Virtue Board based E-grip for A-5's?

[RedMonkey]

So, you like the features of the Virtue board upgrade for tourney markers, but also love the A-5 for mil-sim/scenario play... so what's a player to do?

From what I heard today, I hear Virtue has produced an A-5 e-grip board, but had problems with them when tested in the Tippmann e-grip housings when used as a simple replacement for the WAAS board since the A-5 triggering system is essentially "backwards" compared to most other markers.

Solution? From what I understand, they are just going to make the whole entire e-grip (board and actual grip frame) themselves to offer as complete replacement and an alternative to the terribly unreliable and hard to program WAAS boards currently offered in the Tippman A-5 e-grips. I hear these should be available in the next couple of months.

For those of you ready to ditch your A-5's for the X7, you may want to hang onto them for a few more months... cause if you can get a Virtue engine running your A-5, it will put that X7 to shame... regardless of how many visually stimulating but performance lacking mods Tippmann makes for the X7. Something to think about!!

[Fets]

We still don't know what the design of the e-grip for the X7 will be like. If you don't like the WAS board there is already an alternative in the APE board which is a much better board than the WAS.

The Virtue board will be the 4 board available for the Tippmann A5. The current ones are Tippmann, WAS, APE and apparently now the Virtue.

[RedMonkey]

Forgot to mention also... since they are doing the complete e-grip, I believe they are integrating the dye/membrane style on/off switch and external shot selection on the rear of the grip frame. And I'm also hearing they are trying to develop a laser eye upgrade to install on the A-5 similar to one they developed for installation on Spyder markers.

I don't know about anyone else, but with a Virtue Board e-grip like this with external shot selection on an A-5 with Flatline... that may just be the most perfect marker I can think of.

[Fets]

Originally Posted by RedMonkey

Forgot to mention also... since they are doing the complete e-grip, I believe they are integrating the dye/membrane style on/off switch and external shot selection on the rear of the grip frame. And I'm also hearing they are trying to develop a laser eye upgrade to install on the A-5 similar to one they developed for installation on Spyder markers.

I don't know about anyone else, but with a Virtue Board e-grip like this with external shot selection on an A-5 with Flatline... that may just be the most perfect marker I can think of.

That is awesome. I don't see much need for an eye in the A5 but any external selector switch is a huge improvement.

[Gibby]

Thanks RM. I was gonna start looking into barrels and the difficulty of modding an e-grip to have an external selector. Those will probably be my next upgrades. Now I know to hold off a little while on the e-grip.

[Gibby]

Did this ever go into production? I was having trouble finding out additional info.

[RedMonkey]

Originally Posted by Gibby

Did this ever go into production? I was having trouble finding out additional info.

In all of Virtue's promotional materials and printed catalogs, they picture it, but I have not yet seen them for sale anywhere. I did learn however, that there will be no external controls... just programming through the trigger like the other virtue boards. Not sure where the On/Off will be. Even still, it's a huge upgrade over the WAS board that comes stock on the A-5.

There are other A-5 upgrade boards available though. Can't think of any off the top of my head, but maybe Fets or Ghostman may have some info they can post. I want to say APE or Rampage is one, but not sure on the names...

[Fets]

Yeah, the APE board is the other one. But it really isn't worth spending an extra $100 on.

I heard a rumor that Tippmann will be releasing a new e-grip for the A5 that will have the same functionality as the X7 e-grip. This is the best case scenario for me.

But as for the boards, the WAS is a great board. It is just as good as a Virtue or an APE board for all practical uses. It fires in ramping or full auto (ask Ghostman - lol). There are a lot of other upgrades that will do more for you than switching out a WAS board for an APE board - know what I mean?

[The-militia-man]

i remember way back when in a APG magizine that i saw an A-5 board in the mix of the others on a full page add

[Gibby]

Originally Posted by Fets

Yeah, the APE board is the other one. But it really isn't worth spending an extra $100 on.

I heard a rumor that Tippmann will be releasing a new e-grip for the A5 that will have the same functionality as the X7 e-grip. This is the best case scenario for me.

But as for the boards, the WAS is a great board. It is just as good as a Virtue or an APE board for all practical uses. It fires in ramping or full auto (ask Ghostman - lol). There are a lot of other upgrades that will do more for you than switching out a WAS board for an APE board - know what I mean?

LOL. Ghostman was just making up for all the open shots I missed.

Yeah, I didn't realize that you had to buy the stock e-grip and then upgrade the board. That's pretty crazy. Thanks for the info.