[flight cancled]

I decided after not seeing this thread for months at a time, and trying to sort through it to find things to remake the quagmire that was the official egg mod thread. Please don’t ask if a damn mod works. It is here for a reason, it has been done many many times for that same reason: it works.

Also big Props to the writer of the original thread SlingerXL, he deserves a ton of props, and this is nothing against him.

First lets set up some common language
Definitions
Impeller-white soft plastic piece with six appendages that spins and feeds the balls in an egg
Paddle-one of the white appendages on the impeller
Servo-Black box that makes the impellor spin. Bottom section contains a very low torque, high speed motor, the top section has gears that slow the rpms down and increase torque
Raceway- Semi-circular clear cup that the impellor spins in.
Feedneck- portion of the raceway that extends out of the jopper and goes into the feedneck of a marker.
Circuit board- long narrow board that goes around the raceway, and contains all the pins for connectors, on/off switch, led, “eyes” etc.
“Eyes”- an IR(infra red) emitter and receiver that create a beam of IR going across the feedneck. These “see” wheter or not there is a ball in the feedneck by telling the circuit board whether or not there is a ball in the chamber(receiver is getting no IR) or not(receiver gets IR beam).
Battery(Batt) Board- small square board that has for clips in it that connect to the battery.
Ball Ramp- clear plastic piece that forces all the balls in the hopper to roll into the raceway.

Notes on older model eggs:
As an owner of a first run egg II I just want to give a little info on them as they can be a little confusing in design.
First, the shells have a bubble in the front screw that pinches the raceway in place- it will not line up with a newer shell.
Second, the eyes weren’t very well thought out. And as a result look through a set of holes drilled into the raceway- should you every have eye issues you will probably need to get a bigger drill bit and enlarge the holes (this creates a bigger liability for the eyes getting dirty so be warned).
Third, the battery board is actually a revolution board holder and clips with the clips soldered together to make a parallel circuit. Also you will notice that instead of the normal two wires(red and black) there is a third, a yellow wire. Should you choose to do the nine volt connector mod, you must solder this into where the two connectors meet.
Fourth- the eye covers aren’t hard case plastic, they are soft little caps with holes puched out of them, these can shift of become deformed and block the IR beam.
Last- there are very small wires soldered along the top of the board, be very careful of these as they are delicate and hard to solder back on without melting. Also doing a three nine volt mod to a board without replacing these for larger wires will overtime burn out the board

Now to the mods. These have been posted in order of what you are working on, then from easiest to hardest. Please note as I get to the bottom that I will begin to give to very good hints as to how to do things, but no real instruction, there is a reason! Please pm me if you would like more information, as I don’t want people to try to do things that are way beyond their ability and mess up their gear.

I am in no way responsible for anything that you do here, by reading beyond this point you accept that anything that you do on your own to your gear or someone elses on your time is your problem.

Electrical:
Rechargeable Batteries- purchase high power Bone marker batteries from dueydog or any other company you please. 2-3bps depending on brand its really a money saver.

Three battery mod-

(you need a 9 volt battery connector, superglue or double sided Velcro, and a drill or knife) cut the red wire going between the two boards. connect the red wire coming form the circuit board to the black wire of the connector. Now connect the red of the connector to the red coming from the battery board. Now drill or cut out a hole where the two halves of the ball ramp meets so that the wires can fit in the gap. Now is where you make a decision: Do you want the ball ramp? If not mount the 9v using one of these super glued or velcroed to the bottom of the ball cavity under the door.
Can also be done with the battery conector mod the same way by substisuting the two main connecotrs for the battery board in the diagram.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electron...ting_Clip.html
If you want to keep the ball ramp you can cut out a little strip where the upper corner of the ramp can fit.




putting connectors on the stock battery board clips Curtosy of Lightningbolt,





Installing battery connectors in place of the battery board(removes pressure from the battery door so it doesn't break)



