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Klem Wrote:FL,
Thanks for sharing.
I have a LR but have not used the MS so was curious why you thought the MS was so much better. One bugbear I notice the LR has is shooting indoors or with a lot of infrastructure downrange. It can be showing no integrity bars on the left of the screen (meaning any shot fired will not be picked up), then suddenly one or two bars for a period of time. I use that window to shoot and then back to zero bars again. On an open range the LR is fine.
I made my own stand; a rectangular wooden plank for shooting from a bench but agree, for that price you'd think a basic stand would be included.
I made a 2S Li-ion battery pack and use a voltage regulator to keep it at 5V which is the standard for USB ports. The sales rep is not as helpful as you would expect saying the voltage range of the device is confidential info. If he was forthcoming with the range like so many other devices list in their specs I might not need the regulator, but it was only a couple of dollars on eBay. My impression is that he does not have a clue beyond the stated specs and was concealing his ignorance with the Secret-Squirrel routine. The battery is the size of a fist so I have set the radar time-out/sleep range to maximum to avoid having to wake it up each time.
The mobile app is almost a joke. It's a pity data is not saved on your phone to a file you can import into Excel. The phone keeps dropping out when it times-out and goes to sleep. While you can vary the length of time the radar stays on you can't do that with your phone. The radar's controls are so close to you when shooting that you wonder why they even produced a phone ap.
I like how I can set it up within a minute or so of arriving at the bench and it records every shot whether you want to know or not. I do a lot of technical load testing and tinkering so it suits my type of shooting. You can swap guns around using the same shooting spot and not have to change the LR (you might have to slightly adjust where it points if shooting at different targets downrange).
The LR is not without limitations but once you make peace with this and are able to work around them then it's a pretty good bit of kit. I don't know if its better than a MS but it's certainly better than my old folding Chrony.
The LR and V3 are different camps.I’m not knocking the LR.Because it certainly has it’s advantages.I get that we all have different preferences.And I’m all for something that makes you better at what you’re doing.
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You can set up a LR and record all of your shots in a session as if it's not there.
I don't know why you'd reinvent the wheel with the battery, you can buy the lithium ion battery pack LR sells on Amazon for $12.
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centerfire Wrote:I don't know why you'd reinvent the wheel with the battery, you can buy the lithium ion battery pack LR sells on Amazon for $12.
You'll figure it out some day.
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I think his point is that the LR battery is silly. No reason to spend 3x the cost for the same thing you get elsewhere. A battery is a battery. Right?
Nothing kills the incentive of men faster than a healthy sense of entitlement. Nothing kills entitlement faster than a healthy sense of achievement.
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Kswhitetails Wrote:I think his point is that the LR battery is silly. No reason to spend 3x the cost for the same thing you get elsewhere. A battery is a battery. Right?
You might be right but he can either confirm this or clarify he was referring to my battery build.
I will add that it is almost compulsory to use a rechargeable external power source. If you are going to get one you may as well be generous with capacity so you can enjoy setting the sleep modes (screen and emitter) to their max settings, and not have to worry about it running out half way through your multi-hour training session.
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Kswhitetails Wrote:I think his point is that the LR battery is silly. No reason to spend 3x the cost for the same thing you get elsewhere. A battery is a battery. Right?
LabRadar sells an external lithiumIon battery. It is internally regulated to 5v. It costs $12 on Amazon. Spend your time and money as you see fit.
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Lol. Free market at work. When I bought mine, the battery was $37.99. Now it’s twelve? Ha. Looks like they figured out what everyone else already knew.
The one I bought is internally regulated at 5v (this isn’t special) and was $15 for 20,000 maH.
Nothing kills the incentive of men faster than a healthy sense of entitlement. Nothing kills entitlement faster than a healthy sense of achievement.
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Just a possibility, but Klem might not have that many options available to him, down under...
"Down the floor, out the door, Go Brandon Go!!!!!"
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Hey, stop this thinking thing. It's bad for you. And folks will start to expect it. Leaves you up a creek when your brain misses a gear. Bad for you.
Nothing kills the incentive of men faster than a healthy sense of entitlement. Nothing kills entitlement faster than a healthy sense of achievement.
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06-29-2019, 09:10 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-29-2019, 09:15 PM by Klem.)
grayfox Wrote:Just a possibility, but Klem might not have that many options available to him, down under...
...Let's clear this up. I built a 2S2P 10Ahr D-Cell Li-ion pack from spare parts to run a bike light that I use to illuminate targets at night. As for using D-Cell's instead of the cheaper 18650's is because they were spare parts originally purchased to build a dive torch.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/sho...aglite-Mod
With spare batteries lying around it doesn't take long to solder-up your own pack. Something you know the actual capacity and discharge rate (C-Rate), instead of believing Chinese manufacturer exaggerated claims. I guarantee LR will have sourced their packs cheaply from a Chinese manufacturer who in turn did not build them solely for the radar. That Amazon pack will also not be 10Ahr. It depends on the power draw but even at a low draw they are always a lot less than claimed. Not Centrefire's fault, he's quoting the specs which will be a marketing exaggeration.
An actual 10Ahr pack will run the LR for at least 4 sessions. At least that's how long I've gone without recharging it and it still had plenty of power left. Battery life depends on how long the LRadar is emitting (amber light) and how long it is in Standby (blue light). Emitting draws much more power than Standby so if you need to save power then limiting this is where you will make the most difference. I just like the idea of having more than enough power so you don't have to care.
