large 2-cell lithium polymer battery (7.4V) with equivalent capacity, but this would be expensive and would only make the blaster lighter.
As I said earlier, the Rapidstrike does not get any benefit from power upgrades. This is because it has already been optimized in the tradeoff between lack of power and dart damage.
So, the only mod I did was an accuracy upgrade, which involved moving the rifled barrel section forward so it could do its job. The rifling actually does work, but only when the dart comes in contact with the side of the barrel. I moved the barrel forward, leaving an open space for the dart to traverse unsupported. The darts would occasionally prematurely veer off-course, resulting in a massive pileup where the barrel used to be. To remedy this, I added about 3 inches of barrel tubing from my old Recon, and that solved the problem. Since the barrel is now farther forward, the darts come in contact with its inside surface, doubling the blaster's accuracy.
Also, I have a personal preference to have an open area of casing instead of a closable jam door, so I removed the jam door.
I added the handle from my Retaliator to the lower rail to help support the hulking mass of plastic and metal that the Rapidstrike is, and I also added my 9-LED floodlight on the left side rail. It seems to be quite effective in blinding an opponent in low-light conditions.
I plan to make a custom high-capacity clip for the Rapidstrike, since it empties its current one so quickly. I have encountered some problems, but I hope I can solve them.
Feel free to comment any questions you may have, and I will reply as soon as I can.
Thank you! ~N-Strike Epic
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