Capacity mods:

remove the ball ramp

[God] Mod
If you look at the front of the shell there are two reinforcing walls- dremel out the top wall with a sanding bit, be sure to smooth all edges. Courtesy of Infinite 727
http://img29.echo.cx/img29/1926/10111418ms.jpg -really good pic


Buy a Z board- 2-4 bps

Impeller mods:
Revolution mod- put the stock revolution impeller into the egg. It catches much more paint then the stock impeller(6) as it holds paint off the bottom of the raceway and against the walls instead. Also it agitates the whole hopper(looks like a toilet bowl flushing) so paint not feeding into the gaps in the impellor isn't an issue like with the stock egg one. 5-6 bps

Cut Egg paddle mod- cut away paddles to either leave a straight line(you cut four paddles, my favorite method as it actually increases bps as opposed to increasing consistancy), or a Mercedes-Bens symbol(three). Now reinforce the paddles by one of the following methods: sticking a needle down the paddle, putting straws onto the paddles, or if you have done the two paddle mod, glue a lollypop stick on top of the paddles. 2-4 bps


Popsicle stick mod- not really necessary, but after doing the above mod glue cut a popsicle stick to the lengths of the paddles. Glue the cut lengths to the paddles so that the tops are flush with the tops of the paddles so the paddles become wider and balls can no longer get under them and jam them up.


Pure Energy's Mod “BPS increase
materials
- revy impeller
- drimmel preferably
- some type of sheers
- screw driver
unscrew the Tiny screw that holds the impeller onto the motor. Its accessable from the top.
Prepare your revy impeller-- put the revy impeller onto the motor in place of the old egg impeller (note its a hex shaped nob it fits on.) you will then see that the propeller has 2 problems. 1 the fins drag on the tray of the egg and 2... It sits a litle too high causeing balls to get up under and potentially jam. Here is where I did my magic. Take the impeller back off. The white hex knob on the motor needs to be shaved down some so the impeller sits lower in the cone. To do this, take your drimmel or other tool and shave it down in incriments just af raction of an inch..maybe 1/8th. Dont shave it too far that the threads in the knob are gone. Now take your sheers and simple clip off the propeller blades so they clear the inside cone by about an 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch. This will cure the problem of balls going under the propeller and the dragging of the blades. (You may choose to file down the cut blades for less chance of a blender, I had no problem of such ) and make sure you don’t dremel down too far that its past the hex shaped fitting.”

1-2 bps

Halo in an egg mod:

Originally Posted by maskedpenisfromvenus

well, i did the halo in an egg mod.

the halo tray (the blue part) is about as big as the egg tray and board and stuff, all you hafta do is cut out those extra things sticking out in teh shells. Its fitting the batteries and board (and putting the board in a position you can turn it on and off).

here's what i did. (using a reloader B with 4 batteries

cut out all the bs in the spot that holds the tray, board, and motor so the reloader b tray fit (had to cut the front a bit too as the feedneck doesn't come out the exact same spot)

then i cut most of the battery compartment out so I could fit the 4 AA battery pack in there (kinda sideways)

finally i drilled a hole and stuck the actual board in the main body of the egg (where the balsl are held) facing outwards, then drilled a hole so i could get at the button with a pencil or a stick) and put duct tape over the board and wires.

I needed some electrical tape to hold it together in teh front, but other than that it works and doesn't look too horrible.

[flight cancled]

My halo in an egg mod.
Added notes and directions will be in red
Materials:

An egg, or egg style raceway in anything so that the servo top is parallel to the bottom of the raceway bottom so that the halo spring cone can spin

A screw, not necessarily wood threaded, but that will work. just as long as it will grip into the white hex piece on top of the servo that is about a half of an inch long and slightly wider then the stock. I had access to a longer servo screw which was perfect so idk exactly what to send you for.

A thin washer that the above screw fits trough with wiggle room

Optional but recommended [small Technics black spacer and a pair of plairs]-if not using the spacer then you will need another washer as described above, however the impellor is liable to wobble and could possibly jam so don’t be surprised.

A small eye screw- I stole one out of a fishing lure or something. Wait on this until the end so that so can be sure it will work.

