To be sure, the Mini is not faultless (I defy you to show me one marker system that is), however it has proven itself to be rather robust over the years, especially in the woodsball arena as a BT incarnation.  Below as a resource for new techs and owners alike please find a detailed how-to of dis-assembly, maintenance, and common issues and troubleshooting steps for this excellent paintball marker.

Dis-Assembly

To break down the marker is a fairly lengthy process.  Unlike many new designs, the TMx line forgoes a quick dis-assembly system for a more accurate portrayal of its respective real-life firearms.  However in both cases, before getting started I strongly recommend a good tech mat with spaces to store screws, or a couple of containers to help you keep track of everything.  A rule of thumb when it comes to the two different screw lengths you will encounter: longer screws fasten the bottom of the shell, shorter fasten the top.   This applies to grip screws as well, longer at the bottom, short at the top.

The first place I typically start after ensuring the marker is degassed and completely unloaded, is removing the battery.

Next is removing the grip all together.  It is rigid and won’t flex out of the way easily, and it is simpler and more efficient to just remove it straight away.  Remove the grip screws from both sides of the grip and place it to the side.

Now you will notice that on either side of the grip frame are two small flat screws, remove the one on the side you intend to work from (i keep the front oriented left, it is easier to lay flat this way as there is no fire-selector switch to get in your way), leaving the other one in can keep a small brass nut inside the grip positioned properly, removing both of these grip frame screws is fine and won’t hurt anything; I just find leaving one in simplifies my re-assembly.

Now we remove all of the body shell screws, rear sight screws, foregrip screw (on the TM7) from the marker.  It is OK to leave the screw in the selector switch, and I recommend it since the switch does not get in the way of anything.

After removing all of the body screws we can finally separate the two halves of the shell, revealing our internals. This is the part where if you are not careful you can and will damage your marker, so take your time! Directly below the firing chamber you will see the board where the wiring harness connects in, look to the rear of the valve and you will see where your solenoid rides on top of the engine, connected to that is another small wire.   I remove these by gently pushing up on the main board wire from both sides with very small allen wrenches at the same time. Yanking on the wire itself can cause the wire to pull out of the harness and necessitate total replacement of the wires inside the marker. Removing the solenoid wire can be accomplished by gripping the socket or female connecter and gently pushing up on plug or male end of the connector. Remember! Take your time, rushing this part can cause damage to the marker!

The next step is to pull the internal, or engine, out of the shell, this will come out fairly easy with the wires disconnected but the ASA may hold where that small brass fitting is still screwed in from the other side of the body shell.  After removing the engine, the ASA may seem a little loose but resist the temptation to tighten or unscrew it all together! There are very thin orings inside the gas tube and causing too much physical stress on them may cause them to fail resulting in a leak!  Leaving the ASA alone is your best bet, it does not need to be removed often (if ever) and if it does, you should leave that for a qualified technician who has access to BT parts to service the marker.

Now, we are the point of actually cleaning and performing maintenance. The rear end of the valve (where the velocity is adjusted), there is a small silver screw.  Remove this then pull on the back of the valve, you will expose the valve internals and power tube.  To remove the bolt from the valve body you can press a finger inside of it and pull it out the back, or if your fingers are too large do what I do and gently push on the bolt with a barrel swab end, or other flat item that is soft (plastic is best, it won’t leave pieces of material inside the valve body).

Now inspect your orings for tears or other damage; clean the bolt and power tube assembly with a soft cloth such as a microfiber towel and apply lubrication.  BT sends out each TMx marker with a small container of grease.  I recommend Tech T Gun Sav, Hater Sauce, or Gold Cup Final Solution Grease since these mini internals prefer a lighter weight grease.  You can use DOW 33 (or shocker lube) if you prefer, but this tends to gum up the inside of the system rather quickly.   In either case only use enough to lubricate the orings and the surfaces the dynamic orings come into contact with.

You have now finished cleaning and maintenance of your BT TMx marker!  Now you can re-assemble the marker and test it by firing it at a licensed paintball field chrono range, or with care at another authorized place!

Troubleshooting and Common Fixes

The TMx series is based off of the Invert Mini, and comes with the same hangups as the Mini does. Below I have compiled a list of my most commonly encountered problems and fixes.

The Marker does not shoot.

This is a pretty broad problem, with many possible causes. Following the steps below, in order, will help you identify the problem – often with the least amount of down time.

1. Check the battery; yes even if you just put one in – sometimes you can actually get a bad battery.  If you have a multimeter and are competent in its use you can also check the voltage on the battery. Generally less than 8.8 volts will often cause marker malfunction.  This is why its important to use high quality batteries for paintball equipment.  I recommend Energy Paintball, these have nearly twice the mAH rating as most common battery brands, and come with a charge of 9.6 volts.
2. Check to make sure there is air in the marker – the gauge on the side of the ASA is the quickest way to check this.  200 PSI is the operating pressure from the ASA/Regulator (remember NEVER adjust the ASA regulator!)  If the gauge reads 0 and you have air in your tank, you just may not have screwed the tank in all the way.
3. At this point you should have verified you have a good battery in the marker, and the marker is gassed up.  If it still does not shoot, make sure your loader is feeding paint into the marker’s breech.  If not, check your loader’s batteries, or make sure there is not a swollen paintball jamming the feed mechanism.
4. If you are still having no luck, remove all paint from the marker, and the air source.  Turn off the marker, and then while pulling the trigger and holding it turn the marker back on.  This turns it on with the eyes off.  Now move the selector to Semi-Auto and pull the trigger.  Do you hear a clicking sound inside the gun? If you do, then deactivate the gun again.
5. Laying the marker on a table, take a small allen wrench and locate the hole in front of the trigger on the gun.  Push the wrench in until you feel a button click and hold it there for 20 seconds or until you see an orange light flash.  You have just reset the board.  Try to air up and load up and shoot again.
6. If none of this has worked for you, there may be a problem with the electronics.  I recommend taking the marker into a certified Technician at this point who will have the necessary parts to facilitate a repair.

