Planet Eclipse EGO 10 Ten Midnight Black

The Eclipse Ego10. This 6th Generation Ego is the start of a new direction for Planet Eclipse and the focus of the engineering behind the marker. For the first time since the inception of the Ego model, the Ego10's main design brief and focus has been placed on smoothness of shot and even finer resolved paint handling. Every previous Ego has been developed with the express intent of maximizing the cycle speed of the Ego design, speeding up rammer and bolt movement and minimizing pneumatic and electronic delays wherever possible. Whist this has produced arguably the fastest under-and-over poppet paintball marker on the planet, it can equally be argued that the Ego has not been one of the smoothest shooting.

Well that is all about to change. Paintball is changing. No longer is the perfect marker the one that will shoot and cycle the fastest. Today, more than ever, players want and need to be able to shoot the most fragile paint, with the smoothest shot. And this is the direction that the Ego10 will start taking us in.

Using some of the very latest Ultra High Speed Video recording facilities, as well as micron-accurate, 50,000hz sampling speed, laser displacement sensing equipment, the Ego10 has been developed to produce bolt speeds that are more gentle on the fore-stoke so that paint is handled in a much more gentle manner when being loaded, and that opens the poppet valve in a way that helps reduce sound signature, and then returns in a way to help minimize the recoil imparted into the body by the rearward motion of the bolt and rammer and reduce rear-stop rebound.

Yet even though the cycle has been significantly slowed down, due to the unique design of the direct-mounted solenoid, the Ego10 still has extraordinary pneumatic responses that mean no time from switching on the solenoid to the bolt starting to move is wasted. The result: Still 28+bps fire rates, but smoother, quieter, better-handling feel.

With a smoother cycle, come other benefits. Wear and tear are significantly reduced. Bumpers, valves, and all other dynamic components suffer less brutal forces on every cycle hence longevity is added to each of those components.

Mechanically the Ego10 incorporates some of the technology of last season's SL94. The Zick2, which is an intrinsic part of the pneumatic drive system, is designed to both have a softer initial kick-off on the forward stroke, which helps load the ball more gently and helps minimize bolt-strike breakage of the paintball, but also cushion the system on the return stroke into its rear-stop position. Both these attributes are key to helping achieve the fundamental goals of the Ego10.

Sitting above the Zick2 kit there is now a body-cut contoured Cure3+ bolt. The main body of the bolt carries the same upper profiling and cupping as the standard Cure3 bolt, which massively reduces both bolt-strike impact on the ball being fired, but also ensures that the bolts leading upper edge has the least amount of impact possible on the second ball in the stack. Impact fractures from the bolt on the second ball are common place when using force-feed loaders, and the Cure3 ensures those fractures are kept to an absolute minimum. But what is new on the Cure3+ bolt is a new 2-piece design. The new second piece sits inside the main body, is held in place with the bolt pin, and is removable and interchangeable without the need of any tools. The standard Cure3+ found in the Ego10 comes with a ramped insert that gives the air path from the valve to the face of the bolt a nice smooth transition through its 90 degree turn. But the real beauty of the design means that the insert can be quickly and easily removed and replaced for any future upgrades that may be developed for this bolt design.

Up at the front of the Ego10, below the lightened LPR cap, there is now an additional vent in the main body. This little vent hole is further testament of the desire to make the Ego10 the most reliable high-end marker out there. The little hole is nothing more than a vent, but its simplicity is its beauty, in that it makes it impossible for any kind of HP air from the valve chamber to bypass the internal LPR body seals and contaminate the LP air that feeds the Solenoid and Rammer. This added protection for the solenoid further enhances the durability and reliability of the whole marker.

Electronically the Ego10 has also had a complete overhaul. Of course the key features that have kept the Ego at the top of its game, such as Opto and Micro switch trigger actuation, are still there. But the heads-up display, GUI, microprocessor, solenoid drive circuit and expansion socket have all seen some major changes.

The four layer circuit board is home for a 16-bit, 16mips PIC microprocessor, running at 3V and with advanced power saving features. The increased number-crunching power of the processor allows for much more sophisticated control algorithms, leading to a smooth and seamless operation of the marker, and the 64K of internal program memory provides ample space for future firmware expansion.

The solenoid drive circuitry has been optimised with a focus upon the consistent and repeatable operation of the solenoid and multi-level prioritised interrupts within the control firmware ensure that timing fluctuations are virtually non-existent.

Standards have traditionally been a problem within paintball's manufacturing community and so the Ego10 expansion connector supports UART, SPI and IIC interfaces, providing flexible upgrade capabilities. Planned expansion boards from Eclipse include USB and RF interfaces.

The liquid crystal display module (LCM) has been completely redesigned from scratch. This is not a commercial display, made to fit into a paintball marker but a custom unit

engineered specifically to withstand the rigours of the modern game. The chip-on-glass design is completely sealed against the ingress of paint, water and aggressive lubricants and is further protected by a plastic surround which also serves as a rigid mounting system. Transflective LCD technology means that the display doesn't wash out in strong sunlight, contrast actually improves in brighter conditions whilst using significantly less power than OLED technology. When light levels are lower, a tru-colour RGB backlight can be configured to the user's colour of choice via software.

The viewing area of the LCM has been increased by 92% over the previous model, improving the resolution while maintaining dot pitch and the Graphical User Interface (GUI) has been overhauled in order to take advantage of this larger viewing area. Readability has been improved with increased font sizes; Windows pop-up with useful status information; Range bars indicate the adjustability of parameters; Smart Menus reduce clutter by removing parameters when not required. Usability has been improved in a number of subtle, but important ways. It is now possible to scroll through the run screens with a single button press, allowing the user to quickly access all of the available information; The tournament lock can be quickly toggled with the press of an internal pushbutton; All of the user adjustable control parameters have been grouped into a single menu and can be easily viewed regardless of the state of the tournament lock. Along with the instant and peak ROFs the two Rate of Fire screens display historical data in the form of histograms allowing the user to monitor rate of fire consistency and thus analyse the way in which the trigger is being pulled. The Shot Counter screen features an adjustable and selectable Shots Remaining Gauge which allows the user to quickly estimate how much paint they have remaining.

All together, the changes made to the Ego10 have been entirely player-focused. It's been designed to be easier to shoot, smoother to shoot, more reliable, more consistent, require less day-to-day maintenance, easier to adjust and just generally nicer to live with. What you won't find different with the new Ego10 is our industry-leading levels of customer support, our commitment to support the players in the locations they use Eclipse products, and our commitment to educating and training technicians and service centres the world over.

An Eclipse Marker is more than just a collection of metal and wires. It is the Complete Package.