The boards and most of the components for the "Genesis" gun have arrived. I've tested what I easily can, with some eventual success. I got the soldering wrong multiple times, which resulted in a lot of frustration. Now, I've been able to confirm that at least some of the hardware works, but I haven't gotten the chips necessary for testing the gun's audio system, which is what I've been least confident about anyway.

My gun casing design is close to working, but it's a lot more awkward to assemble than I expected. In particular, the buttons aren't on the PCB, so I'm connecting them with wires, which is a pain. With that, along with other issues, I'm inclined to verify the sound system, then work on the "Magnum" gun design. I've lost most of my patience for gluing in buttons and switches, so I'll try to design my new gun to have everything except the trigger and the speaker on the PCB. I need 2 guns to adequately test the IR optics, so I'm really hoping everything goes well. Fortunately, I can remove the lens and/or replace the resistor for the IR LED if I get too much ricochet. I'm confident that my IR signal won't be too weak, at least indoors.

For the "Magnum" gun, I need to upgrade my 3D printer to use a dual extruder, so I can make the supports more easily removable.

I have less energy and free time than I used to, and my mental health is pretty bad, so I won't be moving this project forward all that quickly during the next few months, but I'm not just putting this project on the shelf and leaving it there either.