Tadao Raider board adjustment [ZDSPB Tech]

Tadao Raider board adjustment

Note: This is only a guide for HOW to adjust the board. Information regarding WHAT to set adjustments at can be found on the Setting Electronics and Pressure mainpage.

Upgrading: This is the current version of the Tadao Raider. No upgrades are necessary.

Original manual: Tadao Raider M7

Board Operation:
To activate the board, simply push the power button once (don't hold it). The white LED behind the power jewel will light up and the board will be instantly ready to fire with the eyes active. If the eyes detect a loaded ball in place, the board will allow you to fire; if there isn't a ball loaded then it won't fire. To deactivate the board, hold the power button in until the LED turns off (this will be after approximately two seconds).

As said, the eyes are enabled when the marker is activated. You can toggle between eyes on and off by pressing the power button at any time. The eyes will then be disabled and the board will be capped at whatever you set the max ROF at (in the timing section). When no ball has loaded (or no ball is detected), you can force a shot by holding the trigger for half a second. While the eyes are active, the maximum rate of fire will be unlimited.

LED patterns:
Solid LED: ball in place, ready to fire
Slow blinking LED: no ball loaded
Fast blinking LED: eyes fauted
Double blink LED: eyes disabled

The board tracks the movement of the bolt from shot to shot and uses this information to optimize the firing cycle, and tell if there's an eye problem or not. Therefore, if you aren't actually cycling the bolt with paint and air while the eyes are active (such as when you stick your finger in the breech to fool the eyes), the ROF will be put into fault mode and the max speed will be capped. The board will fire much faster when there is paint and air present.

Board Connectors:
Located on the back of the board are three female connectors to accept plugs for mods and other uses. The connectors are 1.25-mm Molex series plugs, same as the connectors used in AKALMP markers. This picture shows the three connectors and their use:

· Battery connector - This is used to plug in the 9 volt battery adapter for the board. This plug is required for the board's use.
· LED connector - This connector can be used to relocate the board indicator LED to someplace else on the marker. Wires plugged into this socket will operate another LED in addition to the main white one behind the ION jewel button.
· On/off connector - This connector can be used to relocate the board's power button to the rear of the frame, for example this can be used to connect a DM membrane pad.

Programming:
All settings are stored electronically. To adjust the programming, the tournament lock must be off. This is controlled by pressing a push-button switch on the front surface of the board. Pressing the switch toggles between locked and unlocked. When the board is locked, the programming LED will flash red; when unlocked the LED flashes green.

Programming button

1. To enter programming mode, turn the board on while holding the trigger. If you have done this successfully, the programming indicator LED will blink a variety of colors then hold solid green (this denotes the first setting in the programming mode).
2. The programming LED is used in correspondance with the trigger to adjust the settings. Clicking the trigger will cycle through a list of timing settings, each denoted by a different color on the LED. Once you reach the last setting, clicking the trigger once again will loop back to the first setting.
3. Once you arrive on your desired setting noted by the LED color, hold the trigger down for approximately two seconds. When it goes out, as soon as you release the trigger the LED will blink the current amount back to you.
4. Once it stops blinking, you have two seconds to click the trigger the desired number of times for the new amount. The LED will light to signify when a trigger click has been noted.
5. When you reach your desired amount, wait for two seconds, then the new setting will be stored. You will then be returned to the settings menu where you can adjust another setting to alter.
6. When you're done programming, hold the power switch for two seconds to exit programming mode. You can then push it again to turn the board back on to shoot, if needed.

Debounce (solid green): Debounce is used to determine the length of the time interval through which no trigger activity is seen by the firing software, wherein the board will then accept new trigger events to fire the marker. This is adjusted between 1 and 50 milliseconds, in 1/2 millisecond intervals. This means the first setting is 0.5-ms, second is 1-ms, third is 1.5-ms, etc etc. The default setting is 10 (5-ms).

Total dwell time (solid purple): Dwell is the amount of time the solenoid remains open, thus the time the bolt remains forward. Dwell is measured in milliseconds and can be adjusted between 10 and 40-ms, with a default of 14-ms. The Ion solenoid has several dwell settings which are used in conjunction with one-another. The total dwell setting is the total amount of dwell time that the marker will use.

How many milliseconds long is my dwell if I had my stock board set to blinks from the bottom?

