Parts / Boards

Aftermarket Boards

The board controls dwell, rate-of-fire (ROF) delay, and fire mode — see Electronics for how the stock board's programming works and what its settings actually do. This page is about what else you can drop in.

Stock board & solenoid

The board caps rate of fire at 17 balls per second (BPS) in firmware — see Electronics for the full dwell/ROF-delay/fire-mode breakdown. The solenoid is manufactured by Humphrey, rated around 4-ohm, and wound with roughly 60–70 feet of 32-gauge wire coated in enamel.

Aftermarket boards

• Rampage↗ APE (Advanced Paintball Electronics) Adjustable, can be set fully uncapped Adjustable auto-shutdown between 6 and 60 minutes. APE is still an active, currently-manufacturing electronics maker — Rampage boards are actively sold for the Etha, Etek 3/4, G3/G4, DM7–10, Geo 2.1/3, Ego 11, Phenom, and more across PB Sports and Punishers PB. The Ion/Epiphany/SP8 variant specifically isn't in that current lineup, though — E-Paintball's own listing for it is filed under discontinued items. This unit's own silkscreen reads "APE" / "RAMPAGE" / "v1.7" — a directly-observed hardware version, confirming it as a genuine APE-branded board. Programming: Rear membrane keypad Read more
• Stage 4 Lucky Paintball Not independently researched Comes up frequently alongside Lucky's Stage 5 body in community discussion as a paired upgrade. Lucky Paintball is confirmed defunct (see the Stage 5 body entry on the Bodies page) and no current listing for this board was found anywhere — treating as discontinued rather than just unresearched. Programming: Not independently researched Read more
• Ion T-Board↗ Scenario Dreams 30 BPS Sold with or without a bundled solenoid. Modes: semi-auto, autoresponse, three-shot burst, full-auto, "Nitro" breakout mode, PSP ramp, NXL full-auto. Scenario Dreams closed years ago; expect nothing beyond the rare occurrence of one still installed in a marker changing hands secondhand. E-Paintball's own listing explicitly states "currently out of stock and unavailable," and points buyers to their own Universal T-Board instead. This unit's silkscreen reads "ION" / "VER: D," and its two on-board switches (silkscreened "SW1"/"SW2") match the official manual's description of the board's 15bps-lock and tournament-lock switches — I confirmed this against the manual directly (hosted on zdspb) before attributing it. Programming: Multicolor LED pixel, with a built-in eye-alignment self-test feature Read more
• Board↗ Seventh Element Not independently researched One of the most frequently recommended aftermarket boards across years of community discussion, especially for tournament play — yet not documented on zdspb at all. Confirmed currently purchasable at ANSXtreme, "Usually Ships in 24 Hours," listed specifically for Ion/Epiphany/SP8. Programming: Uses a keypad plugged into the Pulse socket rather than the trigger itself — per a 2007–2008 community board-comparison chart, it doesn't turn the marker on or toggle eye mode, but can change modes, instant-off, and fully substitute for the trigger in every other way Read more
• Blackheart (Epiphany-certified)↗ Smart Parts 20 BPS, all modes Sold as a kit: board, solenoid, daughterboard, wire harness, and hoses. Modes: semi-auto, rebound, PSP ramp, NXL full-auto. Despite being made by Smart Parts themselves, it's still correctly an aftermarket board, not stock equipment — the official manual calls it a "circuit board upgrade," sold separately across their whole lineup (Impulse, Ion, SP-8, Epiphany, Shocker SFT, Nerve, Shocker NXT) rather than bundled with any one marker. Two physically distinct hardware revisions exist, identifiable by the solenoid coil's wrap color — this one has a red wrap with a black logo, matching what multiple secondhand sources describe as the later, "Epiphany-certified" revision (see the separate entry below for the earlier version). That distinction is pieced together from community sourcing rather than one single manual page I could directly quote, so treat the "Epiphany-certified" label as likely rather than manufacturer-confirmed. Smart Parts wound down in 2010 along with the rest of the company, but the hardware lineage didn't die with it — see the Tadao Dynasty entry below. E-Paintball's own listing is a reference link, not confirmed current stock, since that store is dormant. Programming: Push-button switches on the board surface, with a status speaker (also a low-battery indicator) Read more
• Blackheart (original)↗ Smart Parts 20 BPS, all modes The same Blackheart board as the Epiphany-certified entry above, functionally — but a physically distinct hardware revision, identifiable by a black solenoid-coil wrap with a red logo rather than the other way around. Multiple secondhand sources describe this coloring as the earlier revision, not certified for Epiphany or Epiphany-converted markers — treat that compatibility caveat as likely rather than manufacturer-confirmed, since I couldn't pin it to one directly-quotable manual page. Same kit contents, modes, and discontinued status as the other version — see that entry for the shared background. Programming: Push-button switches on the board surface, with a status speaker (also a low-battery indicator) Read more
