martix_agent

To see how I can help out, I'm making a Spyder Q&A thread. Each question I am asked will be edited into the post after this to make it easier to find if your question has already been answered!

this is NOT a vs thread(ex: which spyder should I get? should i get a spyder or marker x?)

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martix_agent

Q)Can i use HPA/air/nitrogen with a spyder?
A) Yes, you don't need to buy anything special either. Fill your tank and play.

Q)What barrels can i use on my spyder?
A)Any barrel that is spyder threaded will work. See our barrel section for a selection of good barrels.

Q)My spyder won't recock and makes the noise like it's out of air, what's wrong?!
A)Start by making sure it isn't out of air. if you've got plenty left, lube the o-rings on the bolt(unless it's made of delrin) and striker with paintball oil or air tool oil. Do not use WD40 or anything of the sort because it breaks down the material of the -ring and also gets sticky after use. If it's still having that problem, check your sear for wear. if the end of it is rounded off. this is hardly ever the case though because it only happens after lots of use.

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Penz

I'm guessing this is to help out people new to Spyders?

What barrels are compatible and recommended.

BPS differences with different boards like the T-board, the LCD and the VS boards.

Advantages of Delrin Bolt over O-ring and vise versa.

Just trying to get this started.

martix_agent

this is for general questions about spyders. Some of the stuff you're talking about is in stickies in the new player section or barrel section. but yeah, you've got the general idea. I'd rather have questions by people with the question, but there's a few general questions I'm gonna post up eventually.

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2.0

In light of the recent increase of questions and requests for help to repair broken spyders, here's a collection of the most common questions/problems that spyders have, and the common solutions.

If you're new to the forum, you're encouraged to read this before posting your problem, because chances are you'll find your problem and its solution described within this post.

Spyders are wonderful, reliable markers made out of high grade materials and have decent quality. Granted they're not the best markers out there in terms of technology and the bling factor, but they make great markers for occasional players and the new player that wants to learn with a cheap, good quality marker. And don't talk trash, my 1996 compact, after replacing its broken asa, is still shooting like a dream.


So, down to business.


First, it is important to point out how spyders work. Spyders work with very simple physics. There's 2 sides on the marker, there's the trigger side and the barrel side, you can almost split the marker in half by this. Oh, and there's 2 stages, the upper tube (where the bolt resides) and the lower tube (where the valve resides). Hence the name stacked tube markers. It's worth pointing out that on one side of the valve there is constant gas pressure, and on the other there will be pressure only as long as the hammer is pressing the valve pin.

To illustrate how they work, see this wonderful gif animation, courtesy of zdspb.com.

On the trigger end of the marker, the sear holds the striker (aka hammer) until the trigger is pulled and the sear is lowered, which releases the striker. The striker is then pushed forward with great force by a spring (the striker, or main spring as it is also called), and the striker with that momentum given by the expansion of the spring, hits the "valve pin", which pushes the valve open and lets gas flow in 2 ways.

One way is the way that about 70% of the gas goes out the upper hole of the valve body to the upper tube of the marker, thus forcing gas into the bolt and the bolt directs that has towards the paintball, which is then shot out. The remaining 30% is used to propel the striker back into the sear, and leaves the marker "recocked".

The back end is composed of, from back to front:

1- On the lower tube you'll have the back plug with the velocity adjustment screw, which is held in place by screws (older spyders) or "quick strip pins" in newer models. The velocity adjustment screw is contained inside the back plug.

3- Still in the lower tube, then you have the striker spring guide (backed by a flat metal disc in older models). The spring guide looks like a nail but it's most commonly made out of plastic or aluminium and it's all rounded.

4- Again, lower tube, you'll have the main spring or striker spring which is the long straight spring that pushes the hammer into the valve.

5- Around that spring you'll have a thick rubber ring, called the striker bumper or hammer buffer, which prevents the hammer from hitting the back of the marker hard when it's propelled back by the gas after shooting.

6- Still on the lower tube. Then you have the all important piece, the hammer. Big elongated heavy steel thing that has the main spring inserted at the back, and has a flat face with just a nipple ad the front.

7- Now the top tube is just the bolt. The bold inserts into the top of the striker and travels with it back and forth as you shoot. Bolts can be made of alumnium (older spyders, need lubrication) or out of delrin (a which plastic polimer that doesn't require lubrication, in fact, lubricating it will damage it).

