Hey peoples. Been looking into these for use in schools for programming and engineering basics, but the schools are completely against anything that shoots.

Have been searching but cant find much, is there an easy way to disable the gel blaster?  Looking in the manual it seems it may be as easy as removing the cartridge, is that correct?

The gel blasters are legal in our state and the kids will end up owning them at the end of the course, so I dont want to plug the barrel with glue or something silly like that. Anyone got ideas?

Cheers, Dave.

Removing the cartridge mostly disables the blaster but an enterprising kid could still load the blaster one shot at a time.
The main spring can be removed by removing the four fasteners at the rear of the blaster. The back plate can be installed without the spring and this would completely disable the blaster.

Of course you wouldn't want to lose the spring.
There are other way the blaster could be temporarily disabled but the spring method was the quickest I could think of. This assumes removing the cartridge isn't enough.
I have additional  photos of the inside of the blaster. I'll post these if anyone is interested in seeing them.

Duane you are a legend. No further pics required for me, will let the boss know and I dare say that will suffice to the schools. Bit like removing the firing pin!

I have one on its way shortly to have a play (work insisted I order one at their expense to check it out) but at least thar answer my first concerns.

Cheers, Dave.

Duane Degn Posted at 10-17 21:00
Removing the cartridge mostly disables the blaster but an enterprising kid could still load the blaster one shot at a time.
The main spring can be removed by removing the four fasteners at the rear of the blaster. The back plate can be installed without the spring and this would completely disable the blaster.
[view_image]

I am interested in seeing those pictures thank you. So the beads are fired by mechanical means rather than pneumatic? I thought such spring action would for sure shatter some beads before they leave the barrel.

fans7ae3f332 Posted at 10-21 07:53
I am interested in seeing those pictures thank you. So the beads are fired by mechanical means rather than pneumatic? I thought such spring action would for sure shatter some beads before they leave the barrel.

The spring presses against a syringe type firing mechanism.Here are a few photos.


Above is part of the syringe mechanism. Some of the black rubber parts are attached with friction.

There's a gear which pushes against the spring loaded assembly and then releases it to fire. Part of the mechanism passes through an IR sensor to provide the controller feed back for each shot.

Above is the interrupted gear to cocks then releases the spring. The IR sensor is in the top right area of the PCB in the photo below.

Here's a photo showing the DC motor with the first gear of the gear train.

Another photo of the DC motor.

Here's a photo of the PCB as it's installed in the blaster.

The IR sensor is on the other side of the PCB (top left).
Here are a couple photos for the blaster's shock absorbing system.


In case anyone is interested, the blaster without the ammo cartridge weighs about 288g.

The syringe mechanism has some sort of valve to allow air in as the plunger retracts (compressing the sping) while closing when the spring is released. This forces the air out the hole just behind the gel bead.
I'll eventually update my Hackaday IO project with these photos and a few more. I know I have a few more photos I still intend to resize to make them more web friendly.

Duane Degn Posted at 10-21 08:33
The spring presses against a syringe type firing mechanism.Here are a few photos.
[view_image]
[view_image]

Thanks a lot for those photos. So the sucker shots by air. The spring and other mechanical pieces are mostly for rapid fire.

fans7ae3f332 Posted at 10-21 12:22
Thanks a lot for those photos. So the sucker shots by air. The spring and other mechanical pieces are mostly for rapid fire.

The spring produces the air. The inner tan cylinder has a syringe type seal. The main spring drives the inner tan cylinder quickly forward to produce the air needed to propel the gel bead.
Here are a few more photos.

Thank you for sharing. The more I see 'inside pictures' like these, the more I appreciate the level of engineering DJI has invested in such 'toy'.  

Yes Duane, very much appreciate the photos too!

I did get a reply from DJI, their suggestion was to simply remove the cartridge, though they did recognise this as a potential problem already and are in discussions to release an optional firmware to disable the gel blaster.

Found out that although Gel Blasters are legal in my State (other states in Australia they are not), they are banned under a different regulation of being a weaponised drone!

The RMS1 can't be sold to Washington DC and North Dakota for similar reasons.   I don't think it's really illegal, but too much red tape and concerns.   Disabling the gel beads or selling the blaster without the gel bead system might solve that problem.