Best State-of-the-Art Chronograph- non-muzzle mount

I am still using an older, very reliable ProChrono Chronograph. 99% of my tuning testing work is indoors, so it has to be able to read indoors, likely using infrared light.

What do you consider the state-of-the-art chronograph that is not mounted to the muzzle or barrel, I use mine as much for springer testing as I do pcps? I would like something that easily transfers to my phone via bluetooth or wifi.

Thanks.
 
I have an FX pocket chronograph, and a Pro Chrono with light kit, and the Chinese Amazon barrel mounted one. I have owned an Oehler P35, and considered the Air Chrony, Combro, Magnetospeed, and Labradar, but don't want anything that requires a lot of setup or the need to go downrange (a big hassle at a public range) to setup. Still might get the Air Chrony.
 
I have the Labradar, just updated the Firmware and app and it's even better.
Smitty
Really wish those guys would get a better dev for their iOS app, There's a weird bug in their latest release, where the text box for entering velocity tries to enter the value in reverse and then crashes the app 75% of the time.
 
I use a labradar myself and love it, but the OP is using his indoors. I know the labradar has been used in large indoor shooting ranges, but have never heard of someone using it in a house. Has anyone tried using theirs inside a home? Setting mine on the deck 1 foot to side of muzzle I typically don't pick up readings until 5+/- yards in front of the labradar. Minimum offset to side on labradar can be set to 6 inches, I don't know how close it picks up when set and properly used at that offset.

If you read a lot about the labradar you will see a small but reasonable number of people hate it, my personal opinion is the majority of them are too stupid to follow directions and use it correctly, and some have a defective unit and didn't pursue warranty work. The microphone embedded in them has a great amount of variability in its sensitivity, there have been quite a few that had to be replaced under warranty. Sucks the company doesn't source a better internal microphone, but that never bothered me. I did my research on it and had built a recoil trigger for mine before it was even delivered and had a USB battery bank, I have never even opened the battery compartment on mine(read reviews and if you go for the labradar you won't either), usb battery banks are cheap and work great. I only used the internal microphone on mine once, just about 20 minutes after fedex dropped it off at home, and I only did that out of curiosity. It worked great on centerfire handguns and rifles, but playing with a 22lr rifle shooting standard velocity CCI I could not get 50% of the shots(not using my suppressor on it) and I was lined up less than 1/2 inch from where the instructions said to be and tried moving all around that point, sure was glad I built a recoil trigger. Don't waste your money on their air rifle external microphone, it works but is much more expensive than a recoil trigger that always works and is easier to use, lowest power pcp I've used it on was when tuning my Uragan, had it down to 17 ft-lbs at one point and recoil trigger still worked. I don't know if it would work on a sub 12ft-lb extremely heavy target pcp, you would have to test and maybe need to resort to getting the air rifle mic from labradar.

Aiming one is critical, the center of the radar beam is small, small changes make huge differences in signal to noise ratio. You will need an aiming device that is absolutely repeatable to a very small margin, less than one foot off at 100 yards every time, if you want to get the best out of the labradar. I did lots of testing with mine and it is that sensitive to aim and getting best radar returns. One problem you may have shooting indoors in a house is you may be shooting too much accross the units radar beam. From the testing I did at 114 yards, I know shooting 12 feet to the left of where the true center of beam is from the right side of the labradar causes issues, the projectile flight at that point is too much of an angle to the beam to get accurate results, that is for the entire flight once it is picked up, not just when it passes past the center of the beam. For very short range use in a house, I wouldn't be surprised if your projectile aimpoint would have to be a few inches from the labradars aimpoint to keep the angle between projectile flight and beam low enough not to cause issues. Testing would be required.

