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.

Reality check on availability: checked directly against each maker's own current site or a live retailer listing rather than assumed from a listing existing somewhere. Most boards here are secondhand-only — several because the company behind them no longer exists at all — but Seventh Element's board below is a genuine exception, still currently sold new.

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

Currently sold Discontinued Unclear / not confirmed

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. Programming: Rear membrane keypad
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
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. Programming: Multicolor LED pixel, with a built-in eye-alignment self-test feature
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
Blackheart 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. 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)
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
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
Ion Board 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. Programming: Hold the trigger while powering on
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

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	Stock	Blackheart	T-Board	Virtue	Tadao	APE	Predator
Adjustable debounce	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Adjustable ramp activation speed	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes
Adjustable ramp activation count	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Yes
Adjustable eye holdoff	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Adjustable ABS dwell	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes
Adjustable AMB	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Delayed eye mode	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No
Adjustable CPF	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Adjustable full dwell time	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Adjustable dwell pulse	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Tournament lock	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Battery indicator	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No
Auto shutdown	No	10 min	No	No	15 min	6–60 min	No
Simulate mode	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Breakout mode(s)	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Package includes hoses	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No

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