Show your name as: DefaultRealnameBothNickname

E-Mail address (eg: joeschmoe@aol.com):


Show your e-mail address? DefaultYesNo

Your Password:

Don't have a password? CLICK HERE - Forgot your password? CLICK HERE

Subject:

Subject:Message:
: Haven't seen any comments from owner of the new Angel IR3, so I thought I'd : post some first impressions. I haven't used this in our regular game yet, : just did a few mods (see below) and put about 500 rounds through it on the : test range. Here's a couple of observations: : Good: : The IR3 is noticeably lighter than the LCD. The vertical grip is wonderful. : Looks funny, feels great. The COPS (crystal operated paintball sensor) : works just as advertised. You set COPS to fire the marker at a limited rate : (either 1, 2, or 3 BPS) when it DOESN'T detect a paintball; otherwise, when : it sees a paintball, it fires. I ran a 12V revy hopper, and it fired : flawlessly as fast as I could. On the very few times the hopper didn't keep : up, COPS prevented the marker from firing whenever I tried. There's a nice : LED light on the back of the grip frame which is green in safe mode, and : various rates of flashing when live and COPS is activated. You can disable : COPS while in Live mode if desired. A nice addition and IMHO, the most : significant new upgrade on the Angel. At my maximum possible rate (around : 10 BPS in semi), I saw no shootdown with the stock reg and a nitro-duck : fixed output bottle. : The mill work on the standard model is incredible; don't be scared that the : standard model is "plain". The regulator, feedneck, and barrel all have a : matching, mottled milling that looks very classy. The breach is : considerably more milled and thinner than on the LCD. The bolt looks to be : interchangeable, except that the IR3 bolt has a shallow slot on the bottom : to clear the COPS sensor in the breach. Use of a standard LCD bolt in the : IR3 won't work until you mill this small slot. : The trigger is another significant improvement. Among other features, it : now curls around the bottom and you can rest your finger comfortably in the : "nook". Feels great. You can *see* the microswitch through the translucent : grips, a really nice touch. The LED glows through this opening as well. : The gated feed also works as advertised. I found it took the weight of 2 : paintballs to move through the gate; a single ball doesn't have enough : force. You can get a single shot off with the gun upside-down courtesy of : the gated feed. Standard LCD volumizers fit the IR3 and the good-old Angel : tool kit you may already own is used to service the IR3. I haven't had any : of the maintenance system messages pop-up yet and this feature is only : briefly referred to in the manual (it doesn't list what it's supposed to say : and when, for example, or how it says it - in safe mode, how to clear a : maintenance message, etc. - none of this is documented) : The adjustability of intellifeed is awesome. You can set it to come on : after a pre-determined rate (including after each shot) and how long it : stays on (0.1 to 2 seconds in 0.1 s increments). No more "under-shooting" : the intellifeed as I did on the LCD; I found a 0.4 s agitation of the revy : hopper after each shot was ideal. : Bad: : LCD sight rails will NOT fit the IR3. The site rail is about 1 cm shorter : than the LCD rails. I drilled the IR3 rail for an intellifeed sensor and : installed this feature. The output of the intellifeed was UNABLE to drive : the motor on my HALO hopper. I futzed and futzed with this, and finally : ended up putting a small relay in the HALO to activate the HALO hopper using : it's internal battery pack. This worked, but see below for the results (not : pretty). : The segmented display is very hard to read; some of the letters were nearly : indistguishable. I don't why WDP wanted to use such a stylized and funky : font, but it just frustrated me at points. The "segmented" display is NOT a : true dot-matrix. It's still individual characters, each made up of about 20 : weird-looking segments. : The dying-chicken vibrating alarm is still there, and it still sounds and : feels weird. With all the cell-phones and pagers out there with decent : vibrating alarms, I'd like to see WDP put on something a bit less obnoxious. : Surprisingly, there's a bit-more kickback on the IR3 than on my Angel. : Well, maybe this shouldn't be surprising since it is noticeably lighter. It : may also be related to the grip angle and how I'm holding the gun compared : to the LCD. : Ugly: : My attempts at getting the HALO hopper working with the IR3 and intellifeed : were a disaster. I managed to get the IR3 to activate the HALO feed-motor : (through use of a micro-relay, see above), but at all settings of the : intellifeed I tried, the HALO simply overdrove the IR3 and it's : light-springed ball detent. This combination was a paint-blender, chopping : 1 of every 6-8 balls, INCLUDING when COPS was activated. I'm not certain : why, I suspect the HALO was driving multiple balls into the chamber, but : regardless, my attempts didn't work at all. The 12V revy on the IR3 worked : flawlessly, not the slightest problem. The HALO was worthless in the : configuration I tried (including trying many different intellifeed settings : and durations). Perhaps someone smarter than me will figure this out; it : clearly needs to be worked on given the potential of COPS to allow : incredible, chop-free rates of fire and the HALO supposedly being one of the : fastest feeders on the market. : Summary: : A great gun, looks beautiful, feels awesome. Shoots like the LCD but is : lighter and has COPS. Whether this is worth the big bucks to you is a your : choice. Equally, the LCD isn't made obsolete by the IR3. : Joe M.