APE Rampage Board for the Mini

[Kanuck]

My team was set to attend the UWL at Adventure Beach Paintball and I was the heavy gunner.
I decided to upgrade the board in my mini to an APE Rampage so I could easily change to different
fire mods easily.

I ordered it from Rhythm Innovation for $99. I went with the APE board because of the push button fire mode change. In my reasearch,
none of the other boards except the Virtue board allow you to change the fire mode but simply pressing
the external power button on the mini. The Virtue board is $134 , so the choice was easy.

The install is so easy it hardly deserves a HOWTO but since I like doing them, here it is.



Board Comparison:


APE Rampage on the LEFT and Stock Optimus 1.2 Board on the RIGHT



Additional board images:







The patient:

My Polished Black Mini named Darth Milla.




Make sure you are not statically charged as this can fry the board.

1. Remove the front grip from the marker by loosening the two small allen screws on the back side.
The grip should slide downward away from the main marker body. Be carefull not to bend the pins
at the top of the grip.

2. Unscrew the single allen screw from the back of the grip. This is the only screw holding the stock
board in the grip.

3. Slide the stock board out the top of the grip being careful to not pull the leads loose.
If you have issues doing this because of the 9v leads you can remove the 9v connector from the
board by pulling up on the connector, NOT the wires.

4. Before you install the APE board, check the allen screw hole to make sure there isn't a small
piece of plastic covering the hole on the top side of the board.



5. Gently slide the APE board into the top of the grip making sure to not to damage the board or 9v leads.



6. Make sure the bottom of the board slides into the slot at the bottom of the grip.



7. Re-connect the grip to the marker body being careful to not bend the pins before they insert into
the connector on the eye board.



8. Install a fresh 9v and test

9. A single quick press of the power button will turn it on in semi-auto.

The APE Rampage board has 10 firing modes:
(Taken from the APE Manual) http://www.goapeonline.com/Manuals/Mini.zip

Solid LED Modes

Semi —One Shot per Trigger Pull

Burst — x rounds fired per Trigger Pull (x= 2 to 5)

Reactive — x rounds fired per Trigger Pull and y rounds fired per
Trigger Release (x= 1 to 5, y= 1 to 5)

Full Auto — Fires continuously while the trigger is held

Accelerator— Semi auto capped at the Accelerator Ramp Rate, then
2-shot burst with a smooth ramp applied to firing rate cap.


Blinking LED Modes

Rampage 1—Definable Ramping (defaults to a burst ramping mode)

Rampage 2—Definable Ramping (defaults to a full-auto ramping
mode)

PSP3—Three shots in Semi-Automatic then transitions to 3 Round
Burst. Resets to Semi-Automatic after 1 sec. of inactivity.

NXL—Three shots in Semi-Automatic then Full Automatic on the 4th
pull & hold. Resets to Semi-Automatic after 1 sec. of inactivity.

Millennium—Semi-Automatic until your pull rate is 8 pulls per
second, then ramps to 15 BPS (or max rate of fire).



The only problem I have with the board is the power button is not as exposed as the stock board.
This made it difficult to switch the fire modes with gloves on.

Before the MOD




I quickly found a resolution for this. I cut a piece of innertube the length of the short side of the battery.



After the MOD - See how the button is more exposed outside of the grip.






Thanks for viewing and let me know if you have any questions.

[Vashthestampede]

Great guide man. I both love and hate the customization options as I'd be afraid to get lost in the menu but love having the actual customization options.

[schroderson]

Great write up and pictures sir, I went with the Tadao but I found it on sale.

[Kanuck]

Originally Posted by Vashthestampede

Great guide man. I both love and hate the customization options as I'd be afraid to get lost in the menu but love having the actual customization options.

I don't plan to run anything special as the stock settings are perfect. I do agree that the customization menus are a bit overwhelming.

[Kanuck]

Originally Posted by schroderson

Great write up and pictures sir, I went with the Tadao but I found it on sale.

I had considered the Tadao but when it did not allow fire mode change without entering the programming mode, it dropped off the list.

[Smallpackage]

I got my APE new from a kid who bought 2 by mistake...

Great board, but you can get lost in the personalized menues...

[tigar19]

Thanks for the detailed review of the APE board! I have not heard a lot about this board and was curious what you thought about it. Tell me again about their warranty coverage?

BTW, I love the fix with the innertube. A very good friend of mine has used innertubes for some of the most bizarre situations but they did the trick!

I'll keep this in mind when my stock board dies one day.

[Sasquatch]

Very nice my good man.

[XaBoo]

I did the same thing with my Tadao board, but i used half of a milk bag tag thing, same thing they use on bread. Did the trick.

[dbug]

great write up K