Up & Coming Engineer: Meet Nicholas Odle

by Howard Bussey and Harold Clark

What do you do when a commercial off-the-shelf product is lacking some features? Many people live with the product as sold. Some, if they have an engineering bent, modify the product to improve performance. That is exactly what Nick Odle, who is entering his senior home-schooled year, did. His Nerf™ Blaster, a battery powered toy for outdoor use, originally shot the soft darts at about 70 feet per second. With Nick’s modifications, the shot speed went up by about a factor of two to almost 160 feet per second — well over 100 mph. It also allows one to be further away from the target, which makes the outdoor game much more exciting for all the participants.

Nick made quite a few changes to the blaster. The darts are shot by counter-rotating flywheels. The new flywheels have a profile that allows for better contact with the dart to accelerate it to the higher projectile speed. They rotate faster than the stock motor/ flywheel combination, powered by a new battery Nick integrated into the system. Since the initial contact of the dart with the faster flywheels generated additional dust, Nick added casing holes so the dust wouldn’t build up in the acceleration chamber.

Nick knows the speed of his darts because he installed a chronograph to time the darts as they are fired, which allows calculating the speed of the darts in the barrel.

Not only are the darts shot faster, they are pushed into the firing chamber faster — again because of modifications Nick made to the timer for the mechanism that pushes the darts into the launch flywheels. The timer mods allow selection of firing speed - so during competition, he can choose how long each magazine of darts will last. His shooter discharges darts 2 to 4 times faster than the standard model.

During our interview, Nick clearly explained the what, the why, and the how of his modifications. And as is often the case, when we asked for a demonstration, the demo failed, bringing to mind Robert Lucky’s facetious explanation (in his Reflections column in IEEE Spectrum) some years ago of the real cause of failing demos — the presence of a possible member of upper management. True to an engineering mentality, Nick let us know by email a short time later what the problem was — if the timing for pushing the darts into the firing wheels is too long, the mechanism fails to operate — and the dial had been turned to the slowest firing rate. Nick provided a video demonstrating the operation of his enhanced shooter.

Nick’s paperwork for his engineering entry to the Terra Rochester Finger Lakes Science and Engineering Fair clearly explained the project rationale, the phases, the requirements for each phase, the procedures, the test plans, and the test results. This kind of documentation is an engineering manager’s dream!

Nick already has the mindset of a good engineer and is cultivating all the associate habits. Currently taking mathematics, physics, and general education courses at Genesee Community College to complement his homeschool curriculum, Nick hopes to continue his education in college in electrical, or possibly, mechanical engineering. He’s very intrigued by RIT’s Work Study program, which means he’d be staying in Rochester, where we’re likely to see more of him as he continues to grow into a first-rate engineer.

Disassembled Nerf™ Blaster showing Phase 1 and Phase 2 modifications