Leo Greer

35K too fast? Ya think! Heck, assuming the Warhead runs well, you're looking at 35+ RPM on the 27K on an 11.1v LiPo, and 25 RPM for 7.4v. In my opinion, both are unneeded here. The spring strengths you're dealing with here aren't enough to display a difference compared to a well-built setup using an ordinary ChiHai Neo. I mostly use brushless for times when I want to keep the original 18:1s in the gun, or when I want to build something that places a lot of stress on the motor (1.5J+ & 50 RPM+). For a snappy efficiency build, you don't need brushless to get amazing performance. But, assuming you want to spend the money and send it... I'd go T238 brushless over both options. The ASG is extremely overpriced, and a lot of techs (including myself) favor T238 over Warhead. T238 is cheaper, has had less QC issues, and in comparisons actually were much quieter and drew less current than Warhead.

Most likely the bearing issues are a symptom of the problem, not the cause. Issues like this are usually related to the spring bending, or the piston wobbling around while cycling and causing uneven force on the spur gear, which translates to the bearings beneath the spur gear failing significantly more than other positions. We see this a lot more in America where spring power is typically much higher, and most American techs use bushings, or J-caged bearings for that reason, since regular bearings aren't equipped to handle that force. I'm actually surprised this happened with your build, as lower power builds are most often fine with bearings, in my experience. In your particular case, it sounds to me like you had a bad gear combined with another separate issue, as the gear should always be stronger than the bearing. Higher RPM also exacerbates the issue (shorter cycle time increases the force by quite a bit), but it sounds like your build is rather moderate. What spring are you using? Is the piston a good fit with the gearbox shell?

Barrel length is an extremely tricky subject. Even very short barrels can be extremely accurate, but it all depends on your setup. For the RIF to be accurate, the BB needs enough time in the barrel for its flight to stabilize. How long that is depends on weight, hop setup, nozzle setup, rate of fire (if using FA), and multiple other factors. Generally speaking, for the average AEG, maximum accuracy can be achieved at 250mm. Anything past that does not increase your accuracy. You may gain power with a longer barrel and thus increase your range, but you will not necessarily increase your accuracy. As others have stated, a hop rubber and nub combined with heavier BBs will net you much more accuracy gain than a new barrel, but I'll add another note here: hop rubber and nub are not the first things you should change. First, before spending any money, you should stabilize your hop setup. This is achieved by wrapping your inner barrel in tape, so it sits without wiggling in the outer barrel, removing the hop spring and using o-rings, a piece of cork, or even hard rubber or foam to brace it against the gearbox, aluminum tape or even plastic shims on the hop unit "wings" to eliminate rotation, and shims on your hop arm to make it as consistent as possible. In terms of accuracy gain by %, here's my approximate chart, from my personal experience. 35%: Heavy, high quality BBs 35%: Stabilization 20%: Hop packing and nub 10%: Barrel I've had RIFs with dirty corroded barrels and dirty standard hop rubbers that performed amazingly, because they were naturally stabilized and I was using high quality BBs. The same cannot be said for using an amazing setup with bad stabilization and bad BBs. Even the most accurate RIF will perform horrible with crappy ammo. I would highly recommend against spraying silicon oil up the nozzle, for the simple reason that not all of the oil will clear out of the nozzle immediately, so there's a decent chance of still having some left to get on your hop rubber. And even a tiny bit can ruin your accuracy.

It's possible the actual MOSFET chip is blown, but usually that makes the motor spin whenever the battery is connected, not only upon trigger pull.

It's very possible your battery is simply having issues. NiMHs can be finicky at times, and if you let them sit for too long they'll go bad. It's more complicated than that, but the basics are that LiPos are more reliable and easier to take care of, while also providing dramatically more power, in case your AEG is simply drawing too much current for your pack.

Semi auto can sometimes help you avoid PME, but it's always good to chrono and make sure, because semi-auto can still damage your gun if the gears overspin.

If it's well-built, you should be okay. I've put together similar 1J setups that avoided PME. However, that's not to say you won't have it nonetheless. The current FPS is really the piece of info you need. If the spring is closer to 350, I'd try it out and see. If not, you may need something stronger.

Sometimes it's the oldest, simplest tricks that get overlooked and passed by. For example, people think they need a MOSFET, when you can actually put dielectric grease on your trigger contacts and achieve the exact same thing way cheaper with none of the hassle. As long as the consistency is good with your quality BBs, it's a good sign that the air seal in general is okay. The XT springs look okay to me. I wouldn't trust them as much as Guarder or PDI, but they'll probably hold up fine.

