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Etek 4 help

8K views 17 replies 6 participants last post by  martix_agent 
#1 · (Edited)
I ordered a new etek 4 lt last Sunday and is expected to come in tomorrow. I've been playing on and off since 97 with a group of friends maybe 5-6 times a year but I've only owned an old spyder compact and a y2k autococker, never an electronic. I got tired of being so outgunned. Before everyone jumps all over me I plan on reading the Manuel cover to cover. I would like to get a jump on understanding the operation of it so when I read the Manuel I understand what I'm reading if that makes any sense since ill be playing Saturday. Could anyone tell me how many firing modes there are and the difference between semi auto and semi capped? Also if anyone could try to explain how to use the board to set modes?also any suggestions on what tank to buy, I'm not familiar with how efficient the gun is and how many shots it would last for. This weekend ill be using my big clunker tippman tank3000 psi. Next week ill be looking to upgrade
 
#2 ·
You'll get maybe 700-over half a case of paint depending how large that tank is. Semi auto has no upper limit on the rate of fire. Capped will only let you shoot a certain bps. If say you had it capped to 12bps and your fingers were actually doing 15bps, the gun shoots 12 bps, if your fingers are actually doing 10bps your gun will shoot 10bps.

Ninja and guerilla air both make good tanks. Anything carbon fiber and around 68ci is a great size, 4500psi is a must. I'm not too familiar with all its modes and how to set them. The manual or a youtube video should cover that topic thoroughly.
 
#3 ·
etek boards are easy, the only thing i was even a little confused on is their numbering system. basically there are 3 lights, top center and bottom and any setting that you are adjusting the number of, say the rate of fire for instance, it will blink the top number, then the middle then the bottom, so lets say the value is set to 12.4 bps, it will blink the top one once, the middle twice and the bottom 4 times equaling 12.4 (decimal place is always between the middle and bottom except for on dwell timing where it is not needed) so lets say it is set to 9bps, then the middle light will blink 9 times and that is all.

the manuals are really good, you can find them online if you want to get a jump on it as well
 
#5 ·
I own an Etek 4 am. Make sure to set your de-bounce to 1, turn off the tournament lock first and always de-gas the gun after each game. There is a guide to what color each firing mode is and what range it will go between in the grip. The de-bounce is set to 5 by the factory so you will want to change it to 1 after you turn off the tournament lock. Then change the uncapped rate of fire to 15.4bps which is its highest output and if you go too high or too low it will flash red telling you it's not a setting it can use. I'm sure you know all this but just sayin. Oh and since your barrel is reverse threaded the 2 parts of the barrel tighten to the left and the threading on the gun tightens right. Make sure also not to tighten the top right screw on the right hand side of the grip frame too much or you will damage the celonoid and that's a big pain. The reason I say de-gas after each game is because I know someone who had 2 macro lines burst on him while the marker was sitting out in the sun. Anything else you want to know we are here. Have fun with it cuz I am.
 
#6 ·
dont need to de-gas between games, wastes air, and debounce on level 1 is pretty much guaranteeing you are getting a bouncy trigger should you have the trigger on a short travel or with very little spring tension. debounce settings are there for a reason and its not like you are going to be able to pull the trigger fast enough for the debounce to be interfering with you anyway
 
#7 ·
always de-gas the gun after each game.
There's no reason behind doing this. Most manufactures say to leave it gassed up all day long, because if you keep degassing and then gassing it back up, the regulator pressures can change. If your friend was blowing macro lines, something else was wrong.
Make sure to set your de-bounce to 1
no. Keep it at the stock setting. Bouncing triggers are not only illegal, they can also be dangerous. If you forget to turn off your marker, and you shoot it in the staging area, you don't want you marker shooting lots and lots and lots, that's a major safety issue.
Then change the uncapped rate of fire to 15.4bps
Use whatever rate of fire your field allows. 12.5 is usually the limit that fields are at anymore. you can even set it slower, if you so desire.


Use semi-auto unless you're playing with other people who are ramping. Ramping is fun, but you learn trigger control when you use semi auto. I'm so sick of being lit up by kids who don't understand trigger control and are ramping.
 
#13 ·
no offense to them but they still have some learning to do. setting de-bounce super low is an easy way for players who are not experienced to fire a crap ton of paint out, combine that with ramping and you can basically be running full auto, the down side is you dont have a lot of control over it, its basically just going to be blasting away all the time. Learning to walk the trigger gives you a lot more control and makes it a lot less likely that you will be bonus balling everyone. yes bonus balls happen but a very low debounce setting pretty much guarantees it will happen also as miller pointed out, a safety concern since you do not have as much control over your marker.

The thing about ramps and/or automatic triggers etc....


