Tracer Mags! Yay or Nay?

[SilentScreem02]

Hey Everyone,

Looking to get some opinions on tracer mags. Have you used them? and more importantly, do they work?

[Danke]

They don't work as the muzzle end ones. They don't have as many LEDs and the BB is fading as it feeds. Ditto for tracer hop ups.

Can't beat the muzzle end ones.

[BioRage]

^+1, TM Tracer unit works well, but it's so long and gets annoying in CQB X_X

Good for night only games... but gives away your position fast.

[AnthonyG]

Madbull or TM need to make versions of their tracers that are Quick-Detach. I don't want to have to unscew my flash hider, and I don't want to keep the tracer on my gun during the day when it's not in use and only adds weight.

I've been tempted to get a few flash mags, but I didn't realize their poor performance.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[cetane]

I've got a pair of the g&p tracer mags. With the 3 n batteries (or what ever proper name for 2/3 aaa sized) or 2 aaa batteries, neither works well at all with any tracer bb I've tried. Got a madbull suppressor tracer. It works pretty good. Going to try hopup mounted unit in lmg and see how that goes

[SilentScreem02]

Seems as though the general consensus is NAY! on tracer mags lol

I was looking for an alternative to muzzle mounted ones, as my m4 inner barrel runs through the suppressor that's already on it

[lurkingknight]

wouldn't be that hard to build your own QD one, making it come on when a bb passes through would be a bit difficult, but you could definitely wire it to a contact switch. All you need is the momentary switch, a battery and some IR leds.. just stuff them into the tip of the suppressor and run the wire out the back. If you really wanted to make it come on when the bbs pass through, then you will need to buy those sensors.

Some guns have enough room to do the hopup tracer mod, same idea but tap the led into the hopup unit and run wiring to power off the trigger gate.

[cetane]

Did you mean uv led? I didn't think ir would make them glow...

[Dynamo]

Originally Posted by lurkingknight

wouldn't be that hard to build your own QD one, making it come on when a bb passes through would be a bit difficult, but you could definitely wire it to a contact switch. All you need is the momentary switch, a battery and some IR leds.. just stuff them into the tip of the suppressor and run the wire out the back. If you really wanted to make it come on when the bbs pass through, then you will need to buy those sensors.

Some guns have enough room to do the hopup tracer mod, same idea but tap the led into the hopup unit and run wiring to power off the trigger gate.

Ultra Violet and Infra Red are on opposing ends of the light spectrum.

highpower UV leds will outperform any other light system. white light strobes or white light LEDs do work, but those light sources work best as close to the muzzle as possible.

UV light works better than anything else for charging the phosphorus in the BBs, which makes UV LEDs ideal for hopup tracer units.
the tracer units i've put together outperform even TM tracer units.
the TM unit, just like all other clones, use a white light flash/strobe. most of the energy let out from the strobe is wasted as reflected light.

here's how i set my hopup tracer units up.

single or double high output(1.5v) UV LED. wired directly to the motor leads(120 ohm resistor between the LEDs and the battery + lead). they are located at the very top of the hopup housing at the top of the feed tube.

the unit receives power from the main battery when the trigger of the AEG is pulled, shuts off when trigger released.

the unit is wired with a two position micro switch, and a tactile switch.

the two position switch controls the mode of the LEDs.

pos1- leds light up when the motor has power.

pos2- the LED stay off even when the motor is running, only turn on when the tactile switch is pressed.

so two modes.
the first, if the gun is shooting, the LEDs are on
the second, LEDs only turn on when the tactile switch (pressure switch) is depressed.

mode two is what i mainly use. allows me to choose when to shoot tracers.

benefits of the hopup tracer unit-

cheap! can build one for less than $10.

effective, works as good if not better than suppressor style units

covert, very little to no light bleed. UV light is hard to see with the eye, and not picked up by NVGs.
TM style tracer units let out a bright flash out the muzzle. you become a beacon for NVG users.

convenient, let you run a normal suppressor, and have the option to remove it when you want.

magazine style tracer systems are garbage.

[lurkingknight]

Originally Posted by cetane

Did you mean uv led? I didn't think ir would make them glow...

yes uv :P