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Initial Impressions of the TM SOPMOD M4 AEG


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Congratulations to Gunfighters, AnakChan, and that guy from Japan who made a review of the gun a day after it was released. You all have convinced me to burn a sizable hole in my wallet and right through my pants.

 

On the recoil, the impulse only starts after the shot is made and the BB would have cleared the barrel by then. Initial shot accuracy should be the same as with any regular AEG. Now, follow up shots, thats something else.

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While fiddling about with my SOCOM recently I noticed an expected benefit of using a Magpul MIAD grip. The swappable backstrap means you only need to remove the pistol grip base to get access to the a

Oh PureSilver, you do spoil me rotten sometimes.   PureSilver dropped half his SOPMOD off with me last weekend with some new goodies to install. Before we continue, you should note that the gun had

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Anak,

ah, nice to know.. I was going to go with a .05 PDI. have you tried the 08's? that and a 120% should keep to .98J right?

also, have you tried any half-tooth pistons in yours or measured up one to the OEM yet? say, a Promy or Deep Fire?

 

Romel,

here ya go.. it's like the ARMS reports at 8m range. (fyi, it's a quick 'n dirty test. done standing. .20g Excel BB's -though, I think it's more to a real gaming grouping compared to bench resting.) ;)

 

sopmodsemi.jpg

sopmodfull.jpg

 

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I'm having problems trying to reach the sweet spot of this weapon, and silly me, I never Joule tested it @ stock. Using a PDI 375mm 6.01mm inner barrel, and soft FireFly buckings, the following are the results I get with various brands and power of springs :-

 

Hurricane M100 - 113-116ms (370-380fps)

Phoenix MP100SP - 113-116ms

Phoenix MP90SP - 108ms (354fps)

Angel 0.9J - 108ms

SystemA M85 - 93-95ms (305-311fps)

 

I'm trying to get as close as possible to 0.989J (approx 325fps) but just can't get it . There's such a big jump between the SystemA M85 -> Phoenix MP90SP. I guess I'm comparing different brands here, so maybe comparing apples/oranges.

 

Note: Be careful with spring guide spacers, lockups seem to occur more frequently on this mechbox/EBB design.

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Guys, are you seeing any slowdown in cyclic rate/blowback by simply adding 30 or so fps?

 

In a typical gun going from 280-320/330 fps will usually drop about 1 round per second depending on the battery.

 

Im not sure how the blowback would affect this gun, ie is it any different?

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Actually I've not done any ROF tests. But what Magz says makes sense in terms of ROF dropping a little with a higher tension spring. I must say though that if there was a drop, I didn't find it noticeable. The motor seemed to have been able to handle up to the M90 springs quite reasonably. With the M100's it depended on brand. I found Hurricane could lock up, but the Phoenix was ok. Possibly changing to a Systema Magnum would get around the lockups.

 

FYI I probably won't be doing any ROF tests 'cos I intend to add another cell to the battery pack (bring it up to 9.6V), and I'll probably FET this whole thing pretty soon. So I may do ROF test after the mods.

 

As for blowback, nope, didn't notice any difference. The actual strength of the kick I believe is determined more by the short spring behind the blowback engine in the buffer tube. Increasing the tension of that would give it a stronger kick...but I'd personally be concerned increasing it too strong for two reasons :-

 

1) If it's too hard, then the piston (head) won't be able to push the rod/blowback - resulting in lockup (friend of mine experienced that)

2) I don't know how strong that barrier/wall in the buffer tube that the blowback engine slams against. If it's too strong it could crack it.

Edited by AnakChan
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Anakchan,

let me know how the battery cell addition and fet works out.

As for myself, I was going to replace the entire pack later on with different cells. (later-on, of course) ;)

 

as far as the springs go, I have to agree, the Hurricane and Systema tended to lock up a lot (this is in a 74MN) while others didn't. (Guarder, Airsoft Surgeon, Angel, and PDI seemed to do just fine) I think it has to do with the spring build, the Hurricane and Systema tend to have a much higher compression force vs. output power/rebound. thus leading to lock-ups. -all things being equal, of course.

although with the 90 series springs, the gear ratio takes care of the response time, compared to a traditional mechbox.

 

one thing I would like to know, is the trigger switch assembly a standard one? or is it something different? -thanks. :)

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Sorry for the late response guys, was out snowboarding.

 

Anakchan,

let me know how the battery cell addition and fet works out.

As for myself, I was going to replace the entire pack later on with different cells. (later-on, of course) ;)

 

/snip!/

 

one thing I would like to know, is the trigger switch assembly a standard one? or is it something different? -thanks. :)

Where do you plan on putting the MOSFET? Since the buffer tube space is being utilized?

 

Yeah I haven't FET-ted it yet nor added another cell. A friend has successfully removed the front outer barrel :-

 

http://www.tkoverkill.com/showthread.php?t...id=2862#pid2862

 

So I'm gonna give it a shot again (without further damaging the barrel nut :P), do some filing or Dremel-ing to make space for wires and put in Gandolf's AB-FET inside the front guard/RIS. At this point, I have 2 options, route the battery wires back to the stock (and add another cell to the TM batteries), or leave the battery to the front and use an external PEQ15 Lipo (and change the stock to something else like a VLtor E-MOD).

 

When I get off my @ss to doing so, I'll put up some pictures, unfortunately for the next 2-3 weeks I'll be busy with work/visitors, business trips to India/Hong Kong, etc. (and hopefully snowboarding when I'm back in Japan!).

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Hey guys!

 

Im having som problems with my Sopmod. I upgraded the spring and got arround 348fps, wich is what I was hoping for, as our maximum here is 350. But my motor has problems winding up the spring. It locks often. So I changed the spring to what I think is a CA one, giving me arround 345 (so it didnt matter), and so far it runs better. Tho I havent tried it in a game yet.

