Learning to Live With A Chronograph

[Mags]

.. The issues with this chrono/app combo not working with my iPhone probably aren’t my fault.

Did you see this in the User Manual?

IOS Devices.JPG (32.24 KiB) Viewed 1292 times

[Mr. Neutron]

.. The issues with this chrono/app combo not working with my iPhone probably aren’t my fault.

Did you see this in the User Manual?

IOS Devices.JPG

Yeah, I saw that in the manual, and in a couple of other videos on the Caldwell app where folks had varying degrees of success connecting a phone to the chrono. I even called a Caldwell Tech Support guy and talked to him about this. He was nice, but his "solution" didn't work for me. I did indeed have the microphone turned on for the Caldwell app.

Here's my experience with connecting the app. Sorry for the length again.

I have an iPhone mini13 model, only around a year old or thereabouts. It has no 3.5mm female port to connect to the male 3.5mm Caldwell cable that ya get with the chrono. Since my iPhone has no port to hook up to Caldwell's cable but has Apple's proprietary "Lightning" port for charging and etc., I bought an adapter at BiMart, made by Energizer with the male Lightning gizzie on one end, and a female 3.5mm port on the other end. This didn't work, so I deleted the app, and downloaded it again, and gave it the microphone permission again. Still didn't work.

So I called a Tech at Caldwell, and (like I saw in a youtube solution video for the Caldwell) the Tech recommended that I buy an adapter directly from Apple. This kinda made sense, as in the past, I've discovered that not ALL charging cords will allow data transfer; they only allow charging. Some manufacturers have some sorta "proprietary design" that might not allow aftermarket folks' products to do certain things. This was true on my Samsung phone, and seems to be true for this model of Apple? Anyway, I ordered the adapter from Apple, waited, got on a list to receive more junk emails from Apple than I ever could imagine, and finally a few days later, got a genuine Apple adapter for Lightning to 3.5mm audio. I even called Apple before I ordered to be sure this adapter would do what I wanted it to do. And, this genuine Apple adapter is exactly the same one that a guy in a video used to allow his iPhone to work with his Caldwell chrono. Even after checking and re-checking that all necessary permissions were on with the phone, and trying as much stuff as an analog guy in a digital world knows to try, this didn't work. So, sometimes when I post here about this chrono, there is likely some frustration that I haven't let go of that shows through in my posts.

Well, phooey, I thought. I have an old Motorola Moto phone from many years ago that has a 3.5mm female port. The Caldwell cable fits into this phone, once I removed the case. Ditto for the Samsung Galaxy model that I replaced with the I phone, that Samsung also has a port that fits the end of the Caldwell cable if I remove the case. Since I can use either of these phones with my home wifi, I downloaded the free Caldwell app to each phone. I turned on the Moto phone, plugged in the cord to the phone & chrono, turned on the app, gave it the needed permissions, turned on the Caldwell, and it worked. Somewhere, I saw a video that said there's a necessary "order of events" to do, and I do it everytime I use the app. Turn on phone, connect it to the Chrono, turn on the app, and turn on the chrono. It works for me..... It works with the Samsung phone also.

So now, I just stuff the old Motorola into the box/sack with the chrono and cable and use it exclusively as a "Range Phone" for the chrono.

Again, sorry for the length of my posts here. I'm an "anal, detail oriented" type of person , but would rather not be. I just hope some of these details might help others.

[rickhem]

I'm enjoying this thread. I have been dealing with similar issues using an older PACT chronograph, and it's great when conditions outside are what it likes, but I haven't found out how to re-create those artificially yet.
Good discussion though, and sharing info helps everyone.

[Mr. Neutron]

Played around with the Caldwell in the shade today. The barn and trees do a great job of blocking the early morning light (10:30-ish), and preventing the chrono from being able to read BBs from the Umarex lever rifle. It either won’t read anything at all, or it gets error codes. It would do the same thing with arrows, rimfire, and center fire rounds as well, if I could shoot them at home.

I’ve seen a few videos with low light or indoor shooting situations where some clever folks came up with cheap solutions, like this guy shooting Nerf guns indoors.

https://youtu.be/oaJXJi2lgOE?si=pb8GO0eND9qJWeUp

Most of these folks are trying to beat the issue of using this chrono under fluorescent lights, which the Caldwell instructions say is “No Bueno”.

Turns out their solutions kinda work outdoors in dark shade. I used a couple of cheap Harbor Freight LED flashlights just sitting on the sun shields with a little success. I should mention that Caldwell includes a lighted sun shield kit with their “Premium” level kit, and will sell that setup separately. So they know there is a bit of an issue there. But their kit’s a bit pricey. There are less expensive solutions.

