^it might work.
And the ion does use break-beam eyes. The only reason for having the silver 'mirror' (i think), is so that if broken paint or debris breaks the beam of the eyes, the 'old' reflective system can still be used, since both nodes transmit and recieve information.
Gwar: Paint that sits in the sun for a long time, or is very old and dimpled shoots very badly and will chop a lot. Also, check that your gun battery is good, and that your hopper batteries are good/that there is no debris on the inside of your hopper.