Props Product Review: Airsoft Halo MA-5B Assault Rifle (Evike CB-88 Chrono Blaster)

Status
Not open for further replies.
I just got the this gun in the BOA from Evike in October. I ordered a 7.4v lipo, but the gun won't turn on. Any advice on what could be the problem? I wire was loose on the gun in the battery compartment, I did my best to reattach it. If I contact Evike, do you think they can replace it? Any other information would be great. Thanks.
 
Jugulator,

Congrats on getting a cool and rare gun. As you saw in the review, it has some quirks and awesome features due to being essentially a custom gun.

I'll ask a couple of questions for some basic troubleshooting and we'll see where we're at. I don't know your level of experience or whether you even received instructions with this gun, so forgive me if some questions are extremely basic:

Did you install a household 9 volt battery in the back of the gun? This is what actually turns the gun on, runs the counter and fire selector systems. You don't even need the LiPo installed for basic testing of the gun. If you can't get the lights and ammo counter screen to light up, the problem is in this circuit.

I found that a 7.4 didn't work my gun well at all, but it it has a high MaH, this shouldn't be a problem. WARNING! My gun has a continuous power draw and will ruin a LiPo overnight if I leave it plugged in. I do not know if this is a problem for all of these, or just mine (perhaps I didn't reassemble it correctly). Either way, do NOT leave the LiPo in it. Again, the health or even the presence of the LiPo does not affect the gun turning on.

My copy had a wire come loose in the battery compartment almost immediately as well. It was one of the wires running to the motor itself. If your loose wire had a slide-on clip, then this was the same issue. Not hard to get back with tweezers or needle-nosed pliers. Still, this wire won't stop the gun from turning on.

Did you get instructions with the gun? If not, I can scan and send you mine.

Finally, Evike has a few spare magazines for sale on their site. Loading the magazine in the field is a PITA. If you intend to game with this gun, get a spare (or two) while you can.

Let me know how it came out and we'll go from there.

Redshirt
 
Redshirt,

The gun doesn't power up from the 9v battery, and there was a loose wire in the battery compartment. Even after I reattached it, it didn't power on.

Maybe there's something up with the wires inside the gun, and I don't think it would go over well if I broke the gun down. The gun didn't come with instructions, so if you could scan your copy that'd be greatly appreciated. What else do you suggest, and thank you for helping me.

Jugulator
 
Redshirt,

The gun doesn't power up from the 9v battery, and there was a loose wire in the battery compartment. Even after I reattached it, it didn't power on.

Maybe there's something up with the wires inside the gun, and I don't think it would go over well if I broke the gun down. The gun didn't come with instructions, so if you could scan your copy that'd be greatly appreciated. What else do you suggest, and thank you for helping me.

Jugulator

Jugulator,

PM sent. No, as you saw from my review, this gun takes a while to break down. Take a look through my breakdown photos and see what wires match up to the one you repaired to see if you got it back together right. Scanning my instructions for you.

Redshirt
 
20151104_222343.jpg
I was lucky enough to receive this weapon from the Box of Awesomeness. Its on of the the most unique guns I've ever owned. It shoots accurately and hard. This thing definitely has an intimation factor and it has a crisp and loud sound as you fire it.

EDIT: Redshirt was also very helpful with assisting me with troubleshooting the gun. It turned out to be an easy fix in the end. This gun is still amazing,and truly one of a kind.
 
Hello everybody. First post. If I do or say something stupid, please don't shoot me on sight. :)
Same about grammer errors : non-native English ect ect.


Here's a friendly warning to all CB88 owners : mine developed a very nasty failure yesterday after roughly 4000 bb's shot over a period of about a month.
A big THANK YOU to RedShirt for posting about this gun, and reporting the massive powerdrain of the gun when switched off. I've no doubt this warning has saved me more than 1 battery so far.

I also agree on his opinion that the inside of the CB88 isn't badly made at all. I've seen comparable AEG's from the inside, and compared to them the CB88 has been made with some TLC that's for sure.

HOWEVER.

If you fire your gun even for short bursts, inspect if you smell a typical "heated electornics" smell, roughly right above the battery compartment. If you do : read on. If you don't, might as well read on too.

