After not using the laser guns for a couple of years, we had a quick game the other week and it dawned on me how the technology used in them is starting to show its age. I’m starting to toy with the idea of refreshing the LibreTag system to take advantage of these newly available technologies. I am also toying with the idea of moving the system over to the Arduino platform. Whilst I am still a major fan of the Picaxe chips, I feel the LibreTag project will be limited by them going forward.
The first thing I would like to tackle is the head sensors, the current design were built in Tic Tac boxes and were never meant to be a permanent solution. 4 years on and after numerous repairs they are really on their last legs. Due to the weak plastic used in Tic Tac boxes a lot of them have cracked and the wires connecting the sensors have accidental been pulled out numerous times.
After looking around the internet for a few ideas I have seen that some other Laser Tag projects are now designing/building wireless head sensors to remove the cable connecting the gun and head sensor, which is normally the most fragile part.
I have seen some very cost effective 2.4Ghz RF modules on Ebay that could allow for a possible wireless link between the gun and the head sensors. I’m hoping to get a few test components and do some initial testing to see if its something that’s feasible.