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This is one hell of a build. I'm going to have to try out that paint.

As for the handle length, I think the exact length of the exposed tube is in debate, it typically ranges between 8-1/4" and 8-3/4". You're in that range, so I think the trick at this point is just figuring out the placement. About an inch from the RIB and about 3/4" from the back of the pipe should be the sweet spot.

ARE YOUR GRIPS ALREADY EPOXIED? What I did was push my pipe handle in to the point of where I intended to mount /anchor it in place. . . Once I was happy with that I taped the grip in place so I could reach the switches with my thumb ,after all its gotta work for my hands. then a half inch after the grip is what . .I was left with. . . Looks pretty acurate. . Hope this helps. .my grip is mounted about a half inch to 1inch closer to the.trigger box

Nope, they're not attached yet. After I took that photo, I moved the grip to where it was most comfy to push the button on the trigger box without having to stretch my thumb too much. I ended up with about 3/4" - 1" gap between the rear instrument bar and the front of the grip. I still have like 1" or so sticking out behind the grip, so I might cut that down.

Good call,

My rear handle tubes are cut to 8.25".
I'd say get your favorite reference image, and try to mimic the same spacing for front and back of the grips against the tube. And trim the excess off the end.

A few updates from a long weekend of wiring and assembly! AJ's knobs were a big improvement to the resin ones I was already pretty happy with. Lots of little tweaks to get everything fitting nice and snug. Definitely in the home stretch now!













This last shot really makes me think that the 'resin throwers feel cheap' argument is just silly. I used metal where it counted (handles, knobs) but this thing looks and feels solid (and expensive!) ThrowingChicken's kit is fun.

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I know some of you have also used cat5 or telephone wire to hook your gun switches up to your sound board.
Since I was already using cat5, today I picked up an RJ45 straight coupler to make disconnecting the entire gun + loom a little easier in the future.

Now I can leave the sound board alone, and the only two cords coming out of my gun are the 'sound' cat5 cable, and the cat5 that connects R2Devo's light kits. Eventually I may run a small wire to switch on the main power from the gun as well.

But how does it sound?

It's really loud. I have to be careful with the volume on the canakit amp. It's probably on 2% ... if I turn it just a hair more, it's way beyond reasonable volume. The sound quality is pretty good though. I'll make a video when it's all back together.

Can I make a request for the video?

Play something from Daft Punk's Tron Soundtrack or the Rocketeer soundtrack.

That paint job is so sexy and clean. I'm for sure going to try that paint out.

I think... I may have just finished my pack build!
(Except for a couple of teeny detail parts I'm waiting on. Can you guess which?)

More pictures soon. How long did that take?

your teeny tiny piece is that shaft collar.

but man, that's still one hot pack.

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Something is up with my battery (or my wiring <--- it's very likely I am guilty of some major wiring no-no) - I was taking some, "I'm finished, right?" photos and after about 5 minutes of lights + hum sound, everything just shut off.

I tried flipping my master on/off switch a few times, nothing. Battery is totally dead. So either somewhere my wires are short circuiting, or my battery is a dud. When it works, it works great. Maybe one of you can figure out where I've gone wrong. It seems like I should have enough juice to keep everything running for awhile.

Here are the specs:
12v 9800 mAh Li-ion rechargable

And it's powering:
Crix's sound board
Canakit 7w amp
Spongeface's pre-amp
R2Devo's light kit(pack and thrower)
2x Bose 8 Ohm 40w speakers from a Cadillac CTS

Here's my current (crappy) schematic. I'm sure there are some no-nos in here, any help would be much appreciated!

I have a very similar setup going to mine, however, I am using proptronix pack/gun lights so I have to use everything with dpdt switches and running the light kit on a separate 9v. The way you have it wired looks a little off but I can't see it. Wait, aren't you supposed to have both the positive and the negative going straight from the battery into the pre-amp/battery elim? Yeah...

I could be totally wrong, but I think your wiring should look like this:



I hope this helps. Well, do what you did with the other speaker.