The stock halo spring cup and spring. You could also use the ones that come in the S4 kit from empire.

Egg servo and impellor.

Small knife

Optional but recommended [Dremmel with a cutoff wheel, small cylindrical grinding stone, deburing bit, and a very small drill bit.]

Small amount of epoxy


Directions:
First take apart the egg and get just the servo with the impellor off of it in front of you.

Do the two paddle mod as seen in the Official Egg Mod thread. Now carefully pull the white rubber that makes up the paddles up and off of the hard black plastic.

Now using the cut off disk or a knife cut the bottom section of the impellor flush with the top. [Now drill and then grind the impellor top out until the Technics spacer fits inside. Use the pliers to force it in, and epoxy to keep it there.] make sure that the bottom of the impellor is smooth and spins nicely on the top of the spring cone.

Apply epoxy to the part of the black plastic that went into the white rubber and then reassemble and allow to dry.

Shave out slightly the walls of the spring cup with the small knife. Very little material is enough to make the spring cup fit onto the hexagonal servo mount. Once it is on take it apart, apply a little epoxy and re assemble. Now put it in the raceway and push the cup down until it is just skimming the bottom. Make sure that the cup is sitting flat.

Place the spring in the cup, and the impellor on top. Eyeball the height and angle that is necessary for the eye screw to reach from the black plastic to below that top of the stopper in the spring cone.

[Use the small drill bit to start the hole that you just eyeballed]- now screw the eyebolt in with a dab of epoxy to hold it in.

Epoxy the tab on the bottom of the spring into place in front of the stopper in the spring cup.

Now assemble the whole thing by putting the screw through the first washer and the impellor top first, hooking the top tab from the spring into the eye screw, twisting the impellor so that the eye screw is behind the stopper in the spring tray [tensed], put the second washer on [first if using Technics spacer], and while holding it all in place tighten the screw down so that the impellor can just spin freely.
Trouble shooting:
if the screw is coming undone you can epoxy it in. If this is caused by the fact that the screw is too short you can dremmel down the top of the spring cup, drill a hole fo rhte screw to sink into in the impellor[if using the spacer], remove the bottom washer, etc
if the impellor is spongy on the return, or doesn't return with the spring's power then loosen the screw until it does, look to find a point of friction, find a stronger spring like that out of the empire upgrade cone, etc
if the hopper has suddenly slowed down the spring tray is likely dragging on the bottom of the raceway and needs to be raised slightly.

Battery door mods:

Infinite 727 [GOD] broken battery door mod battery door mod-
materials
file/sandpaper/dremel (any one of those are fine)
drill or something to make small holes
elastic string
sliding clip (type of thing on coats : see pics below)

procedure -
take off the front piece of battery door which keep it on egg
drill 2 holes on each side of the battery door, evenly spaceing them
drill 2 holes above battery door on egg proportionately placing them
drill hole in the middle of battery door
this part may be confusing, modify to what suits you : take the string and route it through the holes so that the middle of the string comes through the hole drilled in bottom of battery door
place clip on the extruding piece from middle
tighten to keep door shut/release to open
http://img29.echo.cx/img29/2227/10111403fa.jpg


My door mod- replace the battery board with two nine volt clips like so
Cut the battery board off, and eyeball and cut the nine volt connector leads so that when installed the battery connectors can sick out a little less then two inches. Now connect the red wire coming from the circuit board to the red of the forst connector. Now cut the black wire to the first connector and the black of the second to an inch long, and connect. Last connect the red wire of the connector to the black of the board wire. Now there is no pressure on the battery door, so a new shell, will have its door last forever.

If your door is already broken do the following:
Find a small (4-40 in my case) diameter screw and matching bolt that is ¼ inch long. Drill through the battery door and into the door holding tab (preferably on the side that is already messed up) and super glue the nut in place over the hole. Now when you close the batt door put the screw in place and it will hold the door in place. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN.

