[Image heavy][NanoAB] Total newbie's first upgrade [K3vX's mosfet install]

[K3vX]

Installation of the GATE NanoAB MosFET

Let's start this.
(Quality of the pictures is variable, I used different cameras through the process)

This can inspire people too afraid to do what I did. If I did it, you can!



As you may all know, the guys at AirsoftStoreCanada released two new MosFETs, the Gate PicoSSR and the Gate NanoAB. While the first one, being tremendously small, generated a good buzz, the second one has been eclipsed. Well, I decided to buy it as my first MosFET for my first AEG. Since this is my first opening of the gun, and the first time I do something on an AEG other than adding stuff on the rails, I decided to keep a picture log of my progression, struggling and trials, to finally write it here. It may not be interesting to everyone, but I hope some people will appreciate it.

It first started when I got my first AEG, a JG MK36 (G36c). I knew the guy would not be the best, but I didn't care since I love fiddling with stuff. I always wanted a good trigger response, and the first upgrade people around here suggested what to redo the wires, and add a MosFET. I said I would do it one day, but was curious of the inner works of the inside of the gun, and I'm not even talking about the gearbox. While attempting to open the gun the first time, I noticed something wrong with my AEG.



As you can see, the wire is UNDER the selector switch. I tried to remove it for more than an hour, asked people around here on the forum, and finally gave up. I tried to close it back, but realized that the same frigging cable was chewed, and while playing with the selector switch to remove the damn cable, I broke the selector switch on the gearbox. Awesome!!

Now with a non-functional AEG, I had no choice but to order a repair part and redo the wiring anyway, so I waited a bit for the new MosFET that Stealth (the account, doesn't matter who was using it at this moment, don't confuse me!!) announced, and practiced soldering on stupid, useless cables. For example, I rewired COMPLETELY a Wal-Mart 50$ AEG just for the lulz (and yes, the performance increased significantly). When it came in stock, I ordered it with the required parts to fix the mess I created.

Got everything on the mail three days later.




With this in hand, with NO confidence but with nothing to lose, I cut the stuck wire (I sincerely hate you, under-selector-switch cable) and extracted the gearbox from the pistol grip. I cleaned a good workspace, and tried to understand the wiring (positive-negative and all of this) for a good 30 minutes. I'm that scared.




That's when I realized that, yes, the G36c IS lacking space. I spent a lot of time figuring how to rewire the gun, and where to put the MosFET. It IS indeed a small chip, but I still had difficulties in finding a spot. When I FINALLY found a spot, an hour later, it came to me that there would be deans connectors on both sides of the MosFET. Damn it, you're kidding me? You guess it, it was NOT fitting anymore with the connectors. I ate something to prevent any tears to be shed, and restarted. Checking the physical dimensions, I only found ONE SINGLE spot where I could put the MosFET, and it was risky.

But screw the risks, right? It's not like I have any choice.




That's right. Directly under the magwell. Directly in the path of the feedtube. Directly below the hop-up unit. If ONE cable is to go berserk, I could fuck everything. Yeah, curse word, it was that hard to decide to do it.

Good, step one of wiring the MosFET, done. Let's try step two. I took the dean plug on the FET, and since I really was scared of screwing the length, I wired TWO METERS of cables on it. That's right, two meters of red, and two meters of black. I used 18awg cable because that's what I had here, and a lot of people seems to think it's enough.
(Note on the soldering skills: I have none, I started soldering for the sake of Airsoft maintenance, and no-one around me can teach me how to do it properly. So, I think they are correct, but if they are not, feel free to point it out WITHOUT bashing me, thanks)



Then I plugged the small wires for the trigger contacts, and put the FET in it's spot again, added back the magwell. Everything seems to work...




Except that the FET is on the RIGHT of the weapon, and the gearbox wiring must be done on the LEFT. Ohh god. So now you're telling me I must cross the wire from one side to another UNDER the feedtube? Am I suppose to fail? Well screw it, I must continue, this rifle cost me too much money to give up right now.
What that means, however, is that I must triple and quad measure my wires, because if I have too much, it'll clog at the end and cause misfeeding.
To get a right measurement, I literally TAPED the wires where I thought I would cut and solder, and closed the weapon to check the length.