The marker leaks down the barrel

This is the most common problem I encounter, and is also the easiest to fix (typically!)

1. Remove air and paint from the marker, and turn it off.  Pulling and holding the trigger, turn the marker on – you have now turned on the marker without eyes.  Now move the selector switch to semi-auto and pull the trigger.  You should hear the solenoid clicking inside the marker body at some point -usually within two to three trigger pulls.  Once you hear it start clicking, only allow it to do so 3 times.  Constant dry firing of the solenoid can damage it and cause you the headache of getting it replaced!  After doing this you have now reset your solenoid, put air on the gun and verify the leak has stopped.
2. Check the battery; yes even if you just put one in – sometimes you can actually get a bad battery.  If you have a multimeter and are competent in its use you can also check the voltage on the battery. Generally less than 8.8 volts will often cause marker malfunction.  This is why its important to use high quality batteries for paintball equipment.  I recommend Energy Paintball, these have nearly twice the mAH rating as most common battery brands, and come with a charge of 9.6 volts.
3. If this did not work, or the solenoid clicked on the first pull, then your problem is most likely the poppet needing to be reset.  This is done by removing air from the marker.  Then turning the poppet in all the way (turn the velocity adjustment in until it stops) then turning it back out 3-4 turns.  Put air back on the marker and see if the leak has stopped.
4. If this did not work, then the poppet may need to be replaced, at which point I recommend taking the marker to a BT or Invert certified Technician.

One of things I thought about doing back when I was still planning this website and testing things out on it was storing a library of manuals.  Well, luckily I don’t have to thanks to the website paintballlibrary.com

The forum seems to get a little action, but make sure your email address isn’t a gmail address.  (I tried to sign up with a forum account a while back with my gmail address and was denied)

Last year, when we ran the BT World Game, we were left hanging on a few things up until the week of the game itself.  Final score sheets, and a mission outline were last minute email attachments.  But, it was OK; we thought since this was the first year BT was facilitating a big game, and a global one at that, we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.  Despite this last minute rush (which one may have confused for procrastination) the game ran well.  The missions were fun, and there was lots of things for the player to do on the field.  If you didn’t want to run a specific mission, you could always hunt for props – not feeling that either? Go hunt for opposing team players!  The game had a good flow, and everything ran like clockwork. My players seemed happy and they seemed to enjoy themselves, which is ultimately what someone in my position wants above all else.

Now we come to this year’s BT World Game.  First of all, it would seem the individual who was responsible for it last year has since left his position at Kee Action Sports, parent company of BT Paintball, leaving someone else to take up the job.  Of course, one would hope that it wasn’t really one person who was responsible for setting it all up.  I have done scenario games 100% on my own, but these are typically one day affairs that take place at one field, not global games.  Also, for that matter, it seems the games that have a team of people working on them always come out best.  Especially when that team plays a lot of scenario paintball.

This did not appear to be the case this year.  We were promised it would be different this time around, we would have everything we needed way in advance. Advertising would saturate the market so that everyone would remember the game was coming up and register for it.  And all would be well in the world.  Not so much, in fact it was the same as last year if not worse.  I didn’t get my final mission outline and score sheets until days before the game. The missions were mostly repeats from last year, with the same props and everything.  Which is not so bad really, but adding a few new things (other than two 30 minute missions where you have to find a scientist and keep him in your base) would definitely have been a great idea. One of the best things about last years game was the fact that there was always at least two missions happening per team, per hour. This year there was not, and scheduling was a joke.  The mission outline called for an hour and a half lunch break.  An eternity for no paint to be shot from the field owner’s perspective and from that of the players; it may take as much as an hour to eat lunch.  Maybe there’s a line at the food counter, or maybe you have to drive off-site to get it; so you are probably sitting around for at least 30 minutes waiting for the game to start.  To make matters worse, most of the people who came to play are just sitting around for half an hour too.  Add to this the game was only scheduled to run for 6 hours, so now you’re basically being told you’ll only get 4 1/2 hours of play time.  So now I have to change the schedule (at the very last minute, thanks to how long it took to get everything) to add a new mission and shore-up that gaping hole in the schedule titled “lunch”.

Thats what bugged me, I had players who drove an hour or more to play at our field, to play in my game, only to be let down.   Game play was clearly an afterthought during the planning stages, and I constantly felt like the attitude was “lets just get it over with” rather than “lets make this a staple in the scenario players’ schedule.”

Next year, if there is a BT game next year, I won’t have anything to do with it.