Here’s another that is self explanatory


Servo mods:

buy the servo out of a RC plane. you want something that will be fast, but not insanely so. Also don’t get anything with very high torque. If it has a limited rotation like 180 degrees don’t be discouraged, it is kjust a matter of finding the tab inside that is holding it in place, and cutting it out. 7-10 bps http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXUZ89&P=ML

here is a tutorial on how to change the servo you buy if it is a real fixed positon-board controlled servo into the basic motor that is used in the egg and revvy.
http://feh.eng.ohio-state.edu/Design...ces/servo.html

Glory Hound’s gear shave mod- “To begin with I had noticed my EVOII hopper was somewhat slower than the one a friend of mine had (Hi Ecco! You gave me the idea to do it), even using the same batteries, same board, same paint and everything. My hopper was also sounding louder than his. This got me thinking that there had to be some kind of resistance in the motor unit, perhaps the tolerances of the fit of the plastic gears inside?
What I did was I removed the motor unit from the eggo and opened it with a small electronics screwdriver.
I checked the fit of the gears and found them being slightly too tight a fit. I removed the center one and very carefully filed the outer teeth of the gear down a tiny tiny bit. Then I used a hobby knife to remove shavings and to scrape the bottoms between the teeth slightly. Then I checked the other gears, but they fit very well together. I cleaned all the gears from any plastic residue from the work on the middle gear. I also removed the grease internally, though only because I thought it might have little plastic shavings in it, and lubed the gears up with what I had at hand -PMI paintball gun oil. Any paintball gun oil would do nicely I think.
Finally I re-assembled the motor and then the hopper.
And that's about it. Doesn't sound too complicated does it?
Just be sure to note the placement of the gears, well they only fit one way but it helps a lot if you remember how they are supposed to be placed anyway before taking them apart.
Be careful, be gentle and even with the filing down of the gear and generous with the oil.”

Rip drive mod (forgot who this was done by)
Dissaseble the servo. On the side where there is no motor drill down through the spot where the pin goes that holds the gear in place. Drill this hole straight down through bottom of the servo, and then continue the line through the shell. Epoxy a rod long enough to reach all the way through the bottom onto the bottom of the gear whose support you just drilled through. Now affix to the bottom of that rod whatever you decide to use as a rip drive. Note, the gears are plastic so never use the rip drive while the hopper is on.

Lid Mods

Basic stuff- remove lid springs, and down/ cut off the tabs that hold it open and closed, use a dremmel to shorten the lid screws if you have them


XSV lid mod- While assembled open the lid and heat the outer rim of the lid with a lighter. Using a flathead screw driver bend the lid back slightly. Be careful not to bend too much plastic or the lid won’t close fully. This makes it so that if you swipe your hand over the top of the egg it pops open.

[flight cancled]

The speedfeed egg mod made by a colaborative effort by prem05 and OMGitsspags using my ideas. Props to them
Anything thats flexible that isnt too soft. (i used a plastic folder for school. its a 3 ring one but not the regular ones. its made of some type of plastic. i'll try to get a pic for you later.)


its kind of hard to explain so i'll put a pic and just look at it and i'll give you directions on what to cut. use the pic to see what i'm talking about.


First you will need the plastic thing. Get something that is flexible but not soft. (flight cancled suggested a milk carton. try it if you want.) Put the plastic piece on top of the EGG mouth. Measure it and cut a little bigger than you measured. When you're done cutting the shape of the EGG mouth, mark places on the plastic where you are going to drill holes in. Again try to drill near the edges but not much. (I used a small drill bit and small zip ties that are close to the drill bit size.) After you drill holes you will need to cut the top and bottom of the plastic(see pic) so the pod will fit correcttly. After you cut part of the top and bottom put the zip ties on the plastic and the EGG and attach them together lightly.(NOT ALL THE WAY). After that cut the entire plastic piece complete in half from top to bottom. (This enables you to open up the sheels for cleaning.) Then cut the other lines so that the pod goes in smoothly. Well thats it. Sry if its a bit confusing. PM me for more info.

As you can see there are 6 zip ties. 2 on top, 2 on bottom, and 1 on each side. All holes that you drill on the EGG ITSELF is best if you do it near the edges(not too much by the edge though)


Misc.

