Building it

The softair gun was torn appart and all mechanical components were removed. Only the spring loaded sled and the case remained. Two switches are used to charge and fire the gun. The switches are held in place using hot glue. To trigger the switches, some of the parts of the sled and the trigger were exteded with hot glued wood sticks.

Working principle

A small battery was used as the main energy storage. This battery was stored and accessed through the magazine slot. If the sled was pulled back, a first switch would connect a capacitor bank to the battery, charging it to the battery voltage. To fire the gun, the trigger was pressed, connecting the capacitor bank to a laser diode. The laser quickly discharged the capacitors, resulting in a laser burst. This action could be repeated several times until the battery was depleted.