Build a Smarter Pistol

3D Modeling 3D Printing Electronics Lights and LEDS January 29, 2017

So one of the absolutely iconic pieces of Titanfall hardware is the Smart Pistol – a handgun that fires target-seeking bullets. If you’ve ever played Titanfall 1 or 2, you know just how infuriating (and fun!) the gun can be to have in a game. I would be remiss in doing a pilot costume if I did not try to tackle this as a prop. Fortunately, Titanfall’s art director, Ryan Lastimosa, has an ArtStation page chock-full of concept art, renders, and other visualizations of Titanfall’s equipment. There’s two versions of the Smart Pistol – the MK5, from Titanfall 1, and the MK6, from Titanfall 2.

For what it’s worth, I substantially prefer the MK5. The MK6 has a weird angular design aesthetic that I don’t really like, while the MK5 looks like battle-worn hardware. An Etsy user named SlukaIndustries has actually modeled the Titanfall 2 Smart Pistol for 3d printing, which you can find here, but I was not satisfied with going that route. I wanted the Titanfall 1 pistol, and I wanted to add electronics into the mix.

Using the excellent references from Lastimosa’s ArtStation page, I set about making a base model for the Smart Pistol, intending initially to make a very basic prop with a few LEDs. I spent about a week of my free time modeling the gun up, and in the course of doing so, the scope of the gun got more and more complicated. I just… kept adding to it. The final feature list contemplated for my ‘advanced’ version of the Smart Pistol is as follows:

Working safety paddle on side of gun to turn electronics components on and off.
Working audio effects via a speaker embedded in the barrel.
Working trigger to activate audio effects and other lights.
Illuminated sights and screens.
Easy battery operation, access, and replacement.
Working flashlight mount.
Working laser mount.

For a time, I considered trying to make the slide-action work on the gun, or adding a vibration motor to simulate the gun ‘kicking’ when firing, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

So, with that said, lets get to the meat of it – the actual model.

The gun breaks into five ‘main’ exterior shell components, with a number of other small, extra interior parts. This was built this way to make printing easier, so I could orient flat sides down onto my print bed and section it into smaller parts that would fit in my machine.

If we dig into the cross-section of the gun, you will see that there have been a number of interior channels hollowed out to accommodate the electronics I have planned.

The safety was the biggest head-scratcher. I wanted to be able to use the paddle like an actual safety on a real gun to engage the power from the 9v battery in the handle, but that requires either a rotary switch that only moves, like, 10 degrees, or some other way of doing it. After a while of brainstorming, here’s a look at the safety action I’ve come up with.

The slide switch used in this instance is the MS12AFW01, which just so happened to have a 3d model available which made the job a little easier. I’m not sure if the switch resistance is going to be enough, by itself, to keep the safety in a fixed position, but I’ll engineer something if I have to tweak it.

The trigger, on the other hand, uses a snap-action switch I had lying around, and a 10mm spring.

The flashlight mount has been hollowed out so I can hopefully build a ‘flashlight’-esque assembly with a lens and an ultra-bright white LED, while the ‘laser’ module has been hollowed out to accommodate a red laser diode from Adafruit.

Here’s a more exploded view of all of the gun’s components sectioned out for printing.

For the sake of being thorough, here’s a comprehensive list of parts I believe will be required:

Adafruit 5mW 650nm Red Laser Diode
8 Ohm 1W 30mm Magnetic Speaker (subject to change depending on performance)
Cool White Ultrabright 5mm LED x2
Flashlight Lens with Holder – “Dragon” Lens
MS12AFW01 SPDT Slide Switch
Mini Microswitch with Roller Lever
OS102011MS2QN1 SPDT Slide Switch x2
Adafruit Mono 2.5W Class D Audio Amplifier
Adafruit Audio FX Mini Sound Board – 2MB Flash
Arduino Pro Mini – 5V
WP1043YD LED Bar Single x4
3x 3mm Green LEDs
2x 3mm Red LEDs
Retraction spring, 5mm diameter, 10mm length
121-0624/I-GR “I” 9v Battery Snap Contact
9v Battery
An assortment of M2 screws of different lengths, between 8mm and 20mm long.

While I can gladly go on at length with images of how the gun’s designed to operate, I felt it would be easier (and more instructive) to record a brief video doing exactly that.