I want a new color led for my low battery light:

buy a 3mm led of whatever color you want and solder it on where the old one was.


UV hopper kit/ Retro light up kits-
UV leds(LED stands for Light Emitting Diode)- http://www.goldmine-elec-products.co...?number=G15221 (this one gives off no visible light, you can find whatever color you want at froogle.com
First you must know that an led being a diode will only light up properly in one direction, so when you connect a circuit of leds make sure that they are all in the same direction. The leds want 9 volts of electricity, while the combined batteries are giving off 18, and the board is giving the servo 12. This means that we will have to take power directly from one of the 9volts.
Connect the leds (use two or three)with leads of about an inch, the end two wires should be about 4 inches
Figure out wich way the leds will all light up. Then connect the wires that way to one of the batteries.

Get some Aluminum foil(doubled over it should be a 3.5in long by 2 in wide). And mold it to the shape of the right shell and raceway

Assemble the hopper in the right hand shell (when viewed form the back), gently bend the foil down to create a pocket that the leds will fit into. Spread the leds strategicly so that every ball that passes through the raceway gets as much light exposure possible.

OMG the battery door tab doesn't hold the door closed anymore:

If you look on the tab of an egg you will see that there is a protruding guide that goes into a slot in the battery door. The way that most battery doors break off is that the tab slowly gets bent into the battery cavity as the user abuses the door(opens and closes without pushing down to take off the pressure from the batteries, leaving batteries in for a long time, slamming on the door to open it, etc). As the protrusion gets more and more cockeyed in the slot in the door more and more pressure gets applied to the top corner of the protrusion until it snaps.

To prevent this take a lighter and (very carefuly so as to prevent the plastic from melting completely and becoming brittle) heat the tab that has bent in at the base and using pliers bend out till it is a little pointing a little in from verticle. Now the door should fit tightly and not open up.


My list of things to do to your egg to ensure the maxium performance and life.

First treat your stuff with a little respect, that means no throwing you gear around on the feild, and generally being stupid with it.

*First is to somehow mod the battery contacts to reduce the pressure on the battery door thud prolonging its life. This means bend the contacts as far down as you can so that they still work properly(just stick you finger in and bend them down a little bit), to replace the battery board with 9v connectors(see above), or to use Lightningbolt's mod of putting connectors into the battery board contacts.

Stiffen the paddles in the impellors as over time they will become less ridged and allow balls to get undernieth them and cause jams. These jams will burn out the motor and/or the board.

If you have a Z board turn the speed setting to max and then pull out the adjuster. if you should ever want to mess with it you just need a 1/16" allen key, but for know no one can change it on you, and you are less likely to breack the adjuster off when trying to reassemble.

*Open up the hopper and spin the servo. If it is hard to spin in either direction it was assembled wrong, open it up and redo it. it will be faster, and last longer.

*Remove the lid springs and the screw or rivet that is holding it in, and then shave down slightly the tabs on the shell that hold the lid open or closed. This will just make your life easier, and also prolong the life of the lid as you will put less pressure on it to open it up.

*Whenever you reassemble ANY Viewloader hopper the screws should take almost not effort to screw in until the last 1/4 turn. Never ever force a screw in if the shell has already been used. This dices the plastic in the shells like an onion, and it WILL rip appart in the next three times dissamsmbled. Or it will imediatly come apart if you overtighten the screw. once you feel the screw want to stop in the shell STOP!! rotating the screw further will destroy the plastic.

