Rog
This is the front section of the rifle as far as I have designed it.
The front block holds the laser optic array, video camera zoom and autofocus lens assembly and rest bars. Directly below is a red laser pointer which is used in conjunction with the video camera targeting system. The mid block is vented at the top to dispurse heat and to the rear of the vents and below may be seen the capacitor rotor bolts (CRB's). There are five on either side of the block and these rotate
building a reserve of energy on each firing cycle to help maintain a pulse charge to the laser array for the next discharge which allows for rapid fire. Behind the CRB's is the fore grip and above this the amplification chamber and elements. As the 7 lasers pass through the chamber from the diode block (housed inside the Kevlar action) the amplification elements glow bright green, in rapid succession sequentially, in varying patterns, depending on firing mode selected. Front and rear of the chamber elements can be seen two coolant pipes (on either side of the rifle) which are served by a pump which is activated by the firing cycles. Coolant can be seen being pumped through the perspex piping.
Directly behind the fore grip is the charge cell. Contained in each of the two end caps are not only the Nimh holding cells, but also three ultraviolet LEDs which, governed by a monitoring circuit, also housed in the end caps, glow with an intensity relative to the overall amount of charge left in the cells. This means that even though the charge would normally be more than sufficient to illuminate the LEDs when the rifle itself would no longer work, the LEDs will glow less brightly. The LEDs are there primarily to affect the 12 vaseline marbles housed in the holding tubes between the end caps. The molten glass the marbles were made from was irradiated with uranium during manufacture. This imbues them with the property of glowing green under ultraviolet light. So, not only does the weapon look as though it has a glowing atomic power pack but this power pack provides a visual monitor as to the packs state of charge; when the spheres are hardly glowing it's time to put the pack back into its charger, using one of the spares housed in the weapons stock in the interim.
The rest of the weapon is still under development. The action (main body of the weapon above the charge cell, trigger and pistol grip) houses the 7 laser diode block, flip up LCD video targetting screen (which includes infrared night sight so you can see your target in utter darkness but they will be completely unaware of being locked on by you), eccentric weighted servo motor to mimic power ramp build up (shake) on the pulse canon firing mode, rubber weighted solenoid activated on each pulse discharge to mimic recoil, and the numerous printed circuit boards, wiring loom etc. Servos for the coolant pump and CRB's will be housed inside the fore grip and mid block respectively. As with the technology used in the Phaser, the lasers will be driven by the sound effects of each of the firing modes the rifle will be armed with, and this will be hooked up to the amplification chamber elements LEDs so that the elements will react in sequence to the particular blast setting you choose (which is an electronics timing nightmare but an interesting challenge for one who is not an electronics person in the slightest).
This is as far as my R&D has reached. I was made redundant in February and am still unemployed so development pennies are scarce. As the weapon utilises 7 very high power laser diodes, I plan to build in stringent safety features. these will include a coded keypad to power up the weapon to begin with and a voice recognition/activated firing mode selection facility, which the owner will have to spend time training the weapon to recognise his/her voice. This means that in the unlikely event a child gets hold of the weapon and manages to find out the power up code for the key pad, they will still be unable to discharge the weapon (unless they've recorded the owners voice...). For those who fancy stripping the weapon to interfere with the laser modules PCBs to hike up the output power to give a burning laser weapon think again. The laser block houses a high charge capacitor that is linked to three microswitches which are activated on assembly. If disassembly of the block is attempted and the person does not have the correct sequence for the strip down, a ruinous charge will be fired through the diodes and PCBs rendering them completely inoperative.
Things are simply at the R&D stage at the moment as putting anything into physical practice is a financial impossibility. Once the recession recedes I shall, hopefully, be back in work and can put in a little more to the practical side of the project.
Love to hear your views on the above.
depth3d
