Gate Warfet Review

Gate is a well known company for making a large variety of mosfets, including the Titan. Most of their mosfets are able to be connected between the battery and the motor with Deans connectors, allowing a single mosfet to be used for all of your guns. Of these plug-in mosfets, the Warfet offers the most features, highest performance, and is the only one to have an easy to use programming card. Since the Titan can only be used in V2 or V3 gearboxes (M4's and AK's), the Warfet is the top-tier mosfet available for P90 & F2000 owners.

Unboxing

The Warfet comes in a high quality box with pre-cut foam to hold all the pieces.

Included in the box:

·        Warfet mosfet

·        Programming Card

·        Trigger cables

·        Pair of Deans connectors

·        Pair of Deans-to-Tamiya adapters

·        Quick start guide.

The quick start guide shows how you can connect the Warfet with a bone stock AEG using nothing but the Tamiya adapters, but this will rob you of many of the Warfet's features that require hardwired installation. For a hardwired install, the included trigger wires need to be soldered onto the trigger contacts. And if you haven't already done so, installing upgraded low resistance wiring and Deans connectors is also recommended to complement the performance of the new mosfet.

Features

The Warfet has the most programmable features of any Gate mosfet besides the Titan. While Gate has a full description of every feature on their website, here is a useful overview that avoids the marketing words that pepper the official descriptions:

Programming Card: This small card is what you use to customize every feature. It is small enough to easily fit into any pocket and bring it with you on the field, and the buttons are large enough so that it can be used with gloves on. The main benefit is being able to change settings quickly without opening an instruction manual and counting trigger clicks like other programmable mosfets.

Rate of Fire Control & Smart Trigger: If you've ever wanted the trigger response an 11.1 lipo provides without the crazy rate of fire, this is what you need. The Smart Trigger function lets the first shot fire at the full rate of fire, giving you fast trigger response, and then after the first shot, the rate of fire reduction kicks in.

Active Braking: This function quickly stops the motor from spinning after one shot in semi auto and after the trigger is released in full auto. Active braking is useful if you find your gun is shooting more than one shot on semi.

Pre-cocking: This function keeps the motor spinning for a fraction of a second longer, partially cocking the spring for the next shot. This will theoretically give you the fastest trigger response possible, but will put more stress on the gearbox components.

Burst Mode: Since it doesn't have cycle detection like a Titan, the Warfet's burst mode works by allowing current to flow for a set number of milliseconds. This level of customization allows you to have 1 through 5 round burst, and the increments are small enough that you can set your burst perfectly even if your rate of fire is slow or fast. You can set either the semi or auto position to burst mode.

Battery Protection: The Warfet will not let you keep shooting if it detects the battery's voltage is too low. This can save your lipo from permanent damage.

Debouncing: If your gun uses microswitch triggers (like the P90 and F2000 M-Triggers!) then using a mosfet without debouncing can cause damage. When a microswitch is pressed, the contacts inside can vibrate for a microsecond. Mosfets without debouncing read this as dozens of trigger presses in a very short amount of time, causing overheating and reduced trigger response. Mosfets with debouncing will recognize these vibrations and ignore them.

Actual Review

That covers the objective features of the Warfet, but what do I actually think about the it? I went out and played some games with the Warfet to get some firsthand experience.

At first, I was skeptical of how much use I would get out of all the features the Warfet has. I've been using the NanoASR for a long time which doesn't have any of the controller settings of the Warfet. But as soon as I plugged in the programming card and saw all the settings light up, I found that it was exciting to be able to customize how my gun shoots. While the programming seems confusing, getting used to the programming card procedure takes less than a minute. It is much, much easier and faster than programming by trigger presses like the other GATE mosfets. Reprogramming on the field would only take 2 minutes max to completely change how your AEG functions (while staying within your field's rules of course), compared to 5-10 minutes it takes for the other mosfets when you need to pull out the manual, count trigger clicks, and hope you changed the setting correctly.

My airsoft field has a rate of fire limit of 20 rps (for the record I very much like this rule), so I've always used 7.4V lipos in my guns. With the Warfet, I was able to plug in a beefy 11.1 and turn down the rate of fire using the Warfet's rate of fire control, but keep the full speed on the first shot using the Smart Trigger setting. The trigger response was so good I don't think I'll go back to 7.4's, and I was still able to stay under the field limit of 20 rps. The rate of fire control works seamlessly. This was tested using SHS 13:1 gears, ASG 22k motor, and 11.1V 25C 1800mah lipo.

The configurable fire selector lets you add burst mode to either your semi or your auto setting. I haven't had a gun with burst mode before, so this was quite unusual, but if burst mode is what you're looking for the Warfet lets you set it up exactly how you want it. Other features like precocking and motor braking I chose to keep off, since my AEG did not require them. The battery protection is a very useful feature for anyone running lipo batteries, as it will protect them from draining too far permanently killing the battery. The Warfet is great because you can keep any features you don't want turned off, unlike the other mosfets that don't have as much customization.

The relatively small size of the Warfet is also appreciated. My P90 and SR-3M have very limited space for a battery, so finding space to also add a mosfet is challenging. The Warfet is much smaller than the Merf 3.2, making it easier to fit inside.

Top: Gate Merf 3.2, Middle: Gate Warfet, Bottom: Gate NanoASR

After using the Warfet for only one game, I was convinced that it's what I want to use for all my guns. An advantage the Warfet has over the Titan is that you only need one mosfet for all of your guns. The Warfet has every feature and more freedom than any other Gate plug-in mosfet. For those who want their gun to be the best it can be, I'd recommend the Warfet.