Shocker/Nerve "Nerve Board" Adjustment [ZDSPB Tech]

Shocker/Nerve "Nerve Board" Adjustment
This board comes stock on all Shockers purchased after approx. December 2004. Alternately, Vision upgrade kits purchased after that time also include these boards.

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: SP doesn't offer an upgrade service for their boards. If you need a newer circuit board (programmed with NXT beam-break eye features) you'll have to buy it separately.

Board Operation:
To activate the board, push and hold the power button until you hear it chirp (it will activate if the power button is held in for two seconds). Newer versions of the board will activate one half-second after the button is pressed in (quicker to turn on). The board is activated in Vision mode, ready to fire. To deactivate the board, hold the power button in until the board chirps once more and the LED no longer blinks (this will occur after two seconds).

The LED in non-Vision mode blinks twice fast every one second (the interval between blinks is 1/4 of a second). The LED in Vision mode while a ball is loaded is four blinks every second. If no ball is loaded, the LED will blink once every second. As said, to toggle between Vision enabled and disabled, push the power switch once.

Programming:
The only adjustable settings on the Nerve board are dwell, recharge, and firing mode. To adjust any of these, you must first remove the left side of the grip panels so that you can have access to the lower, vertical circuit board. You will see two grey buttons located on the side of the board; these are referred to as the dwell buttons and are used to adjust all three settings. The top button will increase the setting wheras the bottom one will decrease it, denoted by the text UP and DN printed on the back of the circuitry.

Dwell buttons

Dwell:
To adjust the dwell setting, simply push either the dwell DN or UP button to decrease or increase the setting respectively. Don't hold the trigger down while doing this or the dwell won't be adjusted. Never set your dwell below 12 chirps, as the solenoid is not designed to cycle at this speed.

Tech Dwell is adjustable between 3 and 19 milliseconds in 0.25 millisecond increments (64 settings total) on Nerve boards. Technically this means your dwell increases one millisecond for every four chirps, with the minimum setting being 3-ms. It's not necessary to bother worrying about millisecond/dwell/etc if you're using the stock board, unless you end up upgrading the board to one that uses milliseconds to adjust; information for "where to set dwell to" uysing the stock board is given in chirps and NOT milliseconds.

How long is my dwell time, in milliseconds, if I have it set to chirps?

Recharge Rate: (aka. ROF delay)
Recharge rate is the term we use to describe the length of time that has to expire after the gun is fired before it can fire again. Because of this definition, increases in recharge rate will allow more time between shots, thus decreasing your maximum rate of fire (and vice-versa). Recharge is only used to determine the max ROF for the marker; it has nothing to do with consistency, efficiency, recoil, or any other factor. All it will do is slow down or speed up your maximum cycling speed. It has no influence on how the marker fires. You're only adjusting the ROF, so the gun will fire the exact same regardless of where it's set (basically). People seem to have a very difficult time understanding this, so I'm hoping that me stating it five times just now will help. For demonstration, a diagram of the firing cycle with adjustments can be seen here...

This diagram shows that after increasing your dwell setting, the recharge time will stay the same, thus the ROF will be a little lower since the firing cycle takes longer. To compensate you need to then lower the recharge. This is an example and uses example numbers.

To adjust your marker's recharge rate, hold the trigger down while pushing the dwell DN or UP buttons to decrease or increase the recharge time respectively.
Recharge is adjustable between 15 and 70 milliseconds in one-millisecond increments (55 settings total). This is different from the previous versions of the stock board (non-Nerve), where recharge began at 30 milliseconds.

If you wish your marker to fire the maximum speed, simply set the recharge setting to 0 chirps. If you wish to cap the marker's rate of fire at a lower speed, you can use this chart below to find your recharge setting. To use this chart, match up your current dwell setting (left column) with your desired BPS cap (top row) and the corresponding number in the table will be your recharge setting in chirps.
The chart starts at 11.5-bps because that's the minimum speed for most dwell amounts. The chart only goes up to 17-bps because there isn't much point to "capping" the gun at anything faster than 17-bps, since that's already extremely fast and you won't be able to audibly tell the difference between exact speeds at that point.

