Chronograph Trouble Shooting

[truck driver]

I've got a Shooting Chrony F1 that has been reliable up until the last week at the range.
The weather was perfect plenty of sun and clear sky.
I had it set up at 10 feet from the bench and maybe a little farther from the muzzle just like I always do. Everything was lined up and raised to the proper height and I was shooting threw the center of the sensors which I checked several times just to be sure.
The problem is it wouldn't read the velocity of my loads and kept saying ERROR after each shot with 2 different rifles. I also moved it back several feet to see if there would be any difference and the answer was ERROR after each shot.
In the past I would change the battery if I got this message and it would start reading again but not this time.
I tried everything I could think of and nothing worked.
Any ideas what might be causing the problem would be appreciated.

 

[Bruce Mc]

Are you using the sun shields? Fresh battery? Did it have a number with the error?

 

[truck driver]

Are you using the sun shields? Fresh battery? Did it have a number with the error?

Yep to everything but the number, no number that I could read.
I'm going to try it again the first chance I get and if I still have problems I'll trade it in on a new one.

 

[truck driver]

No wonder I hate electronics.
I set the chrony up just outside the basement door at around 7' to check and see if it was going to work or not. I had cleaned the optic sensors with Zeiss glass cleaner since that has not been done since I owned it,
Used a torpedo level to get it level. Put the 4 short rods in the holes closest to the sensors to make a narrow shooting window, I usually use the out side holes since I put the sky screens on when at the range. Shooting height off the sensors around 5.5". Weather for shooting over a chrony was terrible, misty rain and cloud cover which was just the opposite from the other day.
Took three shots out of a pellet rifle across the chrony and it read all three shots, 425.3-417.8-421.6 no errors so I quit while I was ahead.
The only thing I can figure is I was getting a pressure wave from the muzzle blast disrupting the readings or the sensors were dirty. Cleaning the sensors was the only thing I changed.

 

[ShadeTree]

Not a chrono expert but here's a few things I discovered using the one I use occasionally.

A. Works best set up at least 12-15' away. Closer than that I get screwed up readings sometimes.

B. Works best on overcast days without the sun screens installed.

C. If using on a sunny day with the sun screens, I take a black magic marker and color all the bullets solid from nose to case neck, all the way around. The sun can reflect and glare off the bullets causing weird readings or an error.

It's very frustrating to load up bullets to test, go through all the work of setting up just right, only to have screwed up readings, or errors. Either way learning nothing. Doing all the above has eliminated that for me.

 

[truck driver]

Not a chrono expert but here's a few things I discovered using the one I use occasionally.

A. Works best set up at least 12-15' away. Closer than that I get screwed up readings sometimes.

B. Works best on overcast days without the sun screens installed.

C. If using on a sunny day with the sun screens, I take a black magic marker and color all the bullets solid from nose to case neck, all the way around. The sun can reflect and glare off the bullets causing weird readings or an error.

It's very frustrating to load up bullets to test, go through all the work of setting up just right, only to have screwed up readings, or errors. Either way learning nothing. Doing all the above has eliminated that for me.

The short distance used today is recommended for .22lr and BB guns so since I used a .17 pellet rifle I was good to go.
Thanks for the advise.

 

[ShadeTree]

Not a chrono expert but here's a few things I discovered using the one I use occasionally.

A. Works best set up at least 12-15' away. Closer than that I get screwed up readings sometimes.

B. Works best on overcast days without the sun screens installed.

C. If using on a sunny day with the sun screens, I take a black magic marker and color all the bullets solid from nose to case neck, all the way around. The sun can reflect and glare off the bullets causing weird readings or an error.

It's very frustrating to load up bullets to test, go through all the work of setting up just right, only to have screwed up readings, or errors. Either way learning nothing. Doing all the above has eliminated that for me.

The short distance used today is recommended for .22lr and BB guns so since I used a .17 pellet rifle I was good to go.
Thanks for the advise.

Yeah I used a 22 probably just 5' or so away one time when I was testing trying to figure out why I was getting messed up readings shooting rifle. No problems at that distance with something low pressure. Not really sure being that close matters with high pressure rounds either other than muzzle blast could bust up plastic sun screens, but I get good results being 12-15' away so I've stuck with that.

 

[jimbires]

one of the guys I got started in reloading asked me for help developing a load for a new rifle he bought . we were at the range using his chrony chronograph . he was taking pics of the velocity readout ,.the chrony was faster than the camera , the flash would cause the chrony to read 0 , and the pic showed 0 . after he tried to get a pic a few times the chrony started to error , instead of getting a reading . I just thought the battery was going dead . tried another battery the chrony still showed error more than reading the shot . the only thing I can think of is the flash from his camera damaged the light sensors .

 

[truck driver]

That's interesting Jim. Never thought about too much light might have been the problem.
I always thought you needed plenty of sun light to get good readings since they have light attachments for low light conditions.

 

[hunter24605]

That's interesting Jim. Never thought about too much light might have been the problem.
I always thought you needed plenty of sun light to get good readings since they have light attachments for low light conditions.

I have one of the Caldwell Chronos and bright light always gave me errors..I made some sun screen extenders from a translucent light panel from a fluorescent ceiling light and that worked out well.They weren't pretty attached to the factory shades with clothes pins, but they worked..LOL.. Just as a side note, one of those el-cheapo laser bore sighters saves a bunch of time setting up shoot through chronos.

 

[Dr. Vette]

That's interesting Jim. Never thought about too much light might have been the problem.
I always thought you needed plenty of sun light to get good readings since they have light attachments for low light conditions.

Nope, too much light.

On sunny days my Shooting Chrony has errors, and will read up to 100fps fast. It is far more reliable on a cloudy day, or first thing in the morning when the sun is still behind the roof at the range. Once I have sunlight on the chrony, I quit using it.

I've had my Shooting Chrony virtually match my Labradar under the right conditions. However, I've seen it go waaay off when the conditions go wrong.