Airsoft Hacks

As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to do some testing on the difference in rate of fire with a stock DBoys Full Metal M4A1 and different motors and battery voltages. At the time I had available to me the stock motor that came installed in the M4, a Tokyo Marui EG700 motor and a Systema Turbo motor. Batteries used for testing were the standard 8.4v mini battery which the M4 came with and an Intellect 1400Mah 9.6v battery.

Onto the tests..

To calculate the average rounds per second, I used my laptop with a standard pc microphone and used Audacity to record the sound of the gun firing. Each wave peak recorded and graphed by audacity can be counted as a single shot. For each test, I fired one 2 second burst followed by a 3 second burst.

From the sound wave produced in audacity, I then counted the number of peaks in a given second. I took 3 seperate seconds and calculated the average based on those. Below is a table of the results achieved. Note that there is no figure for the Systema Turbo motor running on the 8.4v battery, the cheap batteries that come free with clone AEGs do not appear to be powerful enough to push this motor with a 1 Joule (or close to it) spring installed. However I have tested with a good quality 8.4v battery and it ran quite well, although it was at a skirmish so I was unable to record the rate of fire at the time.

And while we’re at it… here’s a nice shiny graph of the whole lot:

Motor and Battery Rate of Fire Comparison

It should also be noted that the Systema Turbo motor is a very heavy drain on a battery, the Intellect 1400Mah battery I used lasts less than a thousand rounds, so you pay a price for that kind of rate of fire.

Interestingly the stock Dboys motor and the TM EG700 motor performed exactly the same, running with a 9.6v, the TM motor did average 14 rounds per second as opposed to the stock motor’s 13.67, however this is not a significant enough difference to be conclusive. Physically the two motors are identical and performance wise they also appear to be the same.

There’s not much more to say on the matter really, the results above say everything I could, any questions or comments though, feel free to click the comment button below.

Oh and while we’re here, here’s some nice pictures of the various wave forms recorded in Audacity:

8.4v Stock Motor

8.4v TM EG700 Motor

9.6v Stock Motor

9.6v TM EG700 Motor

9.6v Systema Motor

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted here, I had a good holiday, thanks! Spent a really great month travelling around Europe, taking in Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic and Germany. Saw a fair few places and there’s still a lot more I didn’t get to see, so I fully intend on travelling around Europe again, at least another month next summer and then more whenever I get a chance.

Me sitting on the pier in Trieste, Italy

Didn’t get a chance to play any airsoft while I was away unfortunately, the closest I came to it was a store in Marseille which sold airsoft guns, it wasn’t exclusively an airsoft store as it also sold computer games and model cars and such, but they had some semi-decent stuff inside, albeit overpriced. Also found out that the owner of the hostel I stayed at in Bled (Slovenia, beautiful place by the way, definitely recommended) ran an airsoft site, but we were there midweek so there wasn’t really enough people to play against. Ah well…

Anyway, on with the show….

This will be a brief review of the Dboys M4, to be honest, there are plenty of reviews out there already on this very popular AEG and there’s not really much I can add to that….

The team weapon for Na Taibhse (The ghosts in Irish) is the M4, so I decided it was about time I picked one up. The m4 is quite a popular weapon in the airsoft world and you can barely turn your head at a skirmish without seeing one. Likewise, the DBoys (or Boyi as they are sometimes known) replica of the M4 is quite popular and this is for good reason.

I opted for the M4A1 with the metal body from rsov.com. As always, their service was excellent. On initial testing of the M4 out of the box, I wasn’t particularly impressed, some misfeeds and quite poor accuracy and range. As with most clone AEGs, the barrel was absolutely filthy at first, so I spent quite a bit of time cleaning the barrel, then finetuning the hopup and I also sprayed some silicone oil into the mags (where would we be without silicone oil eh?).

After cleaning the barrel, the accuracy and range improved greatly, the magazines were also feeding alot better now too. I didn’t bother with the Hi-cap magazine that came with the gun, instead opting for the 90 round mid-caps. After using the P90 for so long where one single wind will empty 90% of the magazine, I’ve gotten tired of having to wind in the middle of a firefight.

The rate of fire was good, although maybe a tiny bit slow in comparison to some other AEGs with the stock 8.4v battery, I decided to test it out with a 9.4v 1400Mah Intellect battery I had spare and found it to be a bit better. I didn’t think a 9.6v would fit in the foregrip of the M4, but I found it would fit in, although it is a little tight at first, once you figure it out it’s quite easy to install.

More on the RoF in my next post, where I will compare the stock DBoys M4A1 running with the stock motor, a Tokyo Marui EG700 Motor and a Systema Turbo Motor