	11½-bps	12-bps	12½-bps	13-bps	13½-bps	14-bps	14½-bps	15-bps	15½-bps	16-bps	16½-bps	17-bps
Dwell 20 chirps	-	-	-	54	51	48	46	44	42	40	38	36
Dwell 21 chirps	-	-	-	53	51	48	45	43	41	39	37	36
Dwell 22 chirps	-	-	-	53	51	48	45	43	41	39	37	35
Dwell 23 chirps	-	-	-	53	50	48	45	43	41	39	37	35
Dwell 24 chirps	-	-	-	53	50	47	45	43	41	39	37	35
Dwell 25 chirps	-	-	-	53	50	47	45	42	40	38	36	35
Dwell 26 chirps	-	-	-	52	50	47	44	42	40	38	36	34
Dwell 27 chirps	-	-	55	52	49	47	44	42	40	38	36	34
Dwell 28 chirps	-	-	55	52	49	46	44	42	40	38	36	34
Dwell 29 chirps	-	-	55	52	49	46	44	41	39	37	35	33
Dwell 30 chirps	-	-	55	51	49	46	43	41	39	37	35	33
Dwell 31 chirps	-	-	54	51	48	46	43	41	39	37	35	33
Dwell 32 chirps	-	-	54	51	48	46	43	41	39	37	35	33
Dwell 33 chirps	-	-	54	51	48	45	43	41	39	37	35	33
Dwell 34 chirps	-	-	54	50	48	45	42	40	38	36	34	32
Dwell 35 chirps	-	-	53	50	48	45	42	40	38	36	34	32
Dwell 36 chirps	-	-	53	50	47	44	42	40	38	36	34	32
Dwell 37 chirps	-	-	53	50	47	44	42	39	37	35	33	32
Dwell 38 chirps	-	-	53	49	47	44	41	39	37	35	33	31
Dwell 39 chirps	-	-	53	49	46	44	41	39	37	35	33	31
Dwell 40 chirps	-	55	52	49	46	43	41	39	37	35	33	31
Dwell 41 chirps	-	55	52	49	46	43	41	39	36	34	32	31
Dwell 42 chirps	-	55	52	48	46	43	40	38	36	34	32	30
Dwell 43 chirps	-	55	51	48	45	43	40	38	36	34	32	30
Dwell 44 chirps	-	54	51	48	45	42	40	38	35	34	32	30
Dwell 45 chirps	-	54	51	48	45	42	40	37	35	33	31	30
Dwell 46 chirps	-	54	51	47	45	42	39	37	35	33	31	29
Dwell 47 chirps	-	54	50	49	44	42	39	37	35	33	31	29
Dwell 48 chirps	-	53	50	47	44	41	39	37	35	33	31	29
Dwell 49 chirps	-	53	50	47	44	41	39	36	34	32	30	29
Dwell 50 chirps	-	53	50	56	44	41	38	36	34	32	30	28
Dwell 51 chirps	-	53	49	46	43	41	38	36	34	32	30	28
Dwell 52 chirps	-	52	49	46	43	40	38	36	34	32	30	28
Dwell 53 chirps	-	52	49	46	43	40	38	35	33	31	29	28
Dwell 54 chirps	55	52	49	45	43	40	37	35	33	31	29	27
Dwell 55 chirps	55	52	48	45	42	40	37	35	33	31	29	27
Dwell 56 chirps	55	51	48	45	42	39	37	35	33	31	29	27
Dwell 57 chirps	55	51	48	45	42	39	37	34	32	30	28	27
Dwell 58 chirps	54	51	48	44	42	39	36	34	32	30	28	26
Dwell 59 chirps	54	51	47	44	41	39	36	34	32	30	28	26
Dwell 60 chirps	54	53	50	46	44	41	38	36	34	32	30	28
Dwell 61 chirps	54	50	47	44	41	38	36	33	31	29	27	26
Dwell 62 chirps	53	50	47	43	41	38	35	33	31	29	27	25
Dwell 63 chirps	53	50	46	43	40	38	35	33	31	29	27	25
Dwell 64 chirps	53	49	46	43	40	37	35	33	31	29	27	25
	11½-bps	12-bps	12½-bps	13-bps	13½-bps	14-bps	14½-bps	15-bps	15½-bps	16-bps	16½-bps	17-bps

Click here for a printable picture of the above chart: Recharge chart

Tech If you wish to know the formula used to create the above chart, here it is:
(DwellChirps/4) + 18 - (1000/DesiredROF)
or DwellMilliseconds + 15 - (1000/DesiredROF)
...This will give you a negative number. Ignore the negative sign and round the number up, and that will be your recharge setting. Example: If you want to cap it at 15-bps and your dwell is set to 40, the formula will look like this:
13 + 15 - (1000/15)
(40/4) + 18 - (1000/15)
This will give you -38.6667. Ignore the negative and round it up, and you have 39.

Rebound:
Rebound is the name for the ramping modes available on the stock Nerve boards. Rebound mode will activate once you fire a certain speed; once that speed is reached, the board will quickly add shots to the current rate of fire, and the marker will fire faster than you actually pull. In some cases this is limited only by the recharge setting on the board, or the hopper's maximum feed rate. If you pause for 1/4 second between firing, the mode will reset and you'll have to hit the activation speed again.

The Nerve board has five rebound modes, all of which are adjusted using the dwell buttons as well. To change the active rebound mode, push and hold in the power button while using the dwell buttons to select your desired rebound level. Pushing dwell DN will lower rebound level; dwell UP will increase it. Note that the bottom rebound mode is the equivalent to semiauto (turns rebound mode off). Also note that, while adjusting rebound, you must push one of the dwell buttons within a period of two seconds after initially pressing the power button...or else the marker will shut off.

Rebound Setting:	Activation ROF:
5	7-bps
4	8-bps
3	10-bps
2	12-bps
1	n/a

According to this chart, if you have the marker set to the highest rebound level, you will have to fire 7-bps in order for the mode to kick in; if you have the marker set to the next lowest rebound level, you will have to fire 8-bps; etc etc. Again, setting the board to rebound level 1 will disable the mode and fire only in semiauto. Also please note that the ROF amounts in this chart are only accurate to the nearest 0.4-bps.

Demonstrational Videos:
This is a universal Nerve board adjustment video, it applies to the following adjustments: dwell, recharge, rebound mode. NXT eye mode isn't included in this video.
Nerve board adjustment, high-res (16-MB)
Nerve board adjustment, low-res (7-MB)