FlashCaps

After some research and thought I’ve decided to manufacture FlashCaps. These are electronic Snap Caps which flash a bright green LED around the ‘primer’ to indicate what you have in your hand, or gun, is not a live cartridge.

Of course there has been a great deal of controversy around Snap Caps, some grounds ban them and I wouldn’t argue with that.

The idea came about having met one poor chap who had taken his right cheek off with his gun having mistaken a cartridge for a Snap Cap. Say what you want about that!

Having considers different ideas from a simple flashing LED, battery and switch upwards, what I’ve gone for is something which face value is simple, hides a fair amount of complexity.

I didn’t want the user to be able to forget to switch the thing on. “If it doesn’t flash, it’s a LIVE cartridge” mantra for me isn’t really enough, but that mantra still stands.

So, I came up with a solution which involves no mechanical switching making it impossible to forget to switch it on. You pick it up, it switches on. You put it down and after five seconds it switches off to conserve the battery.

I also toyed with various battery concepts, from cheap button cells, through to 10 year long life cells and rechargeable. In the end, I went for the latter. Environmentally (arguably) more responsible and long term cheaper than throw away cells. The battery is to be charged from a phone wall charger and USB-C lead, the latter provided. A full charge will give 3-4 hours continuous use, sufficient for a mount/swing practice session whist in “sleep” mode will last several days.

As you may imagine, with all technology inside and a machined aluminium housing, sprung dummy ‘primer’ and made in relatively small volumes, with packaging, shipping, duty and taxes these won’t be as cheap as current offering. I’m still waiting on a landed cost and cost of overheads to finalise the price. The mark-up won’t be huge as it’s this isn’t a replacement day job, it’s really a pocket money/fun project and at best may subsidise a bit of shooting for me.

Down the road, I’ll have the option to add further features. This may include a ‘plug in’ LASER module, powered through the USB port. Also, the onboard accelerometer and micro-controller could with the addition of Bluetooth and a phone app perhaps be developed to analyse gun mount/swing; but this would be quite a technical and commercial challenge, but if the demand is there, then maybe it could happen.

If anyone is interested in these let me know. I’ll take pre-orders (no money up front) to help me determine the size of the first production run.

For those int, the electronic components are mostly made in China, there really isn’t much choice over that. The PCB will be done in Germany and the housing and assembly in the U.K.

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Any chance of coming up with an electric device that blocks the trigger until the gun is 'ON TARGET'   ?

Anyone visually impaired enough to be unable to distinguish between live cartridges spent cartridges and snap caps should really take up another pastime. Maybe your next batch could play a tune?

Centrepin said:

Anyone visually impaired enough to be unable to distinguish between live cartridges spent cartridges and snap caps should really take up another pastime. Maybe your next batch could play a tune?

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Actually was considered. Well, not an actual tune but an audible ‘chirp’ 

basically a rather large component in a very tiny enclosure (can be made down to 28 gauge) and not many holes (none) for the sound to get out. Also, bloody expensive to implement too.

So, sadly the visually challenged will have to struggle on.

@westley 

Not sure I’m quite up to that level of engineering but it could tell you if you stop the gun,  measure recoil force, flinch, how smooth your swing is, how long it took you to mount the gun, how long between loading the gun and closing it, how consistent you are, etc etc

lots we can do with the hardware. The bit that will take time to get right is the software that is easy to use and understand.

I’ll need to be sure there’s a demand for that before committing the children’s collage fees to it

I have two aluminium snap caps that look nothing like a proper cartridge size/colour wise ,brass also available

Just buy this sort and not the ones that mimick a real cartridge, the only time I really use them is to de-cock the triggers.

You may be going too a lot of effort for not a lot of return Lloyd

@ColinD Definitely a lot of effort for not a lot of return Colin. But I’m not really doing this for the returns. If it was only about the return, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near this far.