Twice.




Pfew, that's exhausting. When I was 100% sure of my wire length, I was still filled with doubts. Well I can't fix it all night, and time won't change the outcome, so I went ahead and cut the wires. Hell I was so stressed, I was nearly shaking.
Then I proceed to solder one wire.



Yes, directly on the tab, since I had no connector to go there and I was not caring at this point.
Then I soldered the other wire.
Then I closed it again.
Which was not easy.
Because with the added wire, I was not able to put the gearbox in the grip.

So I removed it, taped the wires at a different place, and tried again.
It failed.

So I repeated the above step until this happened:



OMG I was so happy I told everyone around here (they thought I was annoying).

I soldered the small trigger wires.
I added the new selector switch.
I had to transfer the contact from my old switch, which I didn't knew but had enough chance to notice it was not on the new one.



I close it and....
TADA





Final result:




If you got there, thanks I hope you enjoyed. Feel free to comment.

[K3vX]

Mediafire f'ed the images, reuploaded. Now the thread makes more sense.

[K3vX]

That concludes it..

[MaciekA]

In before anyone comes in here and picks at something you did wrong or tells you you did a bad job:

You did a pretty damned good job. Nice to see people posting content like this. The G36 is easy to take apart in some ways and yet a total bitch to take apart in other ways (and rewire/etc), and you braved it. Good stuff.

[jordan7831]

Good job. I liked how you shared your story of the stuck wire in this post. I remember trying to help you (I think).

Did anyone else know that the mostfet would go right above the mag well? I said its out loud as I was reading it. haha.

[K3vX]

Thanks And yes, you were one of those who tried to solve that problem :P.

[Oceanicus]

J'ai eu une moins bonne expérience avec le NanoAB, je l'ai installé sur un nouveau gearbox Lonex drop-in avec un Titan A1 pis le câblage en argent qui vient avec. J'ai remarqué plus tard après avoir ''sacré'' sur les soudure du câble qui soudait mal ( j'ai de l'équipement de soudure professionnel au travail, c'est ma job de souder des pcbs en électronique) que le câble d'argent avait de l'oxydation (ver-de-gris). Bref pas jeune...

Dans mon AKMS avec batterie Firefox 8.4V 1100 mAh: tout marchait bien en semi pis full auto, mais après une 100aine de coup en full auto j'ai perdu le contrôle de la sélection de tir, il tirait sans arrêt en full, même en position SAFE avec de la boucanne qui sortait du top receiver... trop chaud pour que j'y touche pis débrancher la batterie... J'ai attendu qu'il arrête (pis c lÃ* que ma fille d'une an c'est mise Ã* crier pour un mal de dents, je tenais mon AK qui tirait son hi-cap sans arrêt, je ne pouvait pas vraiment le déposer...la galère...)

Quand la batterie fut vide, voici 2 photos de ce qui reste du NanoAB:





Je crois sincèrement que le board avait quelque chose, la seule gaffe que j'ai faite c'est de ne pas avoir checker le pcb au travail avec mon microscope pour souder des composants surface mount pour voir un défaut de manufacture. J'espère que je pourrai m'en sortir avec la garantie limitée de 1 an qui va avec. Mais les gars de Airsoft Store (John avec qui j'ai communiqué...) son vraiment plaisant Ã* communiquer avec. On verra.

Je répare des ASCU et des Extreme-Fire régulièrement, pas de AWS et de BRAVO 3 unit, c'est de la scrap côté montage / fiabilité... pour les performances je ne sais pas, mais mon NanoAB a battu des records :-)

[K3vX]

Ouch, j'espère que c'est une exception, j'voudrais pas que ca m'arrive. En tout cas, les gars d'AirsoftStore, comme tu dis, sont assez sympatique, je serais étonné que tu trouves pas un terrain d'entente.