Depends on your field. For example, at my field: Friendly fire is a kill. Ricochets are not. Knife and melee kills are not allowed at all (you're not allowed to touch another player for legal reasons).

Or you can just modify the selector plate so the switch doesn't push it backwards into auto.

Sounds like a tappet timing issue. Where does the nozzle end at after a shot in semi? Is the tappet plate intact and undamaged? Nozzle centered?

That's mostly because the G&G ETUs have problems that the Perun fixes. In most cases, a Perun doesn't really increase your efficiency by any quantifiable amount, and can actually be less efficient in some cases, since the unit "eats" some of your energy. This is a very low draw that only becomes noticeable in very high speed builds, but it's enough to matter. I would suggest doing something very cheap, DIY, and simple. You could literally just put a screw into the body so the selector can't physically be turned to auto. Or glue something on in place of a screw. Any number of items work here, while being infinitely cheaper and easier than installing a Perun.

I can't really recommend any brands or models--what's available is dependent on your country, and what you have locally. You can pretty much stabilize any way you want. You just need to create a solid interface between the inner barrel and the solid suppressor. I've done it with tape around the inner barrel, a rubber fitting, and some other DIY methods. I should also mention, you can more easily stabilize the inner barrel within the outer barrel using scotch tape or Teflon tape, which can save you some trouble when stabilizing inside the suppressor.

Could it be better? That depends on your spring, and a lot of other factors. Setups are extremely individual here: port location, piston weight, BB brand, barrel wobble--all these come into play when determining exact FPS on a certain setup. Additionally, most airsoft springs are not rated consistently in any way, shape, or form. Some manufacturers, like PDI, still hold to a quantifiable system, but many makers just slap labels on things. The springs are also inconsistently made, allowing inconsistency between springs of the same brand. I once got a 2J reading out of an "M120", which is ridiculous. This means that your airseal could be perfect, or it could be bad--FPS alone tells us nothing, because we have no consistent baseline. To test your airseal, you should first try placing a piece of tissue paper over the feed tube with the replica upside down, and dry fire a few shots in semi. If the paper blows off, you know your nozzle to hop packing seal is bad. If it doesn't, then your nozzle/packing seal is probably okay. Another item is consistency. Using high quality BBs (G&G, BLS, etc), a well-built AEG can achieve less than ~1 FPS variance between shots in a series of five or ten. (FPS varies by humidity, etc, so FPS will naturally change slightly based on the day and the weather) Finally, there are still makers that produce very high quality springs that are very consistent both in output, and consistency among themselves. Primarily, this is PDI and Guarder. There are other springs that are fine, of course, but these two brands have excellent track records on their springs, and I've recorded extreme consistency from both.

I love the idea and the ingenuity here. Would you ever consider shipping to America?

Stabilizing inside the suppressor isn't always necessary, but its always good for accuracy.

That's not crazy. It's very possible that you have a good seal and the FPS is just that low. But, there are some things that could be done assuming you do indeed have a bad air seal. First off, I should note that most airsoft springs on the aftermarket are badly made and badly labeled. This leads to huge inconsistency just based on which individual spring you got. Unless it's a high quality maker like PDI or Guarder, you could very well just have a weak spring. Also, airsoft spring rating systems are often completely arbitrary--old makers had systems for how they rated springs (PDI % system is % of original Tokyo Marui spring power), but newer brands/makers typically have no good rating method. You can see this by the huge FPS range that will be listed with springs. For example, I once used an SHS "M120" that gave me 2J, which is absolutely ridiculous. On the other hand, springs by quality aftermarket makers, and even quality stock makers will all be consistent. As an example, I tested four separate Arcturus springs and all of them gave near identical, very consistent, readings. Now, here's where you could be losing air, assuming you actually do have an air leak: The main place you could be losing air is your nozzle to hop packing seal, which is easily the hardest to achieve. The Prommy purple is a "legacy" hop rubber, meaning the spec is built for legacy hop units, barrels, and nozzles. To test, you could pick up a cheap "modern" rubber, such as the Krytac Orange and test it out. What's the FPS consistency? Meaning, how large is the variation between shots. Bad consistency can be an indicator of poor seal. If the FPS consistency is bad, you might try your stock nozzle. Nozzles are one of the most finicky things about airsoft, and sometimes makers will even sell nozzles of the wrong length for certain models that will work, but may not provide optimum seal and performance. It's worth noting that most stock air nozzles are just fine from the get go--there's not a big call to replace them unless yours specifically had something wrong with it. Assuming everything's put together well, that build should do you just fine, but it is worth mentioning that most of those parts aren't upgrades over stock parts, and some are actually downgrades, being functionally worse than stock. For example, stock cylinders are pretty much fine across the board (no need to replace 95% of the time), and aluminum pistons are just terrible. As a final test, do the FPS readings change any between full auto and semi? That build strikes me as being very susceptible to PME, which is where the drivetrain spins faster than the piston can return and causes premature contact between the gear teeth and the piston rack.