There really isn’t a lot at stake here to be honest. The CPSA say they have 24,000 members, BASC something like 150,000 members. The shooting magazines report an average readership of circa 25,000.  If I sold 500 sets I’d get all my stake money back and even make a small margin which to be honest, I’d just turn in back into another production run.

When I go to the Casino or the races (both very rare for me) I decide how much I’m going to spend, not how much I’m going to gamble and I go have some fun. If I come away having spent all the money I count it as a good day out. If I return with more than I went, I feel pretty much the same. In business I take small calculated risks. I don’t consider myself a gambler. This isn’t a business, it’s a hobby thing, so I don’t care if I don’t get any money back, but it would be nice if I did.

I’ve been involved with maybe around 200 or so start-ups over the years, my first when I was 13 years old. From all those I can count on one hand the number of financially worthwhile opportunities. One thing I’ve learned though over the years is, no matter what the product, nor it’s features or benefits or price, not everyone would buy.

I have a hunch that the accelerometer in these could become quite interesting and useful as a training aid IF a good user experience can be developed. Bu t no matter what, I’ll not be giving up the day job.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO NEED TO LEAVE SNAP CAPS IN ANY GUN OR TO USE THEM FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN CHECKING / REPAIRING EJECTORS OR TRIGGERS.....

ips said:

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO NEED TO LEAVE SNAP CAPS IN ANY GUN OR TO USE THEM FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN CHECKING / REPAIRING EJECTORS OR TRIGGERS.....

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I definitely would not  advocate leaving anything in any gun to be honest.

There are arguably reasons for using snap caps other than the ones you mentioned. 

Of course using snap caps and leaving snap caps in a gun are two different scenarios. Which of course is what you eluded to anyway.

Personally, I’d take my gun to a gunsmith of I had doubts about the triggers or ejectors.

Incidentally, these electronic snap caps will be able to give you actual measurements of ejector force and firing pin force also, among other facilities previously mentioned.

Lloyd said:

I definitely would not  advocate leaving anything in any gun to be honest.

There are arguably reasons for using snap caps other than the ones you mentioned. 

Of course using snap caps and leaving snap caps in a gun are two different scenarios. Which of course is what you eluded to anyway.

Personally, I’d take my gun to a gunsmith of I had doubts about the triggers or ejectors.

Incidentally, these electronic snap caps will be able to give you actual measurements of ejector force and firing pin force also, among other facilities previously mentioned.

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I do not advocate leaving snap caps in a gun however on reflection if folk are going to do so then i can see the merit in your idea / design on grounds of safety which is of course your reason for coming up with it. I wish you all the luck with it however i will always be of the opinion that snap caps should not be left in

There are some guns - mainly those with leaf springs - where snap caps can be used to 'relax' the springs.

They need to be left in as opening the gun (to get them out) resets the springs.

I understand, for example, that Perazzi recommend the use of snap caps for that reason - prolonging the springs life.

I also understand it makes very little difference with coil springs.

Freddypip said:

There are some guns - mainly those with leaf springs - where snap caps can be used to 'relax' the springs.

They need to be left in as opening the gun (to get them out) resets the springs.

I understand, for example, that Perazzi recommend the use of snap caps for that reason - prolonging the springs life.

I also understand it makes very little difference with coil springs.

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That is why I have a pair in my English gun, BUT they remain in the cupboard when the gun comes out.

@ips 100% agree. 
 

@Freddypip That’s my understanding also, but I can’t argue with @ips to be honest. I’d rather the gun be empty and the barrels off the action when not in use.

Agree. I do store mine split.

Freddypip said:

There are some guns - mainly those with leaf springs - where snap caps can be used to 'relax' the springs.

They need to be left in as opening the gun (to get them out) resets the springs.

I understand, for example, that Perazzi recommend the use of snap caps for that reason - prolonging the springs life.

I also understand it makes very little difference with coil springs.

Click to expand...