While the mechanics of my gun were made pretty neat, the trigger/electronics board that resides just above the battery compartment was not. In fact, I believe it was soldered by a 8-year-old boy or girl in some sweatshop. The board is riddled with cold joints, wires are/were very badly soldered too. But worst of all, the rectifier (a TO-220 Mosfet part - IRFZ44n ) was either too badly soldered, or it was a fake IRFZ44n running lower specs than should be.

What happened :

After sighting in a laserpointer and firing off 40-or-so rounds in SF mode, the gun "took off" and went full auto _WITHOUT HAVING A FINGER ON THE TRIGGER_. I was so caught by surprise it took me a second or two to understand what was happening. I pulled out the mag, but the gun just kept spitting out the bbs still in the feed tube. I snapped out the battery holder and disconnect the 7.4 Lipo. ... so the gun stopped and went dead. And stayed dead after reconnecting the battery a minute later after a fast external visual inspection didn't immideatly show a reason for this behaviour.

After opening the gun, it turned out the IRFZ44n chip not only did fail, it failed catastrophically, it soldered itself OUT of the control PCB and in super-hot condition had caused a shortcircuit on the 9V line as the part had become so hot it litterally melted the 9V wires. There's a blob of hotglue at the rear side of the gun that fixate the 9V wires : the IRFZ has melted the hot glue and had fixated itself again on that position.

I've replace the IRFZ44n with a IRFZ48n now : not because I think the 44n shouldn't be more than strong enough to cope with the current draw of the CB88's motor, but because I couldn't find that 44'er in short notice. The 48 is pin-compatible, but it can draw a higher current. I now knew why the gun smelled so funny after firing even just a couple of rounds : the middle pin of the 44'er had turned blue-ish (typical sign of massive overheating).

As said, I replaced the 44n with a 48n, but also provided a small TO-220 compatible heatsink to make sure this issue wouldn't read its ugly head in the future. I also resoldered about 80% of the small PCB as the soldering quality was really sub-standard. The PCB only carries a small SMD chip, some passive SMD components, the IRFZ44n and some connectors, so that was done in a couple of minutes of time. I also replaced the fried 9V wires and refixated the stuff.

After that, the gun came back to life and I carefully reassembled it (note : the two side-LED's are really fragile in terms of soldering too ... one of them broke TWICE while reassembling the gun).



So the gist : if your gun smells funny after even firing of 20 or 30 rounds, you might be on your way to a similar situation. The good news : it's easy to fix. The bad news : you'll have to open the gun.


Anyhow, after opening the gun, I'm quite sure I'll make some additional modifiations (a better flashlight, possibly a combo flashlight/laser dot) and some kind of deadmans' switch to prevent "run away" firing in the future for sure by automatically disconnecting the main battery when not being used to fire. (maybe a pressure switch in the stock, but that would mean the gun can only be fired when being shouldered .... not to happy about that. If anybody has a better idea : shoot :) ).

Hope this info will be useful to some of you guys someday because as it stands, our CB88's won't be easy to replace if they'd break down. For all I know this might be a batch problem, or maybe I'm the only one. Can't say.
But it's a good thing the overal construction of the CB88 is pretty good and repairs are pretty easy to carry out.

If you've got any questions about this : just ask. Till then happy shooting !

PS : actually, it should be pretty easy to implement a switch that disconnects the main battery whenever the gun is put in safety : that would be the more elegant solution. If there's any interest in this, I'll do a small update on this when I do it.
 
Hello everybody.

Here's a friendly warning to all CB88 owners :
If you fire your gun even for short bursts, inspect if you smell a typical "heated electornics" smell, roughly right above the battery compartment. If you do : read on. If you don't, might as well read on too.

After opening the gun, it turned out the IRFZ44n chip not only did fail, it failed catastrophically, it soldered itself OUT of the control PCB and in super-hot condition had caused a shortcircuit on the 9V line as the part had become so hot it litterally melted the 9V wires. There's a blob of hotglue at the rear side of the gun that fixate the 9V wires : the IRFZ has melted the hot glue and had fixated itself again on that position.

