Loader Analysis

For the uninitiated, modern loaders in paintball actually need to perform two distinct functions.  The functions might be closely coupled, or they might not, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still two jobs.

1. Loaders must sort the paint, going from a chaotic mass of jumbled paintballs to a nice, orderly, single file line of paint.
2. Loaders must force the paint into the gun.

These are the two basic functions of modern loaders.

In the old, old days, paint was neither sorted on-gun, nor was it force fed (apart from gravity).  The sorting process actually happened off-gun in the staging area as you loaded up your 10 round tubes, etc.

Eventually, they moved to gravity stick feeds, and from there it was only short matter of time before someone plopped a motor oil canister on top for bulk feeding.  This then introduced the need for on-gun paint sorting.

The Revolution

I would say the agitated hopper (Revolution, etc.) was the first quantum leap in hopper technology.  It was not a particularly good one, but it was pretty notable nonetheless.  It's got a little paddle that stirs up the paint so it won't stay jammed up at the feed neck.

I think the distinction between "sorting" and "unjamming" is relevant, because that's what kept loaders in the dark ages for about, what, 20 years.  The problem was viewed as "jamming" at first, and thus you had the original agitated hoppers which would simply move the paint around in the hopes that it would unjam.  Want faster feed?  Increase the paddle speed.  Nevermind the fact that swirling the paint around haphazardly doesn't actually increase the sort speed, which is really what you're after.  In fact there's a point of rapidly diminishing returns if you keep increasing the paddle speed.  Hence, there were no 27V Revvies that I'm aware of.

The Warp

Along the way, I believe the next quantum leap would actually be the AGD Warp feed, which used a conventional hopper to "sort" the paint, and then force fed the paint into the gun.  The Warp never really caught on with the mainstream, but it is notable for two things:  force feed, and getting the blimp off the top of the gun.

In the meantime, there were a few force fed hoppers that came out onto the market -- the Halo, Evlution, etc.  I was never particularly impressed with the design of any of these hoppers.

The Q-Loader

Then there was anomaly known as the Q-Loader, which I consider a very large leap in hopper tech.  The Q-Loader actually moves the "sort" stage off field -- you sort all your paint as you load the pod.  So on-field, all you worry about is pure force feed.  It doesn't even need batteries.  As such, the Q-Loader is the fastest and most consistent loader available.  It also moves the blimp off the top of the gun, feeds upside down, etc.  Many, many advantages.  The caveat is it can be a bit hard on the paint (adjustable though), and has a reduced capacity.  Also, most people don't have the mechanical aptitude to cope with the setup.

The Rotor

After another crop of unimpressive loader designs, one that was worth noting finally came out -- the Dye Rotor.  This was the first conventional hopper that addressed the "sorting" function as such -- a clearly defined and implemented solution to quickly and efficiently sort paint.  While other hoppers were randomly flinging and whirling their paint around, the Rotor decoupled "sort" from "force", and gave maximum amount of time for paint to sort down in a very directed fashion before it is forced out by a separate scoop.  I although thought that false bottom at the back of the hopper that pops up when there isn't as much paint weighing it down was pretty smart.  This is a well thought out design and the batteries last a really, really long time as a result.  The placement of the anti-jam, however, is rather unfortunate, which I will describe later.  Still, I would consider this a quantum leap in loader design.

The Z2 Prophecy

Another bumper crop of distinctly unimpressive loaders followed, up until the Z2 Prophecy.  The Z2 is another well thought out hopper which, from design inspection, had "sorting" in mind as part of its design.  It's still a classical rotating wheel that sorts + forces paint like the generations before, but the design appears such that it makes use of a wide radius to allow paint the maximum amount of time to sort into a line before it is force fed.  It seems also that centrifugal force from the spinning also helps force the paint into the little pockets.  The rotation speed is kept low via the large radius, again, probably to avoid wasted motion, i.e. randomly flinging the paint around more than necessary.  You just want enough centrifugal force to get the paint into the pockets.  Any more would be a waste.

The Z2's not quite as good as a Rotor in my opinion, but it is a worthy competitor.  I'd hazard to say that this might be the pinnacle of the conventional "big single paddle" hopper designs.  It also shares the same drawback -- the anti-jam is in a really, really foolish location.

Feednecks-as-structural-components

A long standing complaint that I have is the use of feednecks as a structural component on paintball markers.

This makes manufacturers do stupid things, like use red loctite on feed necks, which causes the end user to destroy the feednecks and possibly strip the bodies out when they try to upgrade to a fancier clamping feed neck so they can get a lower profile, better death grip on their hoppers.  This also causes the hopper manufacturers to do things like add aluminum reinforcement to the feed necks.  It's kind of a ridiculous situation.

The solution, which sadly is already partially implemented, is to use these fucking picatinny rails to mount the hoppers.  You put a picatinny rail on the gun, then you put a picatinny rail on the hopper.  BAM.  Done.  No more broken feed necks.  You want low-rise?  It doesn't get much lower than that.  Clearly, you can't do this if the real estate on the bottom of your hopper is taken up by the anti-jam.

Notably, the only loaders that deal with this architectural problem are the Q-Loader and the Rip Clip.  The Q-Loader is mounted via a mechanism which is usually distinctly not the feed neck, and the Rip Clip uses picatinny.  In the latter, the system turns out to be quite versatile, being compatible with normal hoppers with the elbow attachment, the SA-17 magazine, and the Rip Clip.  Owing to the simple tubular design of the Trracer rail, this can also be modified to fit other markers.

Long term, it would be neat to see an attachment like the Trracer rail which is made for all guns, and allows left, right, and centerfeed, which becomes a standard for all manufacturers to follow.

Clearly, it's not going to happen in the current industry climate.



To-Do:

• Virtue Spire
• XeonPB's Halo SmartGuide upgrade