Airsoft Tripmine - CON 20

[pizzainthemorning]

Maybe this should have gone in the Gear section, but I think it’ll be fine here too.

I’ve read alot of stuff about tripmines and airsoft “explosive type” devices on the boards lately, so I’ve had this thing for a while now, and have decided to finally throw this out there.

Several months ago I put up a post about something I call the CON 17. It was an airsoft mine I developed. The mines worked alright, but due to their small size you’d either need to plant them very efficiently in a high traffic area, or have plenty of them. The solution was to develop an airsoft tripmine, one that could be set off by crossing a line. Lots of R&D later I got the CON 20.

Now, I don’t know if this kind of stuff has been done before, but hey, I gave it a shot, it works well, it’s cheap, and home made, so if you’re still interested, read on.

The device is similar in design to the CON 17. The basic principle is that the mine is triggered, a CO2 capsule is punctured and either 1). BB’s shoot out of the barrel (apprx. 21). 2). Powder shoots out of the barrel. The powder (usually baby) is just for effect making a big plume of “smoke” and is typically used because it’s safer and easier.

The CON 20 is cheap to make, 100% reusable, very reliable, safe, and disassembles easily. The design has gone off without a hitch dozens and dozens of times in “lab conditions” (indoors, which means it’s tried and tested for CQB) and has been tested outdoors a few times flawlessly, yet has only seen actual outdoor combat use once (I hope to up that soon).

So here’s the technical breakdown. It’s very simple but you need an imagination to understand. At the bottom of a tube is a little spike. Midway up that tube a hole is drilled in which the trigger pin is inserted through the tube. A CO2 capsule rests in the upper half of the tube on the pin facing head down. Above the CO2 is a compressed spring. Both ends of the tube are held securely in place by pins. There is a hole near the bottom of the tube that leads to a barrel attached to the tube that runs along its length. When the trigger pin is removed the spring shoots the CO2 down onto the sharp spike, puncturing it, letting loose a bunch of gas. This gas flows through the hole in the tube and out the barrel creating a big pffft and either a shower of bb’s or plume of powder.

Total cost is somewhere around 5 bucks (not including the spring, I have yet to find a cheap, abundant and reliable source of springs). I’ve attached (hopefully) two pictures, as well as a zip file containing a little quicktime movie of the mine going off during a test (note: in the .mov the wire is manually pulled. You could string the wire between two trees and wait for it to be indirectly tripped, or you could set the mine, conceal yourself, then pull the cord when the enemy gets near, both work fine.).

Now, any Joe could make these, but not every Joe wants to or has the time to. What I want to know is, would there be any interest in the airsoft community for purchasing these trip mines? I’ve never seen a real tripmine before (other than claymores) but to be honest, I doubt these fully look the part. However, they do fit the profile of your more “terrorist like, improvised explosive device”. I don’t know the exact figures yet for pricing yet, but it’d cover the cost of materials, and a small (it would be small small, I’d rather get them out there in use than make an extra buck) fee for manufacture. If yes, cool, I’ll look into what can be done. If not, that’s fine too. If you want to make your own, great, just give a little credit and be safe.

So, any questions or comments are more then welcome. What do you think?

A link to test footage, more on the way. For me I had to right click this link and "save target as", I might just need a plugin or something though.

http://www.filelodge.com/files/hdd2/27151/CON20.mov

NEW:
Test footage of a slow walk indoors.

http://www.filelodge.com/files/hdd2/...ON20 Stalk.mov

More of a normal paced walk indoors.

http://www.filelodge.com/files/hdd2/...CON20 Walk.mov

Alex

[Bob the Angry Potato]

Wow... looks pretty good.
I'd like to see one in action.

[yanhchan]

I'd pay up to 10-15 dollars for that kit

[Kid]

Originally Posted by yanhchan

I'd pay up to 10-15 dollars for that kit

Phhh.. Cheapass, I think something like that would take about $40 or more + shipping, no idea though.

Any idea what the cost of these would be?

[gallantcorey]

Well depending how big the video is, you can put it on www.filelodge.com , there is a 15mb limit per file though.

[fly_boy]

It depends on the cost. If it is cheep and easy to use I would buy one.