Then there's the other side of the marker. On the barrel side of the marker there's another set of pieces that work in conjunction with the striker to make the marker shoot. First there's the ASA, whose role is to let gas in. In a basic spyder, the gas will make pressure and move freely up until the valve, which is normally closed. The valve has 7 parts.

1- The valve body, which is the circular piece with 2 holes, one straight through the middle, and another one across from top to bottom. You can tell which is the front and back of the valve by looking at the size of the holes down the middle of it, large hole goes looking at the front (barrel end) and the small holes should be looking to the back (trigger end).

2- The valve has 2 rubber o-rings (often 1 clear and another one black, clear o-ring goes in the front, black on the back), which prevent any leakage of gas around the valve.

3- Then there's the cupseal, which normally is a plastic knob, is in charge of making a tight seal.

3.1- On the other side of the cupseal, in older spyders, there's a spring guide which looks very much like a ninja star :. In newer spyders the cupseal is shaped to act as a spring guide as well as a seal on the valve.

4- Attached to the cupseal on the side is the valve pin, which is just a rod with a flattened indentation at one end, and this goes goes into the valve body and will stick out a little bit out the small-hole end of the valve body.

5- And finally, after the valve spring guide (ninja star :), there's a conical spring, called the valve spring. The role of this spring is to push the valve closed after shooting.

See these videos to educate yourself on how to take apart and rebuild your spyder:

YouTube - Basic Teardown
YouTube - Kingman Spyder valve body rmv
YouTube - Kingman Spyder valve body asmb
And this is the playlist for all spyder videos available from youtube user invictus0: YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

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2.0

So, let's get it on with the troubleshooting shall we?

Problem: My Spyder won't shoot.
Causes and solutions:
- The most common cause for this is the lack of gas, or enough pressure thereof to shoot. Solution: fully charge your tank and try again.

- Sometimes, and you'd be surprised how often this happens, people don't know they have an on/off ASA. Newer spyders like the 08 electra come with a convenient on/off ASA, which is there to aid in preventing any gas loss when unscrewing your tank from the marker. Make sure that if you have one of those, that the ASA is in the "ON" position, because obviously, in the off position no gas goes to the valve and ergo, no shooting.

- If your spyder is electronic and you have gas, even an experienced user can make very silly mistakes. First, check that you have fully charged your battery, because sometimes even if the marker appears to be on (i.e. has enough power to light up the LEDs or the LCD), it may not have enough juice to fire the solenoid. Also keep in mind that some spyders will only work with 9.6V (ideally a 9.6V paintball battery that looks exactly like a regular 9V), so in some cases an off the drugstore shelf 9V duracell will not have enough voltage to operate the solenoid. Also check your eyes are on or off, since eyes on + no paint = no bang bang. Oh, and don't forget to check your marker is not in safety mode, that will prevent shooting as well.


Problem: My spyder "burps" and doesn't recock, and i have to manually cock it to shoot.
Causes and solutions:
- In most cases, and with a properly maintained marker, this problem is just that your gas tank is almost empty and doesn't have enough pressure to recock the marker, so the striker is pushed back somewhat, but not far enough to reach the sear and thus it just travels forth again and pushes the valve pin again and so on until it stops. Think of it as dropping a tennis ball on the floor.

- In some cases, this may mean your striker isn't properly lubricated, which will generate friction inside the tube and if you know your physics you know that frictions slows things down and again, the striker doesn't reach the sear and does the same as described above.

- It could also be that your striker's o-ring is gone, as this is the o-ring that makes the seal around the tube so all the gas is used to propel the striker back. If gas escapes around the striker, then the striker will not reach the sear and thus not recock.

- Then there's heavier issues to consider. Since the spyder works on a somewhat delicate balance of spring tensions and gas pressure, you need to make sure that your springs are adequate for the job. Sometimes, to solve recocking issues, you may have to replace your springs. Spring kits for spyders are easily found on the web and are not very expensive at all. A excessively strong main spring may prevent it from recocking by not allowing the striker to travel back far enough with the supplied pressure. Equally, an excessively strong valve spring will do the same, but by not allowing the valve to stay open long enough for enough has to travel to the striker end. It is also the same to have one spring in good condition and the other worn, if this is the case, it will also result in the situation i just described.

- Finally, the last recocking issue i can think of is a worn sear. Since the sear's job is to capture the striker, if the sear's edge is dented, rounded or worn due to regular use, the striker will not stop at the sear and will be pushed back into the valve, just like a tennis ball that keeps on bouncing if nobody is there to catch it.

