Peltor Sound Trap power LED mod

Peltor Sound Traps are great...

...When you don't accidentally leave them on and drain the batteries.

Most models come with this "external audio connector," but that's not a standard plug. It looks like a proprietary fail connector to me.



YEP!



It doesn't look so bad. It's not like it costs $30 or something stupid.

Oh wait. It does.

Well I don't need audio in one ear that much. But this plug is a good way to get a connection from the inside without disturbing the earmuffs.

Why not solve both problems at once? Lets set these plugs to run LEDs that turn on when the power is on, so we don't accidentally drain the batteries.

This shouldn't be too hard. Lets start with the right side (with the microphones facing forward).

Click images for full size


Lets get our bearings...



After doing some testing with my multimeter, I found the two power leads that had the same voltage with the dial high or low, and no voltage with the dial clicked off.

Notice the empty dial mounts and used dial connectors are mirrored. This is so the circuit board can be used on the left or right earmuff depending on which side the dial is on. Because both sides are connected, we can solder onto these power leads without disturbing the original soldering.

I traced the connections to the left side of the board, desoldered the stupid plug wires, and put some solder on the mirrored connections (they're the two on the bottom).



The normal operation draws 4.72 mA, with the expected 1200 mAh from a AAA jibing pretty well with the advertised battery life of 200 hours.

The LED will need a resistor in series, so we have different options for LED brightness. All will impact battery life in some way, but none will be as bad as forgetting to turn them off when you're done.

Your selection will likely hinge on where you put your Sound Trap away after use. If it's bright where you put them away, you need a bright LED. If you put it in the dark Man Cave, you can get away with a dim one. I'm using cheapo low output LED, so Your Multimeter May Vary.

At 470 ohms we get brightly lit LED drawing a good 2.3 mA at about 1.8v, and will reduce battery life 49%, making runtime about 102 hours. This brightness is suitable for inside a dark closet or cabinet.

At 3.3k ohms we get a semi-lit LED drawing only .37 mA at about 1.9v, which should only reduce battery life 7.8%, making runtime about 185 hours. This brightness is suitable for inside a dark range bag while outside.

At 10k ohms we get a poorly-lit LED drawing a mere .1 mA which should only reduce battery life 2.1%, making runtime about 196 hours. This brightness is suitable for dark closets.

I'll be using a 470 ohm resistor, because I don't have any damn 3.3k resistors at the moment.



The resistor has been wired in series with the stupid plug wires. The resistor can be on either wire, but the pos/neg must be standardized. I'm keeping my negative toward the mic, so we can see the wire coming out of the plug that is closest to the mic is black. So black one goes to the negative lead.

You can do positive toward the mic if it works out better for your soldering, but just remember to do both sides the same otherwise your LEDs will need to be marked for which side they go on.

Since I don't have any rods that fit into the stupid plug and make a good connection, we're just going to test by bending up an LED.

With the LED facing the preferred direction, make sure your LED's negative pole is in the right hole!


Now we can test it out!




I found a 5/64th" allen fit and conducted well into the stupid plug. Maybe a trip to harbor freight is in order.

The permanent plan for the plug is to insert two rods into the stupid plug, solder the LED to the rods, kink or notch the rods so they will attach firmly to the medium, then surround it with putty epoxy or some other non-conducting material.

This would give you two power lights to remind you to turn off the power, that you can easily remove for when you have to go into stealth ninja operator mode when the tangos come. All with no damage or significant modification to the original function. (C'mon, you weren't really going to spend $60 just to get stereo music into your Sound Traps were you?)

I'll update with the plugs when I get the materials together.

For the left ear muff, there is a slight modification. Because the dial is the same right or left, there is some cross on the leads. Below are the correct solder points.

Click images for full size




NOTE: On the left side, the Yellow wire was the closest to the mic, so it is the negative wire.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a rocket scientist! If you fuck up your Sound Traps don't come crying to me!

ELECTRONICS DISCLAIMER: My understanding of circuits is still pretty limited! If you know more than I, and I've made a significant mistake, let me know!

Bulldog tidbits

The Ishapore Enfield Bulldog is being finicky, which is to be expected, but part that's part of the fun of these old rifles. I floated the barrel on my 91/59 to increase accuracy, and used some plastic straws to make the trigger pull a little better. I love machines, and I love figuring out creative ways to fix or tweak them.