If you know how to properly use them...they are largely unnecessary though largely convenient. A couple months ago - I believe Trbo and I went and figured out that the spacing between rounds in ideal conditions with 12.5 bps was about 11 feet (traveling ~200mph). A 1/2 a meter wide block person traveling through a 1 meter "window" (lane) on the field will not be able to cleanly pass through the window without being contacted by 1 or more paintballs while traveling at the speed of "raging human"
ya i remember that. the math was a little tricky but we got it figured out, there are some variables for things like accuracy in there but by and large even at 12.5 its basically guaranteed you are hitting them


Debounce sorta operates the same. If memory suits (I just never bothered to change the settings) - debounce is the trigger's resistance to firing multiple times using 1 trigger pull. If you pull the trigger 1x, and it has a weak return - the trigger may fire 2-5 times. Back in the early 2000's - I played with an electronic marker that had enough kick, a sensitive enough trigger, and a weak enough spring that a single trigger pull could (potentially) empty a hopper. As stated above - this is a cool gimmick - though its negligent and doesn't keep you in functional and operational control of the marker. The more in control of a situation or marker you are - the more in control you are of your actions.
kind of, there are a few different ways and that is one of them, most debounces measure the time between trigger pulls and set a minimum time needed before the next trigger pull. A lot of boards will shoot at 12.5bps even if you are managing to pull the trigger at 15bps, reason being is there are 1000 miliseconds in a second, at 12.5 that comes out to 1 trigger pull every 80 miliseconds but pulling it at 15 you are getting 1 pull every 66.666 miliseconds, so the board will register that pull at 66.666 and then wait till the time between each shot is 80 miliseconds and then fire even though at that precise moment, you are not pulling the trigger basically it saves a trigger pull and fires when the time is right. However, debounce says here is one trigger pull, and the next one has come is too soon so I am just going to forget about it. Even at 5ms as a debounce setting it is an extremely short amount of time but it is enough to pull the trigger, then have it spring forward and if it is bouncy enough, bounce off its front stop and then register as another trigger pull as it rebounds backwards but having debounce in place the board says "that was not an intentional trigger pull" and forgets it.

Back when SP had the "cheater modes" they basically worked off of bounce or by registering multiple trigger pulls even though you only intentionally pulled the trigger once. This is also why the wording for NPPL got re-written to say something like "a trigger pull consists of one independent action" basically saying that, even though the board can see multiple "pulls" the person only intentional made one of them and hence, de-bounce came into play
 
G
#9 · (Edited)
The thing about ramps and/or automatic triggers etc....


If you know how to properly use them...they are largely unnecessary though largely convenient. A couple months ago - I believe Trbo and I went and figured out that the spacing between rounds in ideal conditions with 12.5 bps was about 11 feet (traveling ~200mph). A 1/2 a meter wide block person traveling through a 1 meter "window" (lane) on the field will not be able to cleanly pass through the window without being contacted by 1 or more paintballs while traveling at the speed of "raging human"

Ramping to a new player or a player that feels like they're outgunned is the "slimfast" alternative to a diet. It is nothing more than a quick fix that - if handled inappropriately - can have dire or life threatening/changing results.


As an adult The only actual way to functionally improve your personal health is to change your diet and exercise. Those activities take effort, and effort is never easy. Neither is committing to learning a somewhat unnatural motion performed quickly and repeatedly with your hand.

Moving from a mechanical to an electronic marker (possibly single to double trigger) is going to drastically improve your potential rate of fire. But - until you learn how to perform the task where you become accountable for every trigger pull(semi) - you're not going to properly learn how to be accountable for every ball(ramping)...especially when your balls exceed your trigger pulls.


TL;DR - Learn to play semi with both hands. Learn to be accountable for each ball you shoot. After you do this - if you decide that you want to use ramping, and the firing mode is allowed at your field...go for it.


Debounce sorta operates the same. If memory suits (I just never bothered to change the settings) - debounce is the trigger's resistance to firing multiple times using 1 trigger pull. If you pull the trigger 1x, and it has a weak return - the trigger may fire 2-5 times. Back in the early 2000's - I played with an electronic marker that had enough kick, a sensitive enough trigger, and a weak enough spring that a single trigger pull could (potentially) empty a hopper. As stated above - this is a cool gimmick - though its negligent and doesn't keep you in functional and operational control of the marker. The more in control of a situation or marker you are - the more in control you are of your actions.

Think about it - why don't post Viet Nam M16's have a full auto setting on them...Why did they opt for 3 round burst?
 
#10 ·
Think about it - why don't post Viet Nam M16's have a full auto setting on them...Why did they opt for 3 round burst?
Because the M16A1 (full auto) jammed too frequently when the bolt would come forward before a round was properly chambered. The M16A2 (3-round) eliminates this through multiple improvements, not the least of which is the elimination of full auto, allowing the springs to catch up.

Change was made entirely for reliability.

Source - Boot Camp training.
 
G
#11 ·
Gotcha - then I have 2 military sources providing me similar but conflicting information -


I was informed by a current US Army Commander...of some armored division stationed at Ft. Hood... that the reasoning for the change was weighted towards accuracy/utility inherent with more aimed shots per clip (10 vs. 1 if the gun trigger is held while in full auto)....along with reduced ammo consumption.

....which would comparatively make sense - as I have a harder time shooting thru a hopper in Semi than I do playing in a ramp.
 
#12 ·
That is true, and a more than welcome side affect, but the primary reason was of reliability concerns. SPORT (slap - pull - observe - release - tap, if you don't know it, talk to anyone who has been in a real military branch (IE - no flyboys) and they'll tell you about it) came about because of how often the A1 was known to jam in full auto mode.
 
#15 ·
nice find martix. good test too, also a great example of what I was talking about with the accuracy inconsistency. at about 4:45 there is a guy that gets through clean but the person after him takes 2 hits

also, im not sure if they were counting bounces or not in that test
 
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