Hoppers / Loaders
Hoppers and loaders are the instruments that feed paintballs into the paintball gun. Hoppers are generally associated with gravity feed, meaning that the hopper is basically a large funnel, where the paintballs fall through an opening in the bottom. A common problem with paintball hoppers are paintballs jamming in the neck area. This created the need for loaders, which offer agitation to keep paintballs moving or force-feeding to drive more paintballs into the marker.
The best paintball loaders can force-feed paintballs at a faster rate than the gun can shoot. This has created the problem of broken paintballs in the loader and the marker, referred to as “chopping”. Visual eye sensors, microphone sound sensing and RF transmitters have been designed to cue the loader to begin feeding. The eye sensor will instruct the loader to feed balls when a light beam connects the two eyes on each side of the feed neck. When a ball sits in place, the broken beam informs the loader to cease feeding. This ensures that the loader only feeds the marker after it has fired. The HALO™ B and V35 are examples of successful loaders that utilize eye sensors.
With sound sensing, the loader only feeds when it detects the sound of the marker firing. After falling silent, the loader will stop feeding. The BT Rip Clip™ successfully uses sound sensing technology to feed paintballs for BT4, A-5 and Model 98 paintball guns. The latest technology is a radio frequency signal in the marker informing the loader that it has fired a paintball. Upon receiving the RF signal, the loader will begin feeding the marker. This is the quickest response between the marker and paintball loader currently available and can be found in the Empire® Prophecy™ loading system.
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