Halo B

The HaLo B is a "force fed" feeding system used in the sport of paintball and is the most widely used hopper in the professional paintball industry. The need for "force fed" feeding systems originated when markers began to shoot faster than gravity was able to feed them.

Operation

The most important feature of the Halo B is its "eyes" that are used to "see" a paintball going through the feed neck. They are comprised of a light emitter and a light receptor. Usually the light emitted is not in the visible light spectrum meaning it cannot be seen by the human eye. When the recepter can see the light being emitted the circuit board "knows" there are no paintballs in the feed neck which activates the propeller in the hopper to push more paintballs into the paintball gun or "marker". However, when it cannot see the light emitted (caused by a paintball being in between the emitter and receptor) then the board switches off. Basically the "eyes" act as a switch to allow the hopper to not be running at all times.

The Halo B, like all propeller driven hoppers, runs off of some sort of power source (usually batteries) which powers a motor which spins the propeller which in turn pushes the paintballs down the feedneck.

Upgrades

V35 Board is a common upgrade on most people's markers allowing the hopper to do 5 different modes from 17 - 35 bps. The Cheetah board does the same. There is also this thing called a ripdrive which allows you to manually feed 12-15 balls each turn used to clear a jam or if you run out of battery. There are also various shell upgrades which are basically just repair parts.