Suburban Centurion
For the past month or so, my thoughts returned to the Nerf Centurion. In the past, the way I expelled this obsession was to indulge it. So, let's try the talking cure this time and perhaps I'll feel dissuaded from buying one. A month ago I picked up the August 2013 issue of Popular Mechanics. My paternal grandfather gives them to my father, who stockpiles issues until the stack is a foot high. Neither of us really has time to read them. But, that time I did and noticed a big red rifle reviewed in "the goods" section, alongside the Rainshader and the Kreg Automaxx bench clamp.
Photo hosted on D J's flickr
That's cute. Let's hope your infatuation fades soon. I know you've bought or were gifted things you thought were essential and are now gathering dust. Let me count the ways. Most recently, I ordered the sweetbox, a Raspberry Pi case. But now, you're not sure you'll even buy the tiny computer. (That'll be the subject of a later post.) I bought an accessory before I committed to the base product. Oh well. This is a standalone product. Indeed. It is part of a pattern, whereby image fixation overtakes your understanding of its practical use.
I'll admit, a nerf gun is of little practical use. It is a toy for children & young adults. The point isn't to use it daily, but to take it out occasionally to have fun with it for a while and stave off an impulse for some other fool thing while bored. The same is true for the games I've bought through steam. No, I don't expect to play them once monthly for the rest of my life.
You ask what fun can I have with this? Well, I can practice some marksmanship with it. Supposedly, this gun shoots in the eighty foot range. I live in a two story house, and from the corner of the living room to the upper corner of my door might just be fifty feet diagonally. The same is probably true of my back yard. To really test it, I'd either have to test it on the street (which may be hard on the darts). Or, I'd bike to the close by elementary school and fool around in the field. Traditionally, that means rotating discs or cans. To reduce exercise and tighten the feedback loop, the best target is probably an overturned can resting on a ground spike. ?:-| The kit only includes 6 darts. You will be getting up a lot. The prospect of biking through a neighborhood with a (bright red) meter long barrel over my shoulder strikes me as darkly humorous.
I'm so glad you brought up the gun's range and even 'misrepresented' it downward. The max range is supposed to be 100 feet. But, that is the extreme point on a bell distribution. The longtime nerf user, who you trust most, rated this as his second least favorite gun. The barrel extension, that makes it so pretty, cuts some of the range given that darts are quite unlike bullets. The firing mechanism involves some complicated gear & ratchet combo that noisily slams parts around. You will never play tag with this, because it is unwieldy and slow. You think you are going to bike to a field and practice in six shot bursts more than once? Think again.
Well, if you demand a practical use that will keep the gun in my thoughts, I could shoot at crows with it. There is a tree in our front yard that I can't park beneath, because the birds will poop on it most of the year. Perhaps I could scare them away. Or not?
Actually, that article says they poop pellets. The birds I hear may be ravens or crows, but the behavior I notice is from some other bird. You know what, I concede this point. No pretend hunting. I would edit this out, but I've wondered about this (not with nerf) for a long time.
Photo hosted on B// /C's flickr
Well, there's not much to say to that, given your concession. I will, however, emphasize that a cheaper gun can be more satisfying. (Which would be more reasonable if you ever go compete.) No, it won't look teh awexome, but ignoring a thirty dollar 'investment' stings less than a fifty dollar investment. I suggest the Alpha Trooper, Rampage, or RapidStrike. That way, when you dispose of it to your younger cousins, the total cost won't be so high. (Can't gift to just one of three. Luckily, Hasbro released the Rebelle line.)
Yes, there are cheaper options that offer more variety. There are even some, like the RapidStrike, that shoot with a motor. They have bigger clips and darts that fit a wider variety of blasters. But, they don't look as cool and their firing mechanisms are more like pump shotguns than the centurion. Aesthetics may be an effete concern, but it means I am more likely to hang it on the wall when bored than the others. That could stave off the day before I feel embarassed/bored enough to pass it along. In fact, the intended recipient is more likely to have any of those three than the centurion. (The other two as well. Hm.) Well, I can burn that bridge when I come to it.
You really think it will be appropriate to put a big red rifle over your bed? That seems a bit gauche. Particularly so, if you leave the stock paint scheme. If you want a sculpture to hang on your wall, I know of some cheaper ones that others might appreciate more.