I spent a few hours trying to figure out what the problem with the extraction was, but only managed to determine what it was not. I checked the adjustment of the rear left mag lip, which was not functioning as the ejector, nor (interestingly enough) was the ejector screw. There is an edge cut into the left side of the receiver that was ejecting. The screw only seemed to make ejection a sixteenth of an inch earlier. Contrary to most guns, working the bolt quickly caused problems, while working it slowly caused no issues. The extractor claw seems to just let go half way through the draw back, and leave the shell loose above the mag, but only when worked quickly.

This is extra strange because the extractor claw is damn strong. I almost feel like it's pushing so hard it's shooting the case off the bolt face once it's out of the chamber. I brought the extractor claw position closer to the center of the bolt face by raising the opposite side of the extractor arm by the tiny amount I could while keeping the opening in line with the screw (which was broken, but somewhat functional).

I got it feeding more reliably from both sides after I was done, but couldn't eliminate the shell dropping problem. I'm going to order a new extractor, spring, and screw just so I can replace them or have spares while troubleshooting. Of course it could just be a problem extracting an unfired round (which I believe I read somewhere), so I'll probably shoot it before I make any changes (other than repairing that extractor screw).

The sear meet up is short, but extremely positive, making for a short heavy pull with lots of overtravel. I'll refrain from tweaking it until I shoot it, because the Enfield No.4's trigger is technically bad, but I shoot it just fine. (though that trigger is much lighter...)

Can't wait to shoot it, and play around with it.


I just stare at it.

"The greatest single battle implement ever devised by man."

My new-to-me Garand. CMP Service Grade purchased by a nice fellow who didn't even get a chance to shoot it before he had to sell it. More than 50 years old and a longgun between private parties, so it was cash and carry (I love paperless rifles). When I got it home and started fondling it, the first thing that surprised me was the weight. I knew Garands were heavy, but it didn't feel heavy, it felt perfectly balanced. It snapped to my shoulder and cheek like it was returning home. The trigger was a crisp two stage, and much more than I had been expecting of a military rifle. As I disassembled it for detail cleaning I marveled at the brilliance of the complex-yet-simple action. The same action that refused to fail Americans from desert's scorching heat to the north's blistering cold. Truly, a machine worthy of General Patton's famous praise.

Clicky any image for full size


The rear handguard is darker and more beat up than the stock. The blemishes are captured well in the pictures, but the dark wood masks most of them under normal light.




Ditto for the front handguard.




The stock is beautiful walnut, with a few dings.




The internals after a thorough cleaning to remove some nasty blobs of cosmo.


Wanting to get to start practicing as soon as possible, I decided to make my own Garand dry firing adapter using a Dixon dry erase marker. I cut it at the vertical line of the "D." Remember to cut long so you can shorten it later. The point is to get the bolt to stop just after the hammer catches, so it's easy for you to reset the hammer by pulling the bolt handle back only a short amount.

Some things are all about

technique.

Feeling handy

Got my hands dirty a bit ago.

When I got my second car, the first sat outside for months after the battery died. I had ignored it too long, and actually began looking up the things that could go wrong with it. Bad idea. I picked a time to give it some attention, and ascertain its status.

I turned the key to just before starting, and checked the fuel level... Full. Damnit. I had hoped I could add half a tank of gas to mix up the possibly settled old gas, but no dice. I wanted to try a start without draining the tank, so I rocked the car as much as I could in the hopes of getting some mixing action in the gas tank. The tires were very low, but still had a seal, so they would work to make it down the street to the gas station and air compressor. I checked the hoses again for any weathering damage, and tried for a start... VROOOM! Just as strong as when I left it. Go Dodge.

After letting it run for a bit, I slowly drove it to the gas station, and saw a hastily made sign taped to the air compressor, "Broken." A little bit further was the Sears I was going to buy the battery from, It was only half a mile, and one light, so I made a go at it. (like I had any other choice)

As I waited to make a left turn at the light, I noticed the dashboard lights flickering as they got uneven energy without the help of the battery, and realized that given my position, and my intended destination, the car dying at this moment would mean me pushing the car across a large busy intersection, ~500 yards down the street, and up a notable slope into the parking lot. I pushed the thought from my mind as I idled the car a little high until the light changed.