• Dynasty (Musashi 7)↗ Tadao 20 BPS with eyes off, unlimited with eyes on Sold under the name "Tadao Musashi 7 Dynasty Blackheart Ion/Epiphany Board" — Tadao appears to have continued the Blackheart hardware lineage under their own Musashi 7 software after Smart Parts closed, marketed at the time as offering over a billion adjustment combinations. No longer stocked by major retailers; secondhand listings turn up occasionally. ANSgear's own listing is filed in their "Paintball Graveyard" — manufacturer discontinued, will never ship. Programming: Adjustable cycle percentage filter (CPF) controls the shot-buffer timing window; includes a simulated-firing test mode Read more
• Predator SFT↗ TAG / KM2 All modes uncapped zdspb's own historical listing shows this board as "coming soon" with price still TBD, promising lifetime software upgrades for the original owner and a tournament-lock DIP switch. I couldn't confirm it ever reached a full commercial release for the Ion — flagging rather than guessing. No purchase link exists since it may never have shipped; linked to zdspb's own page instead, since that's both the primary source for this entry and the only documentation of it that's known to exist. Programming: Hold the trigger while powering on; numerically programmed via LED blink counts Read more
• Ion Board (V22)↗ Virtue 20 BPS with eyes off, unlimited with eyes on Included lifetime software upgrades for the original owner, backed by a lifetime manufacturer warranty. LED-based programming, 7 base modes plus thousands of ramp variations — no display screen. Sold under several retailer names (PB Sports' "Universal Upgrade Board," E-Paintball's "Redefined" board — "Redefined" is Virtue's umbrella brand name across their whole board catalog, not a feature tier), but confirmed the same product by matching feature lists. Don't confuse this with the separate, more advanced Ion OLED Board below. Virtue itself is still very much active in paintball electronics, but every listing for this board is dead: ANSgear files it in their "Paintball Graveyard" with an explicit manufacturer-discontinued notice. This specific unit's own silkscreen reads "Virtue ION V22" — a directly-observed hardware revision marker, not an inference — distinguishing it from the "V23" revision below. I couldn't find any published Virtue board revision history online to confirm which came first, but the sequential numbering itself is a reasonable read. Programming: Hold the trigger while powering on Read more
• Ion Board (V23)↗ Virtue 20 BPS with eyes off, unlimited with eyes on Same base feature set as the V22 revision above — included lifetime software upgrades for the original owner, LED-based programming, 7 base modes plus thousands of ramp variations, no display screen. This unit's silkscreen reads "Virtue ION V23," directly confirming it as a physically distinct revision from V22 rather than the same board photographed twice — the capacitor brand/rating and connector layout also differ between the two. Same discontinued status and retailer-naming history as the V22 entry; see that entry for the shared background. Programming: Hold the trigger while powering on Read more
• Ion Board (Virtue-branded)↗ Virtue 20 BPS with eyes off, unlimited with eyes on A third distinct-looking Virtue Ion board layout, carrying the full "Virtue" script logo rather than the bare "ION V2x" text silkscreen used on the two revisions above — no version number is visible anywhere on this one. Same core feature set: included lifetime software upgrades for the original owner, LED-based programming, no display screen. I hand-compared two physical units of this exact board layout and found one detail that doesn't match: one unit has a populated 4-pin header (labeled "X1" on the reverse, near the "LED" silkscreen) that the other unit's equivalent position leaves empty. I couldn't confirm from research whether that's a genuine running hardware change, an optional accessory header left unpopulated on some production units, or a component missing from one specific used board — flagging it rather than guessing, and photographing the fully-populated unit here. Same discontinued status as the other two Virtue entries. Programming: Hold the trigger while powering on Read more
• Ion OLED Board↗ Virtue Adjustable in tenth-BPS increments; unlimited whenever the eyes are actively tracking, same eyes-on/eyes-off logic as the base board A genuinely more advanced Virtue board, not a renamed listing of the base board above — confirmed distinct by feature signature: an actual OLED display (vs. the base board's LED-only indicator), four savable Player Profiles, Select-A-Mode fire-mode cycling, a Training Mode with live rate-of-fire feedback, a bolt-cycle/lube-life monitor, and 11 total fire modes versus the base board's 7. Fits Ion, Ion XE, Epiphany, EOS, and SP8. Discontinued along with the rest of Virtue's Ion-family board lineup — Virtue's current site no longer sells any Ion-family board at all. Programming: OLED display with four savable Player Profiles, Select-A-Mode fire-mode cycling, and a Training Mode with live rate-of-fire feedback Read more

Stock board photos are mine; aftermarket board photos via zdspb.com, used with permission — see the disclaimer for attribution terms.

Feature comparison

What each board actually adds over stock — pulled from zdspb's own side-by-side comparison. "Unknown" means zdspb didn't have that field confirmed for APE's Rampage either; left as-is rather than guessed.

Feature comparison via zdspb.com, used with permission — see the disclaimer for attribution terms.