[pizzainthemorning]

Ok, try this out

http://s52.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1...K28VIAU7L2AU77

It says it'll be up there for 7 days OR for a certain number of downloads (how many, I have no idea, so notify me if it's not working. I'll also give that other file lodge site a go, thanks).

Like I said, I'm missing the spring, key ingredient, but I'm giving a rough guess of somewhere between 10-20 bucks, then add shipping.

Alex

[Iconix]

First off nice work, I myself have been trying to figure out "tripmine" Ideas.
I have a request! Can you take some sort tape and put it onto a tree or some open space so I myself and maybe others can see the mine work not just the smoke?

Im for this dont get me wrong when I mention this.

Im a tad concerned about the Nails, Pressure+Nail= projectiles. How does your mine work with the nails im not sure if they are just "pins" is there a way you can use small screws instead or possibly apoxy one end and figure something out for the other? Wooden dowel?

Besides that bud, get me photos of what the product looks like after it has gone off and a video showing it going off that the product is visible and I will more than likely buy one or two even.

Again Good Work, But you may have competition out there!! :P

[HGI]

Ok I just whatched the video but it seems like your realy TUGGIN on the trip wire to set it off. So if someone was running then ya they'ed set it off, if walking then no. Also it shoots strate up? maybe put something on the top to direct the BB's to the side? It looks good and the concept is right, I just feel that it could spend a few more days on the work bench.

I feel that any powder wont work for the majority of the airsoft community, people wanna get hit by BB's. Hope you find a cheap sorce of springs also.

-More sensitive trigger
-BB's shooting out to a side more than strate up.

[Lord Jebus]

That's a sweet design... I work at an Autoparts store that also sells industrial supplies... I've got a great selection of springs as well as other parts for the mine... Let me see what I can come up with when I get back from San Francisco next weekend. I'll have a complete list of parts and prices if you want.

Let me know

[pizzainthemorning]

As for the safety concern, you are right to voice but I can assure it's just like any airsoft gun, if used properly it should be fine. All of the nails that are used (two safety pins and a trigger pin) have the ends filed down so they are very very dull. The two safety pins haven't shot out yet after dozens of trials and if for some weird reason they decided do, they'd be no more hazardous than a bb. As for the trigger pin, let me explain. I use fishing line for the trip line. It has a certain amount of elasticity to it, and I'm not sure if it's the tension of the line that shoots out the pin or the CO2 force, but the trigger pin will "shoot" a bit. In that particular video it hit my arm and gave me a little scratch, so always wear glasses, but otherwise again, no worries.

Trigger sensitivity:
The yank in the video is excessive. The more power the trigger pin is removed with, the sure...er.. (that seems weird) you are of having a clean detonation. However, I've also done tests of slowly walking through the line, and due to the elastic feature of fishing line, the trigger pin is still yanked out when the tension is too great, so it works well like that too.

BB's and Firing Direction:
If you wanted to use powder, but have it shoot AT you I could always redesign the barrel so it has a 90 degree angle at the end so it shoots towards your ankles rather than up.

For bb's, the 90 degree might work if it was a gradual curve to 90, but something tells me this would be tough.

I think though, that with some creativity, and maybe an extra nail or two you can make the mine detonate and shoot in almost any direction. But yeah, as was mentioned, a few more days on the work bench could change a lot so thanks for the comments/ideas and keep 'em coming.

Oh, someone also said "if it's easy to use". Yes, it is very easy, but here's the other bonus. For fun when I made them I made an operating manual, which is actually pretty thorough. Goes over deployment, mechanics of the mine, troubleshooting etc. So that idea is out there too.

As for spring talk, thanks a lot, anything helps. Feel free to PM or e-mail.

Lastly, I'm also working on getting some more video/photos so I'll try to do that asap.

Alex

[dman]

What is the ruling on most paintball fields regarding CO2 cartridges, or devices like this? I think that's the major problem with all the mine/grenade ideas so far.

[FOX_111]

From the video, look like you need a lot of torque to trigger it.

[Luger]

Video link not working.

[tito_1985]

Cut the trigger pin down so it only catches the spring, maybe even add some grease to the end of the pin. This should cut the amount of force needed to trip the device.