I parked the car on an incline, and bought the new battery. I popped the hood, pulled the connections, and pulled on the battery. It didn't budge. I checked around the battery, and it looked clear, but it wouldn't move. Could it be glued by the factory or something? That wouldn't make sense. I noticed a screw that held a small piece of metal at the base of the battery, but it was at such an angle that it didn't look like it was holding the battery at all. So I thought for a bit, and decided that bolt had to go, mostly because it was my best guess. But all I had were some vicegrips, and the engine jungle of wires and hoses made it impossible to get at it without a ratchet and an extender. Well, I've needed a ratchet set for a while.

I walked from the sears auto center to the main store, and bought a ratchet set and extender set, and was able to replace the battery with no problem. The screw held down a piece of metal that put pressure on a flair at the bottom of the battery body I hadn't noticed before. Pretty solid hold for such a simple system. They were kind enough to let me fill up my tires there, so I was off to the oil change spot where they changed the oil, topped off fluids, and cleaned a layer of crud off the windows, and cobwebs out of the interior. It almost looked normal again.

I am a dangerous man.

Feeling handy for the rest of the day, I lightened the trigger on my 91/59 by placing two short pieces of a plastic straw under the sear/spring/thingy on either side of the screw that holds it there. This makes the trigger just ok, but it'll need some more work before it gets to the level of the M39. While I was at it, I floated the barrel by applying layers of painting tape to the stock where the base of the barrel rests. The barrel now sits loosely within the stock and barrel bands. I have yet to shoot it though, so I'll have no real gauge for improvement. Whatever... HANDY!!!

I then thought for a bit how to repair my paintball pants, which had a hole worn through the kneepad clear to the lining. It's very painful when you slide into a bunker into a position on your knees and stop your knee right on a rock without the benefit of padding. I wandered the house searching for something I could use, and actually found something! The old leather couch had been destroyed and disposed of, but we kept some of the cushions for Ava to chew on and play with. I cut a section out of the leather, and cut a cube out of the first layer of foam. With a bit of fitting, the cube matched the hole in the existing knee padding perfectly, and I somehow managed to get the whole thing under the sewing machine to attach the leather patch and foam cube to the pants securely. I didn't want to cut a hole in the liner for fear of catching it when putting the pants on and tearing it, so I just sewed through the liner too. The results were quite good. The stitching was a little uneven, but secure. I used some "anything" glue to touch up the edges so the patch wouldn't catch and tear off, but the glue was so good I wished I had skipped the sewing and used the glue only, which would have left the liner loose. Oh well, it still works great.

It's not like I built a house or anything, but baby steps for now.

I would totally build a house.

DIY Cardboard Rabbit Toy

It's a few strips and squares of cardboard assembled so it is a rough sphere on the edges. The result is a cardboard assembly that can roll roughly, and easily be moved around by your rabbit, while being a toy it can safely chew on.

Be sure to remove any tape or other materials from the cardboard before you use it.

Walther G22's 10 minute, 10 cent DIY Trigger Job 2

I was dry-firing the G22, and found that after the trigger break, there was so much overtravel with the tightened trigger, that I was tilting the rifle to the right on my follow through (I shoot left handed). When I slowed down, I could just barely hit the break without too much overtravel or tilt, but the heaviness of the trigger made it hard. The G22 needed a trigger stop.

After looking at the problem for a while, I figured the easiest way to get results was to get a short wood screw behind the trigger.


This trigger stop only works on G22s that have already had the 5 minute, 5 cent trigger job. The trigger break on a stock G22 is too far back to be able to use the trigger stop. Tighten it up to somewhere around here, and you should be good to go.

It was a little fiddly to get the hole started inside the trigger guard, but I did it. I wound up using a small drill bit, and turning it between my fingers.

It was slow going, but without a longer bit, attaching it to a drill would have made me approach the hole from a much steeper angle, and I wanted the hole as straight through as possible. I used the seam in the plastic body to find the center, and switched from right side to left when hand drilling (finger drilling?) the hole. Just make sure you don't go too deep, and start the hole at an angle.

Once it was deep enough to get the wood screw started, I screwed it in a little bit at an angle, just to get it started.


Then pushed the screw straight.


Then finished screwing it in straight with the screwdriver at an oblique angle.





