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Tech index -> Shocker NXT -> Adjusting and maintaining -> Electronics & pressure setting
This page displays information for boards and products made after the Shocker NXT was released. If you're looking for information on previous versions of boards, check the Shocker SFT electronics page

This table below lists all the currently available circuit boards and displays a re-written adjustment guide for each. Select your board from this list to view instructions for HOW to adjust the settings. For instructions on WHAT to set the boards at, scroll down to view information about the various features lower on this page.

Board type:	Software versions:
Smart Parts	NXT Nerve programming Blackheart NXT board
Tadao	M6.1 M7 (coming soon)
Predator SFT	5.0 NXT (coming soon) 10.0 (coming soon)
Virtue	Virtue NXT
FCP Reloaded	Incompatible with NXT beam-break eyes
PB Warehouse	Incompatible with NXT beam-break eyes
NoX	NoX Unleashed
APE	Rampage (coming soon)
Lucky	Spitfire (coming soon)

Adjusting your Dwell:
In brief, dwell is the name for the amount of time the marker will open the valve to release pressure to fire the ball. Because of this, increases in dwell generally cause increases in velocity, and decreases generally cause lower velocity (however there are working limits to this). Dwell can affect a number of other things, including but not limited to velocity, consistency, efficiency, and maximum rate of fire.

The dwell setting on your marker is what allows the bolt to fully cycle from shot to shot. If dwell is set too low, the bolt will half-stroke and the gun won't fire properly. It's better to set the dwell higher than needed, especially with the HE bolt that comes stock in Shocker NXTs. Traditionally, a higher dwell can lead to worse efficiency, however with the HE bolt this problem is lessened.

There is no such thing as the "perfect" dwell setting. Some markers will require a higher setting than others, depending on the parts, manufacturing characteristics, weather conditions, etc etc. Each gun requires a bit of experimentation to find the optimal setting that should be used. Detailed below is the suggested method for finding the optimal dwell setting for your particular Shocker. This is how I set all Shockers that go through the shop for repair. The setting may be fine-tuned later on, but this will give you a good starting point to use.
1. Lower the dwell to the minimum setting (or an extremely low setting, such as 12 chirps or 6 milliseconds).
2. Gradually increase dwell until the marker begins to fully cycle. You will know this time because, when the marker has trouble cycling, the sound of the bolt firing will be muffled and sound erratic, denoting inconsistencies. When you reach the point where it fully cycles, the marker will sound loud on each shot fired, with minimal sound difference between the shots (inconsistencies can be caused by other things, such as the reg, please note).
3. Once the Shocker is fully cycling, increase the dwell another 8-12 chirps (2-3 milliseconds), and that will be your dwell setting.

Here are some sample settings, which are the values I've observed as being average for various combinations of bolts. All dwell amounts are expressed in chirps for the stock board, and milliseconds for any of the aftermarket boards. Please note that these settings are for the Parker solenoid only, because no Shocker NXT came from the factory with a Humphrey solenoid.
Also please note that these are only suggestions, they will work okay for most guns, but not on all. These are only starting points for further fine-tuning of the marker, which you can do on your own (I can't tune your gun through e-mail...that's what the website is for). If you don't wish to fine-tune your marker, which many people simply don't, then these settings will often work perfectly fine.

Bolt kit:	Dwell with Parker solenoid:	Suggested input pressure:
SP HE/Turbocharger:	35+ chirps 11+ ms	180-200 psi
SFT non-HE stock bolt:	25-35 chirps 9-11 ms	no recommendation
Stinger v3:	15+ chirps 7+ ms	170-190 psi
Evolve v1/2:	35+ chirps 12+ ms	190-200 psi
Evolve ULP:	30-40 chirps 10-12 ms	170-200 psi (varies)

If you are for some reason using a Humphrey solenoid, check the SFT section for Humphrey solenoid info.

Setting your Pressure/Velocity:
Pressure adjustment is easier than messing with the electronics. The marker's input pressure is how you determine the velocity for your shots, so after setting your dwell simply use your pressure adjustment to achieve your desired velocity. Higher the pressure, higher the velocity; lower the pressure, lower the velocity.
To adjust the NXT vertical regulator, use the provided 5/16" open-end wrench to move the large nut on the bottom of the reg. Screw in for more pressure and out for less. Follow these diagrams:

Please note that the regulator is reverse-threaded, so screwing it "in" will actually make the endcap come out. This is normal.
Do not change your velocity by adjusting dwell! This will not yield good performance.
Certain bolts work well at different pressures. Refer to the list above for suggested pressure ranges. Some bolts don't "require" any specific pressure, so they have no recommendation for setting.

Primary Regulator Pressure:
If you're using an HPA tank (preset or adjustable), the regulator on the tank is known as the primary reg. If your primary reg is adjustable, set the input pressure above 450-psi, if using the stock NXT vertical reg. If you have an adjustable screw-in tank, set the reg as high as it will go, under 800-psi. If you're in the market for a new tank for your Shocker, get an HP-output tank.

Indoor Velocities:
Shockers often don't work as good while in the indoor setting, where velocities are limited to approximately 250-fps. If your Shocker doesn't function well with such a low dwell setting, you may wish to purchase the aftermarket NDZ bolt guide, which will allow for greater adjustment. Please refer to the Related Links for instructions on how to operate the NDZ bolt guide. Otherwise, you will have to decrease the dwell setting and decrease the input pressure to the point where the marker wil function okay at a reasonable ROF.