But if you relax the spring take the forend off and break the action and remove the s/caps, you wont recock the trigger

Don't know if thats the same for all u/o shotguns but it works on my Gureini and 725 unless I'm missing something, most people say a brain I know

Totally confused!!! What am I missing here. If the battery needs recharging every 7 to 14 days then what happens if I don't use the gun for a month. As has been said, just get some chrome or brass snap caps if your worried.

Fun little project if you enjoy a bit of electronics and coding. 

DavidJ said:

Totally confused!!! What am I missing here. If the battery needs recharging every 7 to 14 days then what happens if I don't use the gun for a month. As has been said, just get some chrome or brass snap caps if your worried.

Fun little project if you enjoy a bit of electronics and coding. 

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I don’t understand your confusion. You seem to be totally on point to be honest.

 Q.   “What am I missing here[?]”  - 

A.   I don’t think you’re missing anything at all.

Q.  “If the battery needs recharging every 7 to 14 days, what happens if I don’t use the gun for a month[?]”

A.  Recharge as you would any rechargeable device. 

The project came about as a result of speaking to someone who mistook a cartridge for their ‘[chrome or] brass snap cap’ and took his right cheek off.
So that’s my worry and just getting chrome or brass snap caps doesn’t solve that worry. Having ones which flash elevates that worry to some degree. I

If the battery is dead flat, then you wouldn’t put it in the gun. If it doesn’t flash, it’s to be assumed not safe, else it would just be a normal (brass or chrome, or even aluminium) snap cap or worse, a could be cartridge as per aforementioned unfortunate gentleman.

For what it’s worth... My assumption is my gun is always loaded.  It’s not about being a smart arse, it’s the way I was taught in the military. Gun is always assumed loaded. Known Snap Cap or not. It’s loaded. Flashing Snap cap or not. It’s loaded. Can see right through the barrels or not. It’s still loaded. Barrels off the action... I’ll accept that as reasonably safe. That’s how my gun is stored and will always be the case. I don’t want to have to explain to my kids why I’m missing my right cheek, or worse, their mother explaining why I am no more or anyone for that matter. The FlashCaps are not safe. They are just one very small step towards diligently operating safely.

    “Fun little project if you enjoy a bit of electronics and coding” 

    Yes,  that’s exactly what it is. A fun little project and I really do enjoy it.

As with any product (I’ve been involved with more than 200 over the years) there will be those that buy it and use it. Those that buy it and don’t use it. Those that don’t buy it and use an alternative and those that don’t buy it and don’t use any alternatives. I’m under no illusions that everyone would like to have such a device. I’ll be getting a run of 500 pairs made. Out of 20,000 or so shooters in the U.K. 1 in 40 shooters taking a liking to the idea over a twelve month period isn’t I think an unreasonable bet.

When I later add the code for the accelerometer and gyroscope to measure things like swing smoothness, (do I stop the gun on the swing?) smoothness of mounting the gun, time I take from loading cartridge to taking a shot, recoil/muzzle rise measurement et.al, I’d hope this information would be useful to me and maybe to others also?

later still, adding a laser to give further functionality and finally, a projected laser image of a moving “clay” from a separate device about the size of a tea cup to interact with said “snap cap” may allow for some meaningful indoor practice (less of an issue as lockdown is relaxed... assuming there’s no resurgence of course).

Of course, I may just not sell any. It won’t be the first time and I doubt it will be the last time that I take a punt on a fun project and it to come to nought.

Still, I have had a reasonable amount of product successes to offset the failures so I’m happy enough.

@Freddypip 

flat “leaf” springs are generally more highly stressed than coil springs. The bending strain (movement if you will) is distributed over a length of material and can  exhibit higher peak stress if not very carefully designed than a coil spring of similar force which is loaded more evenly in torsion (a small inference of bending). The “torsion spring” being wrapped helically around an imaginary cylinder to make better use of available space. Both types follow Hooke’s law, while coil springs typically have slightly better hysteresis.    

Thus flat springs will typically fracture before they tire, coil springs tire before they fracture.