Obviously, it took a little bit of time to adjust it properly. Taking it apart, turning the screw a quarter turn, putting it back together, testing, then doing it over again. Once you're pretty close, you can use needle nose pliers to make eighth turns while it's completely assembled.




When I was done, I had to leave a couple millimeters of overtravel because even through the trigger was tighter, the break was still mushy. Make sure you don't set the screw so far out that when you hit the screw there is a fraction of a second of hesitation before the hammer drops. Set your screw a bit past that, so you can pull straight through for a predictable break, but not so much that overtravel causes noticeable movement in your follow through.

When I was done, I could get somewhat clean trigger breaks, with no additional movement after the hammer drops. In fact, with this addition, I daresay the G22 trigger qualifies as "acceptable."

Not bad for a few minutes work and a screw I found in a jar.

I will of course, update this post if I find any problems with this modification. If you do this, and find issues, please let me know.

Enfield magazine feed lip tuning

EDIT: The images are not working, I'm looking for the originals...

Just short of the chamber, you can see two tabs poking in. Those are the Enfield magazine forward feed lips, and if they are not properly adjusted, your Enfield will jam with failures to feed, and failures to strip. Sometimes on the last round, sometimes on every round, and sometimes every other round!


The fact that the magazine is detachable is a bit misleading. Nowadays, a detachable box magazine is so you can reload quickly. Such is NOT the case with the Enfield magazine. Each magazine must be "tuned" for each Enfield, which is why it has a serial number on it.



NOTE: I cannot find the original pictures, and do not have the 303 Enfield anymore. So I've recreated the important pictures with my Ishapore Enfield. The concepts are exactly the same, though the mag looks a little different.

This is how an incorrectly tuned magazine looks. Note the right front feed lip, and how it is contacting the bullet.

A look from the rear shows why this is a problem; the rim of the cartridge is not sitting high enough for the bolt to catch it.

NOTE: This pic is a recreation of the original, I'm simulating the untuned magazine by holding the cartridge down. Pretend my finger isn't pushing down on the base of the cartridge.

The result is this below. The bolt slides over the cartridge, and loads nothing.

Another failure in feed lip adjustments can cause rounds to nose-dive into the feedramp, and stick.

Or, rounds will skip up after escaping the front feed lip, and get caught on the top of the chamber.


The issue here is twofold; first is the amount of bend on the feed lip, second is the amount of front/back tilt on the feed lip.

Here is a properly adjusted feed lip.

What you can see here is that the rim of the cartridge on the last round, still protrudes above the rear of the magazine, so it will catch the bolt on loading.


What you can't see here, is the angle of the lip that allows the bullet to slide up the feed ramp, into the chamber. You just have to test different angles with trial and error to determine the best tilt for that.


Tilt is pictured below, and will affect the ability of the bullet to slide up the feed ramp properly, and into the chamber.



Bend is pictured below, and will affect the ability of the rear of the round to stick up above the magazine, so the bolt can catch it.




Note that the left and right side are completely separate sides, and must be set up separately!

It is possible to feed properly from the left side, and not the right side!

Make changes to each side independently, and test each side independently!


When making your adjustments, focus on one problem at a time. Adjust bend until every round sticks up high enough for the bolt to catch the rim. Once this is not a problem, adjust tilt to make sure every round feeds.

Here is an example of a properly adjusted feed lip.


Note how strange it looks. It's barely touching the bullet, and it looks like the bullet might pop right out.

Despite the appearances, the round is secure, and feeds reliably, so if your trial-and-error method isn't getting you anywhere, try making some radical adjustments. You may be surprised what angles work.


Keeping the right feed lip angle in mind, look at how different the left feed lip is in relation to the bullet.


It doesn't matter how odd it looks, as long as it raises the rear of cartridge up, and feeds into the chamber without getting stuck.



Note that since the contact between the feed lips and the bullet is so important, changing the bullet type will change the feeding.



Switching the bullet type in my properly tuned magazine will result in failures.

These hunting rounds won't even stay in the magazine!


Hunting cartridges loaded in the left side nose-dive every time.



You may be better off getting two magazines for your different types of rounds, so you can swap to a magazine tuned for the hunting cartridges when you take your Enfield out to get some game.

You could also just spend the night before going through the same feed lip tuning process for the different rounds, and then tuning it back when you return from your hunting trip.

Keep your magazines tuned and happy, and your Enfield won't let you down.