Debounce and AMB Adjustment:
Debounce is an electronic filtering timer that will tell the board how long the trigger must remain compressed before it will recognize the trigger pull as being an actual pull of the trigger. The reason for this is because the switch will actually tend to close several times before and after you actually compress the trigger fully (known as switch bounce), which causes the board to think you've fired multiple shots quickly in a row. This is due to any number of factors which I won't bother explaining here, but know that it is a mechanical characteristic present on all switches (used for paintball guns or not).

Debounce is not adjustable on the stock boards, however just about all aftermarket boards allow it to be fine-tuned. Debounce should only be set as high as required to filter out unnecessary bounce. In brief, lower this setting and your marker has a higher chance of adding shots (and vice-versa). The default setting on most boards is around 10-ms, however a higher setting may be necessary in order to prevent the marker from adding shots. A good way to test this is to compress the trigger as slowly as possible and see how many times the marker fires. If the marker fires more than once when you pull it, your marker is bouncing and the setting should be increased. If the marker fires once and only once, the current setting is sufficient and will work okay. If the setting is set too high, the board will wait too long before firing and slow down your maximum ROF (this usually happens around 16-ms, but will vary depending on how the board is programmed).

Some boards have an additional setting known as AMB which stands for anti-mechanical bounce. This is a setting which limits the length of the shot buffer to help filter out false trigger signals sent to the board, which are a result of the gun kicking when fired. This setting can be adjusted if your marker seems to add shots when you rapid fire. Setting AMB too low may cause the marker to mechanically simulate fully-automatic firing.

ABS (Anti Bolt Stick) Adjustment:
This setting is used to increase the dwell for the first shot you take after a period of inactivity (generally 10-15 seconds). This is useful if the marker is experiencing first shot dropoff problems (known as FSDO), where the first shot you fire is much slower in velocity than the rest. Sometimes this is caused by the bolt, in which case ABS can be used to guard against it. However, sometimes this is caused by the solenoid, in which case the ABS setting won't help at all. FSDO has several different possible causes (check the troubleshooting page for suggestions).

Generally speaking, the default ABS setting is 4-5 ms added dwell time. If ABS is set too low, the marker's first shot will still move slower than the rest. You may be able to live with it as long as the ball actually gets out the barrel. Alternately, setting ABS too high will add velocity to the first shot, so you would then have to turn the velocity down over the chronograph (which would put you at a disadvantage). The perfect ABS setting may be difficult to find, since you would have to adjust it, wait a while, test over a chrono, then repeat. Becuase of this I suggest setting it to 4 or 5-ms and testing the gun out; if at that point the first shot is reasonably strong, just leave the setting there. If the first shot is higher than the others, decrease the ABS setting.

ROF Adjustment:
Most boards have an adjustable max rate of fire (ROF or mROF). There are a few reasons why you may wish to adjust this:
1. You may be required to limit your marker's rate of fire due to the tournament or field rules (15-bps or 15.4-bps)
2. If your marker is experiencing velocity dropoff, slowing the ROF will help to keep your shots from dropping. However, this is only a way to circumvent the dropoff problem; it isn't a fix for it. You should try to repair your dropoff issue when you have the time.
3. If you are experiencing an eye problem (or if the marker doesn't have eyes installed), decreasing the rate of fire may be necessary to help prevent chopping in the chamber. If you're using an agitated loader, a BPS setting of 11-12 will hopefully work good. If using an eVolutionII, a setting around 14-15 bps will work. If using a Halo-B or Reloader-B, a setting of 17-18 bps will often work, however most people can't shoot this fast so it doesn't matter as much for these faster hoppers.

Eye Delay Adjustment:
This is also known as loader delay on some boards, eye sensitivity on Virtue boards, or ball-in-place setting on some other boards. This is not adjustable on the stock boards. This is a small delay setting that is used to prevent chopping during that split second between when the ball is detected by the eye, and when it actually clears the top of the bolt and is seated in the chamber. This is a necessary delay because the ball is detected on its way down into the chamber, not as soon as it reaches the bottom and settles in. Eye holdoff should be set to 2-ms on most Shockers, or possibly higher if you're not using a force-fed hopper. With beam-breka eyes, some extremely bright or smooth-textured paintshells may require a higher loader delay because of the increased time necessary to detect the ball (I suggest 1-ms added time). Most force-fed loaders won't require a high loader delay setting unless you frequently participate in extremely fast bursts of shots.

Ramp Activation Speed / Ramp Activation Shot Count:
Some boards allow the adjustment of the speed required to activate their ramping modes. Most users will wish to set this between 5-9 bps, depending on the trigger setup and max speed. Higher settings will usually prevent the user from activating ramping mode unless he/she specifically tries to do so during the game (a high setting like 12-bps will prevent most unwanted ramping, for instance). Some tournament series require a certain activation speed to adhere within their rules, however most series won't be too strict on it. PSP rules require a speed of 9-bps, for instance.

Ramp activation shot count is a similar setting which is used for ramping and other firing modes. This is the number of semiauto shots that must be fired (at or above the ramp activation speed) before the marker starts to ramp. This is set by default on just about any board at 3 shots, in order to adhere to most tournament rules. Too low a shot count will result in the gun entering ramping mode too quickly, and perhaps firing one or two unwanted shots.

Eye Sense Adjustment:
This term is often called eye type on different boards however I don't personally feel that is specific enough, so I call it eye sense instead. The eye sense can be set to one of two modes: either reflective or beam-break. All Shocker NXT boards have this adjustment but obviously only a board set to NXT eye mode will work on a Shocker NXT with the beam-break eyes installed. Shocker SFT reflective eyes will require the reflective setting to function properly.

Related Links:
· Shocker firing assembly
· Shocker NDZ bolt guide adjustment (Shocker SFT page)

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Tech index -> Shocker NXT -> Adjusting and maintaining -> Electronics & pressure setting