Loader delay, aka eye holdoff (solid yellow): Loader delay is a small delay setting that the board uses when detecting a loaded ball. The board will wait to fire after this number of milliseconds. Loader delay is measured in milliseconds and can be adjusted between 0 and 24-ms, meaning the first setting is 0-ms (no delay), second setting is 1-ms delay, third is 2-ms delay, etc. The default is 2 (1-ms delay).
Anti-mechanical bounce, aka AMB (solid blue): This is a setting used to help prevent the trigger switch from bouncing closed and open due to recoil by the marker firing. AMB can be adjusted between 1 and 5, with a default of 2. A setting of 1 will disable the AMB feature.

Anti-bolt stick dwell, aka ABS dwell (solid red): ABS is a feature that will add a certain number of milliseconds to the dwell amount of the first shot you fire, if the marker rests idle for 15 seconds or more. This added dwell is designed to prevent any sort of pneumatically-created FSDO (first shot drop off). ABS is adjustable from 0 to 9 milliseconds, meaning the first setting is 0-ms (no ABS), second is 1-ms added dwell, third is 2-ms added dwell, etc. The default is 1 which will disable the ABS feature.

Fire mode (solid white): Tadao Musashi5 boards are equipped with five separate firing modes:
1 - Semiautomatic fire, unlimited ROF with eyes on; 20-bps cap with eyes off.
2 - Semiautomatic fire, capped at whatever the mROF is set to (solid teal). This caps both the eyes on and eyes off.
3 - PSP autoresponse, fires on the pull and release after firing thre shots in semiauto. One second reset buffer.
4 - PSP mild ramp, gradually increases the rate of fire depending on how fast the trigger is being pulled. The first three shots are semiauto and must be faster than the ramp activation speed setting (flickering yellow) in order to inituate ramping. One second reset buffer.
5 - PSP max ramp, quickly increases the rate of fire to the maximum as soon as the ramp activation speed is hit (flickering yellow), after three semiauto shots. One second reset buffer.
6 - PSP z-burst, fires a burst of 2 or 3 shots per trigger pull depending on the pull speed, after three semiauto shots. One second reset buffer.
7 - NXL fullyauto, fires continuously as long as the trigger is compressed, after three semiauto shots. One second reset buffer.
8 - Autoresponse, fires on the pull and release of the trigger.
9 - Mild ramp, gradually increases the rate of fire depending on how fast the trigger is being pulled, once the ramp activation speed is hit (flickering yellow).
10 - Max ramp, quickly increases the rate of fire to the maximum, once the ramp activation speed is hit (flickering yellow).
11 - Z-burst, fires a burst of 2 or 3 shots per trigger pull depending on the pull speed.
12 - Fullyautomatic, fires continuously as long as the trigger is compressed.

Maximum rate of fire (solid teal): This setting applies to all firing modes except uncapped semiauto. The ROF cap is adjustable between 14 and 20-bps, in 1/4-ms increments. The default setting is 5, which will yield 15-bps. The following chart shows the even balls-per-second equivalents to the settings on the board.
1 - 14-bps
5 - 15-bps
9 - 16-bps
13 - 17-bps
17 - 18-bps
21 - 19-bps
25 - 20-bps
26 - unlimited for eyes on

Eye mode (flickering green): The board is equipped with two eye modes:
1 - Delayed mode: If no ball is loaded when you pull the trigger, the marker will automatically fire after 1/2 second. This is useful if your detents are malfunctioning, or if you're using a sound-activated hopper (keeps the loader feeding even if nothing loads).
2 - Forced mode: The marker will only fire if there is a ball in place when the trigger is pulled (basically). You can force a shot if nothing has been loaded by holding the trigger for 1/2 second.

Cycle percentage filter (flickering purple): This is a special adjustment that varies the length of time during a firing cycle when the board will buffer a new shot to be fired, after the current shot takes place. This is useful to help control unwanted bounce. The cycle percentage filter is adjusted between 0% filtered and 90% filtered.
1 - CPF disabled
2 - 10% of the firing cycle must carry out before a new shot is beffered.
3 - 20%
4 - 30%
5 - 40%
6 - 50%
7 - 60%
8 - 70%
9 - 80%
10 - 90%

Ramp activation speed (flickering yellow): This is only used in the ramping modes. This is the minimum speed that you must fire in order to maintain ramping. Default is 5 (8-bps)
1 - Fire 4-bps to activate ramping
2 - 5-bps
3 - 6-bps
4 - 7-bps
5 - 8-bps
6 - 9-bps
7 - 10-bps
8 - 11-bps
9 - 12-bps

Gangster mode (flickering blue): This is a Tadao variation of the "breakout" mode found on other boards. Gangster mode is used to select which, of the first three shots, can be fired as fullyauto if the trigger is held down. For instance, if Gangster mode is set to 1, the first shot you fire when turning the board on will be fullyauto if you hold it down. After that, the rest of the shots will be fired according to the mode you're currently using.
Gangster mode is illegal in each and every organized tournament series out there, at the time of this writing. Please keep that in mind when using it.
Gangster mode can be adjusted between the first shot (1), second shot (2), or third shot (3). To turn Gangster mode off, set it to 4.