I gotcha.

The main pro of the Cymas are the price for internal value. Externals, as mentioned, feel like you should be pulling the bolt and shooting 23 FPS. I will mention the Arcturus Sport Line. For about $170 USD (not sure of current exchange rates off the top of my head) you get the same excellent internals as their more expensive models, housed in a cheaper, lower quality body. The Double Eagle lines, have some things going for them as well, namely the ETU and general quality on a gun so cheap. The main downsides, in my opinion, are the ferrite stock motor (Arcturus comes with Neodymium), and the hop rubber, but neither of those are deal breakers, especially for how much value DE already delivers.

Why do you hate fanged/split-nub rubbers?

Personally, I would make the battery a little cardboard "sheath" and wedge it into the hand guard, but if you wanted to get fancy you could 3D print or make yourself a pouch out of fabric that attaches to the inside of the hand guard.

Duct tape...

As someone who's really just exiting his own teen years (oh, those dark days), airsoft is about the best thing I've found. It keeps my mind and body active and sharp, and satisfies my innate manly desire to "kill the bad guy". The downsides being cost, time investment, and the inevitable fun when something breaks. Without knowing your boys... How does England feel about archery? Chess is also an option, if your boys like competitive board games. Actually, board gaming is making a comeback. Games like Wingspan, Settlers of Catan, and Ticket to Ride can be huge time sinks.

Silent piston heads are a misnomer--they're really just as loud as regular ones.

Is the Scarab CA motor ferrite or Neodymium? Ferrite motors are almost always either 28 TPA, or, more commonly, 32 TPA. This is because the weaker magnets need more turns in order to produce any kind of torque. To clarify, TPA does not actually dictate torque by itself--wire thickness, wrap tightness, etc, all play factors, as well as how strong the magnets themselves are. However, in general, the higher the TPA, the higher the torque. Neodymium motors typically have much lower TPA due to having much stronger magnets. For example, a 40K motor might be 14 TPA, and a 25K motor might be 22 TPA. Note that these are averaged unloaded speeds--the motor speed changes, sometimes drastically, depending on how the specific motor is made, the batch of magnets, and even where the motor falls on the averaged scale. For example, SHS high torques are known run at around 35K unloaded and 16 TPA. However, SHS (manufactured by ChiHai Shenzhen) doesn't always use magnets with the same strengths. Neo magnets have different "N" ratings (most common is N35H, stronger but rarer are N52, and everything in between), that control their strength. Thus you can never be 100% sure of the speed of what you're getting (and speed may vary somewhat by individual motor). Different brands (ASG, Tienly, etc), may use magnets of different strengths. For example, Tienly uses N52, which is one of the reasons Tienly motors are more expensive. Thus, a Tienly with the same TPA as the SHS will be stronger and run cooler at the same speeds. All that to say, the Scarab motor (if it's neodymium), is probably 31K unloaded speed. Speed under load is less, so doing calcs based off the unloaded speed will give results that are too high. 30K is actually a very normal motor speed, and should produce an ROF of about 18-19 on an 11.1v battery. For example, the original TM EG1000 gave 18 when chronoed on 11.1v (technically in between 12.6v and 11.1v, but I'm approximating, not running exact calcs). This means that the original TM long motor, borrowed from the photocopier industry, is about 30K. 30K should not be too much for your stock gun, especially on 7.4v. This is assuming the Scarab 31000 is actually a 30K motor and not something random. For example... More than one brand of RIF use Neo motors with weak magnets that distort the "balance". For example, Krytac's 30K Neo motor (sold incredibly overpriced online), does run at 30K approx on 11.1v, but the magnets are very weak. Thus, the TPA is not 16. It could be 25 TPA for all I know. Weaker magnets means more TPA needed to limit the motor to the same equivalent speed. Arcturus currently sends all of their new stock guns out with a 24K 23TPA Neo motor that actually performs more like a 30K, giving 20+ RPS @ 1.6J on 11.1v. Thus, we have a 23TPA 30K equivalent... the magnets are weaker. At the other end of the spectrum, Tienly puts out a 50K motor that uses ferrite magnets. It's 9TPA, using the strongest ferrite magnets available for the purpose.