Aussies and Kiwi's have access to Amazon and LR. I built my own because I had spare batteries lying around.
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Klem Wrote:...Let's clear this up. I built a 2S2P 10Ahr D-Cell Li-ion pack from spare parts to run a bike light that I use to illuminate targets at night. As for using D-Cell's instead of the cheaper 18650's is because they were spare parts originally purchased to build a dive torch.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/sho...aglite-Mod
With spare batteries lying around it doesn't take long to solder-up your own pack. Something you know the actual capacity and discharge rate (C-Rate), instead of believing Chinese manufacturer exaggerated claims. I guarantee LR will have sourced their packs cheaply from a Chinese manufacturer who in turn did not build them solely for the radar. That Amazon pack will also not be 10Ahr. It depends on the power draw but even at a low draw they are always a lot less than claimed. Not Centrefire's fault, he's quoting the specs which will be a marketing exaggeration.
An actual 10Ahr pack will run the LR for at least 4 sessions. At least that's how long I've gone without recharging it and it still had plenty of power left. Battery life depends on how long the LRadar is emitting (amber light) and how long it is in Standby (blue light). Emitting draws much more power than Standby so if you need to save power then limiting this is where you will make the most difference. I just like the idea of having more than enough power so you don't have to care.
Aussies and Kiwi's have access to Amazon and LR. I built my own because I had spare batteries lying around.
I didn't quote anyone's specs.
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centerfire Wrote:I didn't quote anyone's specs.
In that case how do you know what the actual capacity the $12 pack is? What is its C-Rate and max power draw (before the PCB cuts in)?
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Klem Wrote:In that case how do you know what the actual capacity the $12 pack is? What is its C-Rate and max power draw (before the PCB cuts in)?
Dunno, don't care. The LR recommended battery costs $12 and I can run the chronograph all weekend without recharging it. I paid $10 for the tripod too, it says its aluminum but I didn't do an analysis on it either. I think I have a total of five minutes spent making my LR completely functional and reliable.
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I missed something. There's some pissin' goin' down here I wasn't aware of and unfortunately find myself downwind. I'll say to reign it in a but, but given the devolution of the topic, and the contestants, it'll probably be less effective than it should be. I admit to have skimmed most of this, and am not innocent of poking my nose in it. Come on guys, what's it matter to the topic at hand?
So, guys - don't make me right.
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06-30-2019, 04:54 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-30-2019, 05:00 AM by Klem.)
Kswhitetails Wrote:I missed something.
Come on guys, what's it matter to the topic at hand?
.
Mate,
I think we all agree if you go down the LR route you need an external battery to save money and get the best out of the device. Yes?
Centrefire is dismissive of other power solutions in favor of buying a $12 pack that he claims is 10Ahr capacity. He says he's not quoting this capacity from the specs. It's fair to assume then that he knows a little about battery packs. I am asking him to give details here because the manufacturers of these things always overstate their product capacities which means that although relatively cheap you never get what is written in the specs. It then boils down to hooking up a meter between the pack and the LR to determine the current draw (800mA when emitting) and the pack's capacity. You can then figure out how long you have until you have to recharge. Depending on how you use the LR it could be important, and certainly good to know given you might drive a ways to a range to test or want to use the pack for something else.
So how about simply saying you use a $12 pack that is claimed to be (5V) 10Ahr, be honest about where you sourced this info, and that it lasts all weekend. If you leave the 'my solution is the best' out of it then what is left is valuable information for the rest of us. I appreciate your knowledge of shooting but not the patronizing pride that gets in the way.
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Klem, you're preaching to the choir my friend. However, simple question is, how does any of the details of a battery pack used on a Labradar effect the thoughts about the MS bayonette chrono? This may be what I've missed.
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Agree, we got to comparing the MS with LR and it steered away from there into too much detail, apologies, my fault.
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Klem Wrote:Centrefire is dismissive of other power solutions in favor of buying a $12 pack that he claims is 10Ahr capacity.
I woke up this morning looking at the Wasatch range and went for a quick 10 mile run. It was time well spent. If you feel like building battery packs instead of purchasing commonly available consumer batteries that's your choice. I don't see a value in the return which is why I'm not concerned with some of the details. You're welcome to your opinion, there's room for both.
I owned a MS, I hated having it connected to the rifle; the barrel specifically. The MS does a fine job measuring velocities if it matters. I have more than one chronograph and the LR is all of been using as of late.
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Evening Horde,
If anyone is interested, I finally got to the range yesterday and was able to try out the MS Sporter I got.
It did an ok job and I did not shoot the bayonet, happy about that.
I would stay that about 25-30% of the time it would drop 1 of 5 rounds, I think possibly I needed to wait just a bit longer for the next shot.
It did show what I had calculated using the charts in the Grendel reloading books, available here, which was the manufacture FPS from most likely a 24" test barrel is about 200ish FPS faster than from my 20" barrel.
generally quite happy with the results from the Sporter, now my shooting need more work!!
Have a good evening,
LTQZ
Knowledge and understanding leads to Wisdom.
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Dropping rounds is not normal. Might check your mounting it is not quite as easy as the directions (skimpy ones by the way). If it keeps dropping shots I would give them a call. I don't recall mine dropping shots when mounted properly. Hope this helps.
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