Honestly, as much as I love my labradar, if my use was going to be indoors at very short range with air rifles, I would not spend the money on one. I'd just get a decent optical chrono with built in lighting, and have no flourescent lights(or even led lights running on PWM) around when using it.

edited to add: bluetooth, it runs on low power bluetooth, if you have any bluetooth devices active anywhere near it, it will cause problems. You need a clean RF environment in the bluetooth frequency to not end up bitching and moaning about it disconnecting constantly. Most common complaint you will ever read on the labradar. I've had my labradar connected for hours at a time without issue, I live in the country, no bluetooth devices, for that matter no rf devices, used at home at all except when I'm on my tractor with sound cancelling headphones.
 
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Really wish those guys would get a better dev for their iOS app, There's a weird bug in their latest release, where the text box for entering velocity tries to enter the value in reverse and then crashes the app 75% of the time.
I haven't spent that much time with it since the update. It does now link better with Blue Tooth, used to be shaky, the delay on pressing buttons to changing screens seems to have improved.

Like most Hardware Guys say "They can fix it in Software." :LOL:

Smitty
 
I haven't spent that much time with it since the update. It does now link better with Blue Tooth, used to be shaky, the delay on pressing buttons to changing screens seems to have improved.

Like most Hardware Guys say "They can fix it in Software." :LOL:

Smitty
If you have an older phone no longer in use, and it's operating system is compatible with one of the versions of labradar's software, it makes a great control. Delete any and all apps off it that you can, remove all the permissions you can on what is left, and run it in airplane mode(assuming that phone allows bluetooth to be turned on when in airplane mode, mine does). That way, no apps are trying to communicate, taking resources, or interfering with radio priorities. I use my old galaxy S5, it has never disconnected, even left it and the labradar on all night, and changed settings when making coffee the next morning, still connected.
 
If you have an older phone no longer in use, and it's operating system is compatible with one of the versions of labradar's software, it makes a great control. Delete any and all apps off it that you can, remove all the permissions you can on what is left, and run it in airplane mode(assuming that phone allows bluetooth to be turned on when in airplane mode, mine does). That way, no apps are trying to communicate, taking resources, or interfering with radio priorities. I use my old galaxy S5, it has never disconnected, even left it and the labradar on all night, and changed settings when making coffee the next morning, still connected.
Good Call, I have a tablet I can use, it's so slow for anything else it shouldn't matter if I strip everything from it except the Labradar App.

Thanks,

Smitty
 
I am still using an older, very reliable ProChrono Chronograph. 99% of my tuning testing work is indoors, so it has to be able to read indoors, likely using infrared light.

What do you consider the state-of-the-art chronograph that is not mounted to the muzzle or barrel, I use mine as much for springer testing as I do pcps? I would like something that easily transfers to my phone via bluetooth or wifi.

Thanks.
up grade from Competition pro-chrono and sell your old one in the classifieds
 
Good Call, I have a tablet I can use, it's so slow for anything else it shouldn't matter if I strip everything from it except the Labradar App.

Thanks,

Smitty
Be aware, I'm not sure when it became common for most devices to support low power bluetooth, it is included in the bluetooth 4.0 spec.. If your tablet is old enough it was prior to BT 4.0, which showed up around 2011, it may not work and may not have hardware to support the 4.0 version of bluetooth.
 
Be aware, I'm not sure when it became common for most devices to support low power bluetooth, it is included in the bluetooth 4.0 spec.. If your tablet is old enough it was prior to BT 4.0, which showed up around 2011, it may not work and may not have hardware to support the 4.0 version of bluetooth.
Well I was able to connect my tablet to the LabRadar. I shot my Redwolf probably 50 times, only three shots were picked up on the tablet and none stayed on the Memory Card. What the heck. Looks like I'll be playing with it some more.

Smitty
 
Well I was able to connect my tablet to the LabRadar. I shot my Redwolf probably 50 times, only three shots were picked up on the tablet and none stayed on the Memory Card. What the heck. Looks like I'll be playing with it some more.

Smitty
Did the labradar pick up all the shots and they just did not get captured by the app, or was the labradar missing them also?