I've replace the IRFZ44n with a IRFZ48n now : not because I think the 44n shouldn't be more than strong enough to cope with the current draw of the CB88's motor, but because I couldn't find that 44'er in short notice. The 48 is pin-compatible, but it can draw a higher current. I now knew why the gun smelled so funny after firing even just a couple of rounds : the middle pin of the 44'er had turned blue-ish (typical sign of massive overheating).

If you've got any questions about this : just ask. Till then happy shooting !

PS : actually, it should be pretty easy to implement a switch that disconnects the main battery whenever the gun is put in safety : that would be the more elegant solution. If there's any interest in this, I'll do a small update on this when I do it.

Kaween,

Outstanding first post. Your English and grammar are superior to many lazy native speakers on this board. I've been considering reopening my CB-88 and looking for the voltage drain. I suspect it is in the solder work of the PCB board as well. The gun's electronic package is way beyond anything else on the market, but is also its Achilles heel. As you can see in my pictures, the soldering on my PCB board looked 'sweat shop'.

Safety is somewhat of an issue on this gun as it does not have a trigger guard in keeping with the game model. The best way to do a deadman's switch would be to build in a grip safety like a 1911 pistol. The trigger can't work unless the handgrip safety is squeezed at the same time. A normally open pressure switch that can handle the LiPo amperage would be the most correct answer. While an interrupter circuit for the low-voltage trigger would solve the lack of trigger guard, it wouldn't make the gun inherently safe. extending and routing the LiPo wires through the grip to a cutout switch would safe the gun AND stop the draw on the LiPo! The mod might also get the bulky fuse out of the way to make more room for a battery.

Thank you for adding your review to the thread.

Redshirt
 
Hello Redshirt.

Thank you for the kind words. :) And thank YOU for bringing this gun to my attention. I'd probably never knew about it if I hadn't read your excellent review.
I'll do my best to keep up with you guys as good as I can.

Concerining the CB88's electronics : it's an educated guess from my side, but I'm 99% the firing system of the CB88 would turn out to be more or less identical to another SW product : the Aliens M41a1 pulse rifle. It would explain the 95 rounds preset -which is correct for a M41A1 in terms of following the movies' original rifle and the double battery setup (9V logic, 7.4 or 8.4 for the motor).

I'm quite sure that if somebody would have a fried CB88 which seems beyond repair, using the electronics of a M41a1 would go a long way.

Your comment about the look of your gun's electronics was a bit what I expected. I don't think the actual assembly of the board has anything to do with the parasitic drain of the lipo : it happens WAY to fast for this to be anything else than a design issue -again, I think-.


As for a deadmans' switch .... I don't want to mess up the guns' looks with some out-of-place looking switch and I'd prefer some kind of clean solution. But with the all end-of-year madness coming up I won't have the time to do much about it (I guess most of us will have that "problem" ... :) ) I'll just think about possible solutions.
By end of January, I'll have some free time on my hands again so if nobody else has produced some kind of fix for this by that time, I'll come up with something I'm sure and I'll document what I've done.

But I really want to avoid tampering with the CB88's external design : I'll either investigate the possibility to use the existing trigger safety switch to do the job without changing the external dimensions of this safety "bar" as you still have to be able to remove it freely to disassemble the -let's just call it a MA5C instead-. If that doesn't work I'll look to use the trigger logic board to operate a microrelais to control the Lipo voltage line. Possibilities enough, just have to look what's the easiest and cleanest solution that can be reproduced by everyone who's interested.

Anyhow, latest end of january, I'll make sure to have some solution ready and posted here for anyone interested.
 
Nice thread Redshirt. Ive missed a lot it seems lol. I almost won this gun at the evike Airsoft camp this year. i was one number away.
 
Hey Redshirt,

First of all, I want to commend you for your excellent and thorough review of the CB 88 Chrono blaster. You included everything people should know about it and how to deal with any internal issues that may pop up. I recently received one of these in the Evike Swag Pack. I am definitely going to suggest this review to any of my potential buyers. Definitely worth it, considering Evike doesn't have any information regarding these guns, and people should know the ins and outs of every Airsoft that they plan on buying. Many thanks, and keep up the great work!