More to come! If you have anything you would like me to add please pm me. If you have pics I can add please pm me



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[flight cancled]

OMG my hopper doesn’t work FAQ
Listed in order of things to do/check

I turn it on and nothing happens: -This is most likely a function of the eyes reading a bell in the chamber.
1 Check that batteries
2 Put the switch in the ON position and do the following:
Flip around the batteries perhaps the battery board is in wrong
Apply pressure on the batts through the battery door- if there is no response open the door and push down hard on the batts to see if it is just that the contacts nee to be bent up slightly.
3 Clean out the feedneck and see if there was just paint in there.
Disassemble the hopper and thoroughly clean the shells, raceway and eyes.
Remove the eye covers and test to see if they were just blocking the eyes somehow or if paint got under there
4 Look for pinched wires
5 If all else fails put a set of low batteries in there and try to get a low battery light. If you can at least see that the board is getting current you can isolate the problem to the servo.
6 Grab a piece of wire or a staple and with good batteries try to bypass the switch. There are three contacts on the back of the switch, I believe the center and the left are the ones you want. If you can solder/tape/glue that in there you now have a constant on hopper, or you can go to radioshack and get another switch to install.
7 Borrow a friend’s hopper and swap around parts until you find the perpetrator, buy its replacement from viewloaderparts.com or for better prices try hopper bst

My hopper has the low battery light on constantly:
1 Make sure you are using a high quality battery that hasn’t expired that can supply the necessary power to the board and servo.
2 Have you reassembled your halo recently? Check for pinched wires or loose connections
3 Have a look at the servo. Is it hard or easy to spin in both directions? If hard reassemble correctly so that it spins freely with a high piched whine, not hard with a low pitched almost grinding sound.
4 If the board is really old or has the three battery mod and the batteries aren’t all of the same power level this is a sign that some of the compnents are beginning to get damaged.
If the hopper works fine other then this just enjoy the mood lighting. See the retro light mod and do something fun with it.

My hopper is feeding really slowly:
1 Check your batteries and check the speed adjuster
2 Are the eyes clean?
3 Pinched wires?
4 Look at the paddle is it getting worn and disfigured? Do the paddle mod and reinforce well
5 Check to make sure that the servo is spinning freely.
6 Borrow someone else’s hopper and trade out parts to see if that makes any difference replace the broken part with one from Hopper BST or viewloaderparts.com
7 See the mod section

[flight cancled]

gonna need more space

[justanotherballa]

Awesome, the old one has helped me a lot. Good to see someone still likes to mod their egg. I got three paddles cut off on mine and the third battery. Drop testing at 24. Egg modding ftw.

Edit: Although.. my 3rd battery isn't nearly as nice as the pictured one. Mine is help in by masking tape.... Works fine for me though.

[flight cancled]

just added a FAQ section. please PM me with any more ideas or requests

[mbcornholio (Banned)]

awesome man. wow a stock revy impeller makes it 5-6 bps faster?

[OMGitsSpags]

lol hey bro, I speed fed it. it worked. check your PM's.

I'm sure it will be added to this in no time.

-Mike.

[zatch3x7]

where can u get revy impellers? ive looked all over?

[zatch3x7]

could u post pix of the light up kit?

[Paint_hore]

This is a great thread but you gotta get some nice pics to show off the work.

[flight cancled]

lol I have done more mods then i could ever reasonably write up ANd get pics for, but I will try, this is a work in progress.

All parts for Viewloader products should be available at viewloaderparts.com

which light up kit do you want, the UV one right?

[zatch3x7]

yes the uv one would be great! thanks a lot dude this is one of the best threads! added 5-6 bps for me!

[zatch3x7]

i think i round the impeller but they call it a 9 volt propeller and then theres a 12 volt propeller!! if its either of those i would say the 12 volt propeller! is that what ur talkin bout?

[flight cancled]

yes it is the 12 volt impellor. thanks for the props

[zatch3x7]

so hows that one better than the original? looks to be bout the same to me!

[flight cancled]

the 9v impellor was a flat piece of thick plastic with two paddles. the 12v has four paddles that are longer and bend.

[zatch3x7]

thanks but i ment between the egg impeller and the 12 volt!

[flight cancled]

the egg impellor only feeds 6 balls per revolution while the revvy feeds 8

[prem205]

Originally Posted by flight cancled

the egg impellor only feeds 6 balls per revolution while the revvy feeds 8

where can i get a revy impeller? can i get it separate or do i HAVE to buy a revy?