You've not admitted it, but you don't even plan to assemble it properly for a while. Nerf made the barrel extension a permanant attachment. Without it, the gun won't fire. You may be thinking 'oh what a good opportunity to mod & paint it'. That thought will recur without accompanying action for many weeks because, ultimately, this is a childish avarice that will dissipate the moment the box is unwrapped.
Photo hosted on morphobtrfly's tumblr Seems like a cool rental place.
You think you have my number, eh? The opportunity for work isn't a bug, it's a feature. The initial firing lock is easily resolved: I jam the catch with a bit of plastic. That let's me immediately start firing and fooling around with the barrel off. But, I'll still want that barrel. That will encourage me to open it wide for the more permanant solution. This won't be much more onerous than cutting a few bits of plastic. I have the tools and video tutorial to guide my hand. As you say, I will tire of the color scheme and may want to repaint it. When I finish each of these stages, I am certain to want to test it out again. A gun that works out of the box excludes these opportunities to reconnect with the toy. Mmhmm. Yes. That's sure to happen.
Even more important than repainting it, though, will be its use as an embedded platform. You chided me for not following through in buying the Raspberry Pi. Partly, that came from understanding the greater variety of competitors. Partly, that came from not recognizing a need for an embedded computer. I have a real one and don't need to play with leds or robots. There are plenty of software projects with a higher priority. But, I looked on the various nerf guns and saw an opportunity to make an ammo counter. A battery, a 16bit system on a chip, and a few sensors become a cute way of tracking how many darts are left in the clip.
Refreshing your basic skills with assembly and electronics is nice, if you really do so. Of course, you will wave off products others have made to this effect. Those are cliff's notes and you want to read War and Peace yourself. You know which chip to use. You know which clip sensor (hall effect) to use. You know how you will determine the clip size (a switch). You know how you will attatch everything (main components in a hollowed scope & gluegun the wires/sensors).
What you don't know is how you will sense the weapon discharge. Tagging the trigger is great, unless the gun supports slam fire: trigger is held and the primer is the trigger. Tagging the primer is great, unless I happen to dry fire the gun with an empty clip. Why would I leave the sensor active with an empty clip? Worse, sensors for these will have to be highly responsive. Sensing an electrical contact might work, but isn't modular enough. (Why be modular if you are, supposedly, buying only one gun?) You will have to accept the solution found by another: run a light gate to the barrel's tip. Puzzle over. Magic gone. You don't really want to be closer to bare metal than a mobile app anyway.
No, I don't want to be an electrical engineer. But, that doesn't mean that there aren't a couple embedded projects I've seen that I would find useful. For example, I spent almost fifty dollars on this 'morning simulation' alarm clock. I could make another for the other place I sleep for much cheaper. But, it would be less intimidating if I've practiced on something I can mess up. I paid fifty dollars because I didn't trust myself to solder up all the switches for my new ergodox. A cheaper gun will have just as much space to learn.
Closing arguments.
You want to spend fifty dollars on a toy. You will use this toy for less than two hours over the rest of your lifetime. Supposedly, you have lots of little projects that will keep you coming back to it. But really, they will pale after you get this noisy, inaccurate dart thrower and realize - as you have many times before - that you don't care as much as you hoped you would. Without someone to shoot and be shot at by, a gun has no purpose. It may end up on your wall. But, it will end up in your closet, just like the unstrung crossbow you were gifted. Do us a favor: buy yourself a backup wristwatch and a graphic novel (Or three comics Or two movies Or a cs book and a comic). You will get far more out of them than a pretend sniper rifle.
I'll admit, my main argument consists of 'this looks cool, let me have it'. I may not need a project, but this will provide more basis for that than a nerf alpha trooper. That & similar guns look more toylike. The initial hacks are easy enough. An embedded project will guide me back in time. So long as it's sooner than never, the purchase is still worthwhile. Yes, a couple graphic comics would be categorically more fun than a centurion. But, I am liable to burn through them faster. This is a slower realized investment, but one that may yet bear fruit.
Photo hosted on imageshack, used in a digitalcomplex discusson.
From a highly reliable source, it would appear the last items to leave the factory in leaks are a Mega Light Machine Gun blaster, and a new cartridge based Elite sniper called Ranger One (NerfNation said that "2014 is the year of the lever" so could this be the real zwinchester
Reddit source
I guess I could table the issue until I see what these new nerf guns look like. If target/amazon haven't divested themselves of their supply after a whole year, a couple of months won't hurt. Oh yes, let's wait til the newest shiny thing appears so you can spring on that before I argue you down like I did here.