Something else that has bothered me a bit.. The VL loader says it's a 12V
hopper, except that it uses two 9V batteries. So I thought, well, maybe
they're using two batteries in parallel to give it the current or the
battery life it needs. But that's still only 9V.

But no.. these batteries are in series making 18V. Hmm, I think to myself..
Why would they burn off 6 volts just to make the thing run at 12V? Why not
make the thing work off 9V or 18V.? Is this just a bunch of propaganda? I
suppose I could open the thing up and measure the voltage to the motor and
if that's 12V, then I guess it kinda makes sense but who advertises their
product as 12V when it's actually 9V input 18V input?

-Bruce


"Bruce Chang" <bechang@swspambegonebell.net> wrote in message
news:3t7Sc.1420$%p3.1309@newssvr22.news.prodigy.co m...
> So I'm more or less a newbie at paintball. I've played once and enjoyed
it
> a lot and am going again this weekend. My first time playing I got a
rental
> gun and it did fine for what I expected of it. Fairly accurate and range
> was fine. As long as I'm moving, accuracy and distance isn't as
important.
>
> So I bought me a gun on eBay and it came with an electronic loader
(Piranha
> EXT Pro G3 and VL Revolution 12V hopper).
>
> I see that the benefits of a hopper is that you can fire balls at a faster
> rate but is there any benefit of an electronic hopper if you don't fire
> balls much faster than 3/sec? At the end of my last time playing, each
game
> I played I would fire 3 balls at a time in not very rapid succession.
Even
> when laying covering fire for a teammate, it was only 3 maybe 4 balls a
> second. Will I see any benefit? That's my question.
>
> On a side note, anyone have any personal experience with the EXT Pro G3?
I
> read some reviews and they were all positive so I decided that it'd be a
> decent gun to start with.
>
> Thanks in advance.
> -Bruce
>
>

<snip> > then I guess it kinda makes sense but who advertises their
>product as 12V when it's actually 9V input 18V input?
>
>-Bruce

It does use two 9-volts, with an 18-volt input, but a little transformer inside
regulates it down to 12V. Saves on battery life, and still a nice jump from a
single 9volt.