Activation dwell time, aka pulse dwell time (flickering red): This is an additional dwell setting that is used with the Ion's stock solenoid. The activation dwell time is used to provide an initial burst of power to the solenoid, afterwards the dwell signal will be pulsed. The reason for this feature is to help conserve battery power as well as keep heat buildup down. In markers where the battery is low you may wish to increase the activation time to compensate for the loss in power. Too high an activation time will provide a more powerful solenoid signal but will consume mroe battery power. Lower settings will consume less power but the solenoid will have trouble cycling correctly if it is set too low (it may not even cycle at all, if set too low). I like to call this setting the activation dwell time because it is used to initially activate the solenoid.
For example, if the activation dwell time is set to 3-ms, it means the first 3 milliseconds of the dwell signal will be "full" and the rest of the dwell setting will be pulsed. If the total dwell time is set to 16-ms, it means the first 3 will be full and the remaining 13 will be pulsed.
This setting is adjusted between 2 and 9 milliseconds, with a default of 4 (5-ms).
I have also created this diagram to help explain the activation dwell time. This shows the dwell signals with a activation setting of 3, 4, 5, and 6-ms, with a 16-ms total dwell time.

Solenoid pulse setting, aka dwell percentage (flickering white): This is the frequency that the solenoid will pulse at for the remaining dwell time after the activation (above). A higher pulse setting may be necessary for longer dwell times. A higher pulse setting will send a more powerful pulse to the stolenoid which helps to keep it in the "firing" position better, but will consume more battery power. Alternately, a lower pulse setting will use less battery power but may interfere with the solenoid cycling correctly. This will seem like poor consistency or just general bolt cycling problems.
Solenoid pulse setting is adjusted between these amounts:
1 - dwell pulsed at 66%
2 - dwell pulsed at 71%
3 - dwell pulsed at 75%
4 - dwell pulsed at 77%
5 - dwell pulsed at 80%
This diagram below shows a graphical representation of the five pulse settings. The first graph shows a board made for any other solenoid, which doesn't pulse the setting at all.

This is a quick-reference that can be used with the board.

LED color:	Description:	Range:	Default:
Solid green	Debounce	1-50 ms in 1/2-ms increments	10 (5-ms)
Solid purple	Total dwell time	10-40 ms in 1-ms increments	18 (28-ms)
Solid yellow	Loader delay	0-24 ms in 1-ms increments	1 (1-ms)
Solid blue	AMB	1-5	2
Solid red	ABS dwell	0-9 ms in 1-ms increments	0 (off)
Solid white	Fire mode	1 - Semiauto uncapped 2 - Semiauto capped 3 - PSP autoresponse 4 - PSP mild ramp 5 - PSP max ramp 6 - PSP z-burst 7 - NXL fullyauto 8 - Autoresponse 9 - Mild ramp 10 - Max ramp 11 - Z-burst 12 - Fullyautomatic	1 (semiauto)
Solid teal	mROF	14-20 bps in 1/4-bps increments 1 - 14-bps 5 - 15-bps 9 - 16-bps 13 - 17-bps 17 - 18-bps 21 - 19-bps 25 - 20-bps 26 - unlimited	5 (15-bps)
Flickering green	Eye mode	1 - Delayed shot 2 - Forced	2 (forced)
Flickering purple	CPF	accept new shot after 0-90% complete, in 10% increments	3 (20% complete)
Flickering yellow	Ramp activation speed	4-14 bps in 1-bps increments	5 (8-bps)
Flickering blue	Gangster mode	1 - first shot fullyauto 2 - second shot fullyauto 3 - third shot fullyauto 4 - Gangster mode disabled	4 (disabled)
Flickering red	Activation dwell time	2-9 ms in 1-ms increments	4 (5-ms)
Flickering white	Solenoid pulse setting	1 - pulsed at 66% 2 - pulsed at 71% 3 - pulsed at 75% 4 - pulsed at 77% 5 - pulsed at 80%	3 (75%)

Programming Video:
This is a video I made of an example of the programming. In this video, debounce was set to 5, then I increase it to 8.
(right click, save as)

Advanced Dwell Theory:
I've posted an extensive description of how the pulse settings effect performance on a wide variety of marker parts and settings. This information can be viewed in this thread on Ionowners.com.