 

I have two batteries for it. I added an extra cell to one of them yesterday.

 

What I need to know is, what is your experience with this?

What did you do to upgrade it? Did you add an extra cell? Is it draining the battery alot?

Should I add the extra cell to the other battery as well? Or should it work with an 8.4v on a 340ish setup? If yes, what am I doing wrong?

Will adding the extra cell keep it from draing as fast? Or is this the same for 8.4 and 9.6v?

 

Sorry for all the questions hehe. Happy for any reply :)

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What spring were you using? I did find using even a slightly higher powered spring caused my Sopmod to lock up too. The other thing would be the length of the spring (so then that would depend on length). The stock TM Sopmod spring seems to be shorter than any of the 3rd party springs I've had (Angel, Systema, Prometheus, Phoenix, Hurricane). But amongst the different 3rd brands for the same power rating, they vary in length too. I think that's why some springs lock up and some don't in the Sopmod.

 

I still haven't added the 8th cell to my battery yet but my friend did. He had the opposite experience of you - he found his overall battery life lasted longer. If yours is draining quick, sounds like there's quite a bit of tension going on in your mechbox. I guess you've played with the motor height, your gears are shimmed correctly, there's no additional (unnecessary) stress in the mechbox?

 

Things I changed in my Sopmod :-

1) Systema M85 spring

2) Prometheus piston head

3) Prometheus cylinder

4) Ball bearing bushings

 

 

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What spring were you using? I did find using even a slightly higher powered spring caused my Sopmod to lock up too. The other thing would be the length of the spring (so then that would depend on length). The stock TM Sopmod spring seems to be shorter than any of the 3rd party springs I've had (Angel, Systema, Prometheus, Phoenix, Hurricane). But amongst the different 3rd brands for the same power rating, they vary in length too. I think that's why some springs lock up and some don't in the Sopmod.

 

I still haven't added the 8th cell to my battery yet but my friend did. He had the opposite experience of you - he found his overall battery life lasted longer. If yours is draining quick, sounds like there's quite a bit of tension going on in your mechbox. I guess you've played with the motor height, your gears are shimmed correctly, there's no additional (unnecessary) stress in the mechbox?

 

Things I changed in my Sopmod :-

1) Systema M85 spring

2) Prometheus piston head

3) Prometheus cylinder

4) Ball bearing bushings

 

 

 

Thanx for the reply, AnakChan  :)

 

I am now using a classic army spring, wich is shorter then the first i tried, and this one hase same coil all over.

There is no unusual stress in the BG. The gears are shimmed right, and the motor is adjusted to the right position.

I have not upgraded to ball-bearing, maybe this has something to do with it?

 

 

I changed the new cell to a GP one, and so far its running fine. But I am afraid of what will happen in game. If I will be out of power after 4 mags, if you know what i mean?

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Thanx for the reply, AnakChan  :)

 

I am now using a classic army spring, wich is shorter then the first i tried, and this one hase same coil all over.

There is no unusual stress in the BG. The gears are shimmed right, and the motor is adjusted to the right position.

I have not upgraded to ball-bearing, maybe this has something to do with it?

 

 

I changed the new cell to a GP one, and so far its running fine. But I am afraid of what will happen in game. If I will be out of power after 4 mags, if you know what i mean?

 

Four hicaps or four standards?

 

IF its four standards then yes, something is definitely wrong there or this system is HIGHLY inefficient.

 

If its four hicaps i would say thats probably about right considering the level of complexity of the system.

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My package came yesterday. Just some additional thoughts from another user, but nothing ground-breaking that wasn't mentioned earlier:

 

Very cool build on this thing. Only got to mess with it a little bit, but I'm really liking it. Very solid. No extraneous movement between any of the parts, except for some slight wobble on the stock. Could not get the receiver halves to flex or move when twisting them opposite of each other. The RIS is solid as can be. It doesn't move.

 

The recoil is funny compared to my GBB rifles (Shoei MP44, SP M16s, Escort 416, etc).....it is there, but the stroke seems shorter and not as sharp, but the actual force is pretty decent.....not as much mass to throw around. It will be interesting to compare them side-by-side. It gets some pretty decent recoil on FA while SA is pretty subtle. It is also obviously quieter than those GBB rifles, so that lack of metallic sound is playing a part in my perception too I'm betting. Variance in accuracy is noticeable when putting rounds downrange compared to a typical AEG that you just hold on target. Especially noticeable when you use a reddot sight. The SOPMOD sounds more 'throaty' than a regular AEG.

 

Bolt stop function is pretty cool indeed, although it is a bit weird to not hear/feel a bolt really slam forward, like on my real AR and the aforementioned SP M16s that are fitted with bolt stop kits.

 

I dropped a G&P RAS2 Long on it, and the upper part of that fits great. The lower rail had to be retained from the SOPMOD RIS because the barrel nut does not have a slot for the RAS2 lower RIS clamp to slip into. (The upper does.) Not ideal, but no big deal, as the front handguard cap and delta ring holds the lower TM RIS half well with just a very minor bit of play, and it doesn't look wrong.

 

Time to drop a tightbore and perhaps a moderate spring upgrade in it.

Edited by AustinWolv
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About the sound, is there enough space between the recoil piston and the wall it hits to insert two thin metal discs with foam padding? What I'm trying to get at here is to stick on the discs so that the metal parts will be hitting each other to create a metallic sound while the foam protects the piston and the wall it hits by dampening the force. And if its not permissible (added material may cause the whole GB to lock up) would it be feasible to shorten the push rod to accommodate the added material?

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