Upgrading a Nerf Blaster with a Bluetooth Module for Fly-by-Wire Operation
Daniel Veilleux modified a fully-automatic Nerf Mega Mastodon blaster with a Nordic Semiconductor Bluetooth dongle to make it “fly-by-wire.”
If you haven’t played with a Nerf blaster since you were a kid, then you’d probably be pretty amazed to see how far they’ve come. Today, you can purchase all kinds of advanced and very cool Nerf blasters. There are long range sniper rifle-like models, semi-automatic pistols, and even fully-automatic machine guns. Because Nerf darts obviously don’t contain any propellant, so those automatic models fire the darts using electric motors. Daniel Veilleux modified a fully-automatic Nerf Mega Mastodon blaster with a Nordic Semiconductor Bluetooth module dongle to make it “fly-by-wire” in order to add new features.
The terms “fly-by-wire” and “drive-by-wire” refer to vehicles, like planes or cars, which are operated electronically instead of through mechanical means. Your grandpa’s 1960 Chevy C-10’s accelerator pedal was connected to the throttle body via a simple cable. Pushing down on the pedal pulled that cable to open up the throttle body mechanically. Many modern cars, on the other hand, are drive-by-wire. The fuel injection system is controlled electronically and is controlled by a computer. A sensor attached to the accelerator pedal simply tells the computer to increase engine speed. Veilleux’s modifications provide a similar benefit to the Nerf Mega Mastodon blaster and make remote control possible.
The primary component used in this mod is a Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 Bluetooth module dongle. That is essentially a compact development board with built-in support for Bluetooth 5, Bluetooth mesh, and other short range wireless standards. Like other development boards, it can be used for low-level control of many hardware components — including the electric motors used in the Nerf Mega Mastodon to shoot darts. Veilleux set it up so the blaster can be fired remotely via a Bluetooth connection, while leaving the original functionality intact. This also made it possible to integrate an ammo counter into the control app. Veilleux also added a RGB status LED and a vibration motor to provide haptic feedback. The Nerf Mega Mastodon is already really cool, and these inexpensive upgrades just make it even better.