Did you charge the battery for 24 hours?

Why do you have the On/Off Switch wired to the positive wire? I thought it was supposed to be wired off the negative. I will look at my pack later tonight, but everything looks correct.

wonderfull job

Any luck?

gEkX wrote:Any luck?

I ran out of steam last night after you helped me figure out the main switch issue. I'll re-wire that tonight and let you know if it works. I think that switch might be the problem.

Thanks for the help so far guys (especially gEkX and 910dohead)

OK. I now have everything wired up like this:
It was really close to this already- but I was missing a wire from the negative (-) battery terminal to the Battery Eliminator/Pre-amp board. I'm beginning to think I may just have a bad battery.

There is a power connector coming off my battery to charge it, and when that is plugged in everything on the pack works completely fine. If I charge overnight- The pack will run off the battery for a few minutes, then dies and the red status LED on the battery will be dimly lit. If I try to turn the pack on, the dim LED just turns off like I'm trying to draw too much power.

It sounds like a dead cell inside the battery. If you decide to get another battery, try the 9.6volt RC battery from Radio Shack. I have the same setup that you do, except the battery and I have not had a problem yet.

Yeah - I did some more tests tonight, and did a little re-wiring so that I could isolate each circuit. The battery charged overnight, and when i first switched everything on, it ran for about 1 minute before everything shut down & wouldn't switch back on.

I then took the lights out of the equation, and ran just the sound stuff. The pack hum sound played for about 5 minutes before the battery seemed to die again.

I say 'seemed to die' because my battery has a red led status light on it. When the pack shuts off and the battery 'dies', so does this light. Although as soon as i completely disconnect the battery from my pack, the light pops back on nice and bright.

I'll try a new battery this weekend, because I have no idea what else could be going on.

Man, that sounds weird. I have the exact same battery that you are using, but I haven't rigged it to my setup yet. I'll get to all that when and after my pack/thrower is ready for it. I really hope I don't experience the same thing. I also hope you get it squared away.

Off the subject but wanted to say thank you for posting the N filter hole template. That really helps me out! By the way awesome build too!

Here's the latest wiring diagram. I thought the DPDT main power switch might help out (it didn't). I also tried disconnecting the sound and running it on it's own two AAs. Trying a new battery tonight.

That looks right to me. Good luck with the new battery.

gEkX wrote:That looks right to me. Good luck with the new battery.

We'll give it a shot! I picked up the 9.6v 8-cell rechargeable from RadioShack that wm6929 has. Nice little battery! I hope it works.

In the meantime... More pictures!

first off... OH MY GOD YOUR PACK IS AMAZING!!!!!!!
ive been messing with the gbfans app while at work for months, and have always seen this toppic as new but never clicked on it.
i dont know why but when i saw the words first pack, i expected to find a scratch built shell and other such items. not that i have anything against those but its never really caught my attention.
today i have a migraine and while i was laying in bed with all the lights off, trying to get a little relief i was bored out of my mind, and couldnt sleep any more. i decided that i would check out this thread that is ALWAYS on top of the newly commented threads HOLLY CRAP!!!!
MIGRAINE IS GONE!!!!!!!!!!

there were so many things that i wanted to comment on (all just comments like i tried something like that too, or how good you are doing), but i didnt want to "quote" 5 or more posts from each page.

-a little input, about my build-

back in December i had tried using a sponge face distort fix. but i eventually decided that it wasnt for me, and i didnt need it to fix my sounds because there was only distortion when i cranked the amp the the max anyway.

-your battery issue-
i have the same battery in my pack, and i have seen issues with it appearing to not charge, or only run for a short period of time. i actually replaced my first battery because i thought it was dead (it could have been i guess ill never know).
what i found with the 9800 batteries is that when they drain all the way it takes 3 days to charge them again. i dont know why, but if you unplug them before 3 days it will only run for a few minuets, or sometimes not at all.

i hope the issue you are having can be solved that easily.