Tackling the battery box

The back box of the Star Laser Force pack is pretty much all batteries, which is not uncommon in the industry to this day, although technology has vastly improved since then! Each of the three separate power supplies used conventional NiCd cells.

All hand built, too.
The single remaining AA cell was removed due to corrosion.

Workspace shift

Took two weeks off to set up, play, and tear down laser tag, and one more for a pinball project. Since then I've decided to move the restoration project to another room with better lighting and more space. I'm tackling the battery box next.

Deconstructing the helmet

As hinted in the last post, I have the exceptionally rare opportunity to inspect and clean up one of the Star Laser Force packs for the Laser Tag Museum.  Part of this will involve making sure it's in functioning condition, or at least that it might light up while on display as it once did when it was being used.

A quick inspection shows the helmet to be worse off than the vest, so I'll tackle it first. It is not ready for polite society. The padding is rotted, the leather is moldy, and the wiring is trashed. There's no ID number, so I can't pull the service logs, but going by appearance it seems to have seen a lot of battles.

I was a teenaged Xenon Red Raider.

First step was to remove the lining and foam. I found the wiring to be held in place with duct tape, or (most often) no longer held in place, and the tape dull or balled up.

You volunteered.  Suck it up and get scrubbing, soldier.

Some of the duct tape still holds wire runs down or even sticks bare soldered splices in place so they don't short. Unfortunately whoever built this (or repaired it) didn't use simple heat shrink tubing to slip over the soldered connections. Most splices are insulated with electrical tape, which is holding up pretty well considering its age, but it will all need attention.

Okay, I can see the team color LEDs everywhere, but where are those hit sensors?

T 1¾ size. Ish.

Hmm... there's a peanut lamp on each side of the face. Try as I might, I can't remember these being used in the game... but don't hold me to it.

A real light bulb, with a filament and everything. How about that pile of particulate crud that showered out of the interior when I flipped the helmet over? It's like my dad's ashtray. Actually the light bulb is kind of my dad's era, too, now...

There's a pretty substantial pocket carved out of the Styrofoam in the helmet, a couple of unused holes in the top of the helmet, and four neatly severed wires, so I'm going to assume for now that the helmet sensors are gone... or were they any sensors to begin with? Perhaps a sensor board, or even a speaker? There's not much to go on here. I hope there will be another unit to compare with someday.

There's a 6" harness out the back of the helmet that's in good shape until you get to the interior, where the connections are iffy and the multiconductor cable itself can't be inspected without hacking it up, but it looks like something I wouldn't trust, like a cable that has been abused. I may end up bypassing it and going straight to the pack connector for the restoration.  Besides, I'm looking forward to finding out why the vest plug has 6 connector pins, while the helmet harness has only 4 pins (shield/ground, LED power, and two unknowns).

In the mean time, I've given the helmet a light polish, preserving the battle scars while removing a layer of grunge. The road to polite society has at last been found.

Megatron 100

It's almost time to blow the lid off this system.

Hardware geekery to come.  Shoutout to Lee Weinstein.

Poster Giveaway!

The Laser Tag Museum seeks to preserve and commemorate the historic foundations of the game (or sport), documenting the efforts of the laser tag pioneers and collecting the original equipment used in those games.

Starting last year, the 30th anniversary of Photon, the Museum issued the first International Laser Tag Day poster depicting the battle gear actually used in arena Photon games.

The new 2015 posters

The 2015 International Laser Tag Day poster honors the 30th anniversary of Star Laser Force with a photo of the newly recovered battle suit of the Starship Blue Force.  Thanks to the Museum I have a limited number of these 18x24" posters to give away to readers.  Here are the rules:

• First come, first served. Email me at the address on the sidebar to request a poster.
• If you are in or near the City of Houston, I can probably meet with you and give it to you directly.
• If not, I may ask you to pay for postage.

It's as simple as that. If this message is still here, posters are still available.

3rd in order, Hall of Famer

After years of research, the Laser Tag Museum has declared Star Laser Force to be the third indoor laser tag system opened to the public worldwide (after Photon in Dallas and Laser Zone in Chicago). If you were ever at Star Laser Force, that makes you an industry pioneer!

30th anniversary honors.