3D printing Lasertag lens units

For over a year I've been faffing with my own Lasertag PCB design but keep dropping the project when something else needs doing.

The PCB design seems OK but with a couple of poor decisions I'd fix were I to order more. The 'beta' software works so I fitted them in two of my own Lasertag weapons and one worked great but the other not so much. I think it's got two current limiting resistors because I didn't realise there was one in the existing lens unit already.

What I don't know was what the real potential of the board was with the component choices I'd made.

Having a board design sort of goes hand in hand with needing lens units to match and I want to do what Phil from UKLTA has done: design a re-usable 3D printed lens unit that can be included in larger things, or printed out to attach directly to conversions. This is especially true if I want to maybe make some 3D printed 40K themed weapons for our upcoming 40K LARP. 

I ordered some 25mm acrylic lenses a few weeks back and I've had a go at designing an adjustable 3D printed lens unit that uses them but what I really needed was a way to range test away from Lasertag events that didn't involve the Police being called on me. Being based in the UK this is a real concern. So last week I made up a 'gun on a stick' which looks nothing like a weapon apart from the attached sight.

Today I've done some testing at the Hackspace on the field and it's "good enough for The Grange" with no trouble hitting a target across the width field at ~140m.

Unfortunately this isn't really a good test as I arrived later than planned and the photos don't really show how much the light was going. I need to test again on a bright sunny day. Home is just a short walk from Wanstead Flats which is a huge area of common ground so I'll have to make a trip there when the sun is shining.

Good progress though.