My Own Personal Doppler Radar

[Big Frank]

You can get a chronograph for 1/5 the price. It needs to come way down to compete with them.

[alfsauve]

You can get a chronograph for 1/5 the price. It needs to come way down to compete with them.

Tue JF, but then there's two types of optical chonographs.  Those that have been hit by a bullet and those that are going to be.

[Solus]

You can get a chronograph for 1/5 the price. It needs to come way down to compete with them.

My local range does not allow any gear to be placed down range.

It is ideal in situations like that. 

It can also be setup no matter how busy the range is without waiting for or causing a cease fire.

Same benefits when packing to leave.

[alfsauve]

It can also be setup no matter how busy the range is without waiting for or causing a cease fire.

With the new range, I get a whole shooting bay to myself, so this is no longer a problem.  Which is why the LabRadar is has dropped on the priority list.

Good news, is Miss Kitty, said "Yes," to the purchase.  Love that lady.   But given the new situation, the money is better spent on ammo, or scopes or a new tactical AR.

[alfsauve]

Two items at the range:

First, having a whole bay to myself is fabulous.   For the second time, I setup my Chrony and recorded dozens of shots.  It has worked flawlessly outdoors.   Indoors I had issues getting the light right.  This is great.

Secondly, while on the 100yd multi-user range, there was a guy practicing position shooting.  Had the stiff leather jacket and glove, matt everything.   I took a break and wandered down to see what he was doing.   He had the neatest gear.  ($1,600 neat) 

This was a small tubular camera with accelerometer that clamped on his barrel and has a USB cable to his laptop.  What it does is, after the shot, replay the aiming wiggle.  It highlights the last hundred or so milliseconds to show trigger let off.    This isn't a camera that shows you where your shot went, but how it got there.   Wish I had gotten the name of the company.  They have a less expensive dry fire version as well.   Can be used on pistols as well.  For the very serious target shooter.   BTB, his aiming hold, prone, was less than 2MOA.   On a 20 shot, 200yard, National Match target he had all 10's.   AR-15 w/ standard iron sights.

[Sponsor]

[MikeBjerum]

Tue JF, but then there's two types of optical chonographs.  Those that have been hit by a bullet and those that are going to be.

Do you know, and appreciate, the skill it takes to shoot one of the sky screen support wires without hitting anything else?

[alfsauve]

It's here.  It's here.   MyLabRadar arrived last night.  I won't be able to get to the range until next week.   I will give it a go using my air rifle in the basement though.

I've been following another thread on rimfire central.  Trigger by muzzle blast is a little iffy with rimfire and suppressed guns, so you have to manually arm it.  Shot measurement evidently is good, though apparently you do have to be carefull to keep the radar pointed at the target.

As I knew before it shipped, the big hole has to do with data management.

On my wish list
Direct printing capabilities.
USB file management of both the internal memory and the SD memory
Internal memory dump to SD card
IP Network interface for data transfer
Wifi for data transfer
Bluetooth for:
  Printing
  Data transfer via smart device app
  Device control (setup and arming) via smart device app

More later.

[Rastus]

NEXT WEEK?   

Gee, Alf...you gotta' do somethin' different and get us a range report this weekend.   

I would not worry about the data so much...the old thing I have prints out on thermal strip paper.  I put info on a pad to keep track and then put it in a spreadsheet.


 

[alfsauve]

With my Chrono I r=write down each string in my log book after I shoot them.  I don't write the individual velocities, just the Hi, Lo, Avg, & SD.    So lack of a printer isn't THAT big of a deal, but it's an option with the Chony and the Oehler,  I'm not sure with the Caldwell, CED, PACT or the Magnito.

[alfsauve]

Took it down to the basement and tested it with my .22 air rifle.

Took a while to figure the right combination of settings.   The air rifle doesn't have enough "blast" to activate the trigger, but once I set it to Doppler activation with handgun it worked great.   I did get a few false triggers and I don't know if that was me waving the muzzle in front of the unit or the confined space causing reflections of the radar wave.  Remember I'm only shooting at about 7yds in a confined space.   Metal bullet trap and concrete block walls.

Here's what a series looks like from the SD Card.

Device ID   LBR-0002163                                                                                  
                                                                                                             
Series No   1                                                                                         
Total number of shots   11                                                                             
                                                                                                             
Units velocity   fps                                                                                     
Units distances   yd                                                                                     
Units kinetic energy   ft-lbf                                                                            
Units weight   grain (gr)                                                                                
                                                                                                             
Stats - Average   672.83   fps                                                                           
Stats - Highest   895.62   fps                                                                           
Stats - Lowest   549.23   fps                                                                            
Stats - Ext. Spread   346.4   fps                                                                       
Stats - Std. Dev   99.08   fps                                                                           
                                                
Shot ID   V0   V1   V22   V33   V43   V55   Ke0   Ke1   Ke22   Ke33   Ke43   Ke55   PF1   Proj. Weight   Date   Time
1   896   892   848   805   780   765   26   26   23   21   19   19   13.2   14.8   2/27/2016   11:01:26
2   799   784   784   784   0   0   20   20   20   20   0   0   11.6   14.8   2/27/2016   11:01:28
3   663   658   578   578   576   553   14   14   10   10   10   10   9.74   14.8   2/27/2016   11:01:40
4   641   643   636   629   598   550   13   13   13   12   11   9   9.52   14.8   2/27/2016   11:01:55
5   549   549   0   549   549   549   9   9   0   9   9   9   8.13   14.8   2/27/2016   11:02:13
6   641   641   635   635   635   0   13   13   13   13   13   0   9.49   14.8   2/27/2016   11:02:26
7   597   560   0   0   0   0   11   10   0   0   0   0   8.29   14.8   2/27/2016   11:02:39
8   725   725   725   725   725   0   17   17   17   17   17   0   10.73   14.8   2/27/2016   11:02:47
9   646   646   634   634   634   634   13   13   13   13   13   13   9.56   14.8   2/27/2016   11:02:55
10   642   642   610   0   610   610   13   13   12   0   12   12   9.5   14.8   2/27/2016   11:02:58
11   602   602   602   602   584   547   11   11   11   11   11   9   8.91   14.8   2/27/2016   11:03:13

AND it provides a spreedsheet for each shot giving you down range tracking.  Useful if you want to develpe bullet drop table/chart.   Even though my whole range is only about 10yds, it thought it was tracking out to 65yds, which means in that confined space it was getting a lot of false noise.  SNR drops below 10 frequently.  I might take it upstairs and fire a few shots in the backyard later.

Device ID   LBR-0002163      
Series No   1      
Shot No   2      
         
Time (s)   Vel (fps)   Dist (yd)   SNR
0   799.1   0   -
0.033021   799.64   8.75   7.09
0.055021   806   14.64   9.27
0.057021   803.04   15.18   11.51
0.083021   815.47   22.19   7.15
0.085021   817.38   22.74   9.93
0.093021   818.13   24.92   9.51
0.105021   807.22   28.17   11.34
0.115021   809.12   30.86   12.84
0.131021   813.16   35.19   8.79
0.135021   815.46   36.27   9.87
0.157021   830.51   42.31   10.87
0.183021   841.34   49.55   8.9
0.189021   841.51   51.24   7.09
0.201021   831.69   54.58   9.03
0.203021   829.44   55.14   8.28
0.221021   814.1   60.07   7.8
0.223021   819.17   60.61   8.21
0.229021   806.05   62.24   7.47