Problem: my spyder shoots slow balls, no matter how much i turn the velocity adjustment.
Cause and solution:
- This issue usually relates to a weak striker spring. You see, if the spring is worn, weak or damaged, it will not offer a great deal of force to the striker, and while it has enough tension to push the striker forward to push the valve open and come back, the valve may not open for long enough for sufficient gas to get the ball out of the barrel at the desired speed, but it will recock because the spring isn't offering much resistance and very little gas pressure would be needed to reset it at the sear. The simple solution would be, change your striker spring. If that doesn't help, change the valve spring as well.

A suggestion often made on this forum for lubrication issues on spyders (as a first step to solve problems), is to add a few drops of paintball oil into the ASA (air source adaptor, where the tank screws in) and dry firing it a dozen times, i.e. with gas but no paintballs. This will lube up valve and other essential parts quickly and easily.


OH NOES my marker leaks!

Chill, no reason to panick. Often leaks are easily resolved with changing o-rings, but which o-rings to change will depend on where the leak is.

Gas leaking at the ASA:
Check the condition of the tank's valve and o-ring as often doing something as simple as changing the o-ring there solves this issue. If not that, check the ASA receiver for dirt or foreign objects that might prevent the tank from making a proper seal on it. And if not that either, check the condition of the tank's valve for deformities or dings. A dinged tank is an unsafe tank and should be disposed of or have its valve replaced.

Gas leaking at the hoses:
Simple, a damaged hose will leak. If it leaks out of where they're attached at it's likely the hose it's not properly screwed in, or that that it's missing their o-rings at the ends. Check that the connection is tight and that it has its o-rings in place.

Gas leaking out the front:
Some spyders have this finger sticking out under the barrel. This thing is called a volumizer, and this part is screwed on to the front of the vertical ASA (where your foregrip is, be it an expansion chamber or sometimes a regulator). Check the volumizer has its o-ring and that it is properly screwed on.

Gas leaking out the barrel:
This is a classic symptom of a damaged valve body o-ring, most specifically, the front o-ring of the valve body. No other condition will cause gas to leak out of just the barrel You'll need to take your marker apart to the bone and remove the valve to replace that o-ring.

Gas leaking out of the barrel AND the back:
This could be a few things. First, the cupseal, as a damage cupseal will cause gas to leak out the barrel and towards the hammer. It could also be that BOTH o-rings of the valve body are done for. Cupseals, given that they're plastic, have a limited useful life, and those that operate on markers that shoot on CO2 only tend to break more (so don't be cheap, if there's nitro/air in your field, buy yourself a nice $50 48/3000).

Gas leaking out of anywhere else on the marker:
It's likely then that the body of the marker is damaged, and some serious parts replacement is needed.


ELECTRONICS! (huh?)

Electronic spyders are not "electropneaumatic". Memorize that ppl. Having an electric/electronic spyder means that the frame is electric and the sear, not the valve, is operated by a solenoid. You could very easily attach a mechanical spyder frame that fits on an electronic one and it'll fire all the same, though much slower.

BATTERIES COME FIRST!
If your electric spyder won't work, see above on the won't shoot section. Chances are you either have discharged batteries, or wrong batteries.

MAKING THE CONNECTION
If it does have fully charged batteries and it will not turn on, check your connections of the power supply to your board (carefully though, know there is a certain voltage inversion in there, it's not a good idea to have it connected to the battery when tinkering with it).

KEEP YOUR CONNECTIONS
If it powers on, but it won't shoot, it could be a low battery, but often it's a faulty connection from the trigger to the board OR from the board to the solenoid.

OPEN YOUR EYES!
A common issue with spyder electronic markers is the presence of eyes. Dirty eyes will prevent the marker from shooting or worse, chop paint like crazy, so grab your swabs and clean them prediocically during a day's game. If they're clean and it doesn't shoot, check your eyes connections to the board in the trigger frame. If that doesnt work, then your eyes may need to be replaced. You could get cool laser yes if you care for that, if not, there's cheap IR emitter/receiver eyes you can replace them with.

Now, if your marker says eyes on, it's allowing you to shoot but it's chopping paint like crazy, and your marker is doing all sorts of weird stuff, you probably fried your board and will most likely need a new one, so start saving up because they're not cheap. About 50% of the price of a spyder is just the electronics.

I hope this has helped you, enjoy your spyder, and if you can't find a solution to your problem in here, or the solutions covered here don't work for you, don't hesitate and post a new thread asking for help.

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