I will however like to add something concerning the gun battery. According to Evike support, this gun isn't LiPo ready right out of the box. The gun is designed to run a 8.4v small NiMh brick type battery. Anyone who has/is considering running a LiPo without doing any modifications should expect problems. They recommend two options, either run a 8.4v small NiMh brick type or rewire the gun to accommodate higher voltages (9.6v small NiMh brick types) or LiPos.

You may have already addressed this and I overlooked it, in which I apologize. If not, I thought it was good to know since a lot of comments I've seen have concerned battery issues. I believe the NiMh do not loose charge while the gun isn't in use. I haven't received my 8.4v small NiMh brick type battery yet to clarify this. Like you said, with some modifications, you can run a LiPo, and prevent LiPo batteries from loose charge, but not right out of the box.
 
Hey Redshirt,

First of all, I want to commend you for your excellent and thorough review of the CB 88 Chrono blaster. You included everything people should know about it and how to deal with any internal issues that may pop up. I recently received one of these in the Evike Swag Pack. I am definitely going to suggest this review to any of my potential buyers. Definitely worth it, considering Evike doesn't have any information regarding these guns, and people should know the ins and outs of every Airsoft that they plan on buying. Many thanks, and keep up the great work!

I will however like to add something concerning the gun battery. According to Evike support, this gun isn't LiPo ready right out of the box. The gun is designed to run a 8.4v small NiMh brick type battery. Anyone who has/is considering running a LiPo without doing any modifications should expect problems. They recommend two options, either run a 8.4v small NiMh brick type or rewire the gun to accommodate higher voltages (9.6v small NiMh brick types) or LiPos.

You may have already addressed this and I overlooked it, in which I apologize. If not, I thought it was good to know since a lot of comments I've seen have concerned battery issues. I believe the NiMh do not loose charge while the gun isn't in use. I haven't received my 8.4v small NiMh brick type battery yet to clarify this. Like you said, with some modifications, you can run a LiPo, and prevent LiPo batteries from loose charge, but not right out of the box.


Blacksyper,

Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks for the comments and advice. My LiPo conversion consisted of adding a deans connector. Not exactly a comprehensively-thought out conversion. Although I am now running a very small 11.1V LiPo, I did start with a 7.4V LiPo which was destroyed. The 7.4 did not run the CB-88 very fast at all, so the small LiPos are not overwhelming the CB-88. Even so, I can't deny that LiPos deliver power differently than other batteries no matter the size so so it is worth looking into. Thank you, and good luck with your sale.

Redshirt
 
Thanks for this post, Redshirt.

I picked one of these up a few weeks ago and mine didn't come with any instructions, so I've been stuck on what size battery this thing needs to operate. I don't airsoft at all (paintball all the time, I'm one of "those" people) so I'm not really familiar with this hobby, and this being a niche gun doesn't help haha. I picked mine up simply as a collector, and it should be fun for the occasional cosplay or LAN party. I'll be sure to follow your advice for operating this bad boy :)

Thanks for sharing!
 
Blacksyper is spot-on. Did some measurements after reading his remark.

Due to the different behaviour of a LiPo compared to other battery systems, the CB's electronics drain a constant 72mA out of a Lipo when the CB88 is switched off.
I didn't have a 7.4 NiMH at hand, so I used a regulated DC power supply set at 7.4V : 0 drain. I rigged a 7.5V setup with 5 alkaline batteries, resulting in a drain of 0,02mA.

There's now no doubt in my mind the difference of the internal impedance between the different battery technologies is causing the massive drain on the Lipo's, destroying the Lipo's after little more than 10 hours. (1200mAH Lipo @ 72mA drain means battery death after 11 hours ... actually even faster with Lipo's)

So either you stick with NiMH with this gun, or you'll have to disconnect the LiPo after use.
 
Thanks for this post, Redshirt.

I picked one of these up a few weeks ago and mine didn't come with any instructions, so I've been stuck on what size battery this thing needs to operate. I don't airsoft at all (paintball all the time, I'm one of "those" people) so I'm not really familiar with this hobby, and this being a niche gun doesn't help haha. I picked mine up simply as a collector, and it should be fun for the occasional cosplay or LAN party. I'll be sure to follow your advice for operating this bad boy :)

Thanks for sharing!

Revenant1988,

Thanks. With so few of these guns out there, it is cool that we now have a good-sized group of owners here. I sent a copy of the instructions to Jugulator. Just PM me with your e-mail address and I'll send the scan to you as well. Since it looks like many owners did not receive instructions, I will see if our 405th file system where the Pepakura files go is able to host it so everyone can access the instructions. If not, I'll photograph each page and post it.

Once you get set up, try the airsoft hobby, you might prefer the accurate weapon replicas and load-outs.



Blacksyper is spot-on. Did some measurements after reading his remark.

Due to the different behaviour of a LiPo compared to other battery systems, the CB's electronics drain a constant 72mA out of a Lipo when the CB88 is switched off.
I didn't have a 7.4 NiMH at hand, so I used a regulated DC power supply set at 7.4V : 0 drain. I rigged a 7.5V setup with 5 alkaline batteries, resulting in a drain of 0,02mA.

There's now no doubt in my mind the difference of the internal impedance between the different battery technologies is causing the massive drain on the Lipo's, destroying the Lipo's after little more than 10 hours. (1200mAH Lipo @ 72mA drain means battery death after 11 hours ... actually even faster with Lipo's)

So either you stick with NiMH with this gun, or you'll have to disconnect the LiPo after use.

Kaween,

Thanks for taking the time out to do the testing. Very interesting results. Sad to see it isn't just my gun that is a LiPo killer. I picked up several cheap LiPo alarms off of Amazon with the intent of running one in the CB88 and my other guns. Even though the little alarm is minuscule, there wasn't room for it inside the CB88. With your permission, I will edit the original post here and on the Airsoft Retreat to add your findings.

Anyone running a LiPo in these guns needs to follow Kaween's advice and "Stick with NiMH with this gun, or you'll have to disconnect the LiPo after use."



Blacksyper,

Thanks for pointing out that this gun is not "LiPo ready."

Redshirt
 
... no permission needed. :)

As said before, I'm happy to contribute in any manner and if it hadn't been for Blacksypers' remark, I'd never imagined the battery technology itself to be the cause of this issue..

This doesn't change my idea of altering the gun's internals one bit though : as a failure of the IRFZ Mosfet could still cause an out-of-control firing mode independant of used battery, modifying the guns' powerline would not only make the gun a lot safer, it would also make it "LiPo friendly" so I will still go ahead with that idea.
 
... no permission needed. :)

As said before, I'm happy to contribute in any manner and if it hadn't been for Blacksypers' remark, I'd never imagined the battery technology itself to be the cause of this issue..

This doesn't change my idea of altering the gun's internals one bit though : as a failure of the IRFZ Mosfet could still cause an out-of-control firing mode independant of used battery, modifying the guns' powerline would not only make the gun a lot safer, it would also make it "LiPo friendly" so I will still go ahead with that idea.

Thanks. Yes, I also like the idea behind your mod as it will cut out the LiPo except for actually firing.

Redshirt
 
NOTE:

on evike all i get are the mags... so Red, can i-We as a community- Get a link?

Sorry Yortstorm, I'm not holding back on you. They are not available for direct purchase in the US due to their blatant copyright infringement. Evike still has them, they just can't sell them direct, that's why they are randomly distributed in a small percentage of their Box of Awesomeness (BOA) promotionals. You have to either take a chance (not good odds) and buy a BOA or find someone who is willing to sell or trade. The best way to do that is to follow the comments on the most recent BOA page and find a willing seller. http://www.evike.com/products/58595/

Here on the 405th, I think Blacksyper is looking to part with his, I'd send him a PM.

The only place I know of to buy a CB88 direct is at Land Warrior Airsoft in the UK http://www.landwarriorairsoft.com/airsoft-weapons-c38/electric-rifles-c45/assault-rifle-p4199
They are out of stock and would want $844 plus shipping if they had them.

Good luck.

Redshirt
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top