IMG_0955.jpeg (3.55 MiB) Viewed 1267 times

It didn’t totally eliminate all error codes, but was probably in the 80% effective range, I’d guess. Some of the errors may have been induced as the sun traveled and it got into some “sunlight and tree limb” moments. Again, this is mentioned in Caldwell’s instructions as not working out too well. My cheap setup might’ve worked even better if I’d taped the lights to the underside of the sun shields as others have done.

After the sun moved a bit more, around noon, the chrono worked just fine with the natural light.

Again, I hate to bore people to tears with this stuff. But on the off chance it may help someone or save some frustration, I’d like to give back some. The Lord knows that I’ve gotten a ton of great help from the folks here.

[Rifletom]

I thought sure I mentioned this here, but, guess not. Maybe affix an umbrella somehow to give artificial shade to the sensors. This could work.
These inexpensive chrony's need a little help sometimes. Certainly can't hurt.

[Mr. Neutron]

I thought sure I mentioned this here, but, guess not. Maybe affix an umbrella somehow to give artificial shade to the sensors. This could work.
These inexpensive chrony's need a little help sometimes. Certainly can't hurt.

I like this!!!

I think on most sunny days here, from the hours of, say, 11 am to 4 pm, the chrono's own overhead sun shields seem to work out okay. This time of year, anyways...... I think the shade idea you mentioned, whether it comes from an umbrella, piece of cardboard, or whatever, will probably be a real help when the morning/afternoon sun comes in from the side. Normally here in western Oregon, "too much sun" isn't an issue, hee hee. But this year it's been a nice exception, for the most part, where I live. We've had a great, dry summer with lotsa sun this year.

In the fall, winter, and early spring here, when the sun is either in it's low southern arc or we have a lot of gray days, I'm thinking the artificial light deal mentioned above might possibly be a help there. Actually, that's when I like to try out new loads. The weather is cooler, so barrels cool down a bit quicker. And in case a load somehow manages to come close to making higher pressures, cooler weather is better then as well. These would be the situations I really want to try to figure out how to make this booger work.

The first time I took the chrono to my range, it was late afternoon, with sun coming in from the west. We shoot in pretty much a straight north direction. Our rifle range has a covered area that extends out and downwards past the benches for about 4-5 feet, somewhat in an effort to keep noise down a tad for nearby neighbors. When I set the chrono up about 12-15 feet from the muzzle, it was in the shade from that overhead covered area that extends out. What sun it could get came in from the side, mostly. This may have been a situation where a large shade of some sort on the west (left) side of the chrono might've helped. Trying the chrono with no sun shields sure didn't stop the error codes or missed shots. Using the sun shields wasn't much better. Movng it out a bit further out of the shadows and using the sun shields did allow it to catch a few more shots, but definitely not all.

You're right, Tom. Fortyshooter and others as well. These goofy things just seem to take some fussin' with to work in a lot of situations, I guess....... Since I seem to have about the same IQ as a bucket of cucumbers, it's a tough, uphill battle for me.

[Mags]

While researching where the app gets the temperature and barometric pressure information, I stumbled onto a couple of people who use this chronograph upside down using the 4 sunshade rods as legs. They place the unit on a platform over a white surface. White trash bag was used as an example. In low light they used LED puck lights under the chrono.

And as far as the weather info in the app, "it comes from the internet" based on the zip code or Lat/Long entered into the app. No mention of what weather service the app accesses.

[Mr. Neutron]

Yeah, I can't figure out if it (the Caldwell app) is supposed to get current conditions from, say, your phone's weather app or where. If it's from a manual input, I haven't figured out how to do that.

I did find a "Library of Bullets" somewhere that I think has things like a particular bullet's ballistic coefficient. Was that maybe in the "templates menu"? Might be handy for dialing in a rifle's/bullet''s exact ballistics with more of a "precisicion" shot duty than my short range 30-30, so I won't worry too much about that.

I know that, for more $$$$, Caldwell offers the G2 model, which is essentially upside down from my model. Haven't seen a video for my "economy model" where they do that. Would be interesting to see.

Dunno when I'll get out to the range to play with this thing again. Our gun club has the Public Sight In going on everyday from 10am to 5pm until sometime in October. And after that is over, the range will be shut down for a few days/week for maintenance. I will also be gone hunting. I can shoot after 5pm now after the sight in is through for the day, but possibly not with the chrono as the daylight is beginning to get scarce when we are getting this (much needed) rain and the gray skies and shorter days. Most of my testing lately has had to be at home with my BB gun.

[Mags]

Yeah, I can't figure out if it (the Caldwell app) is supposed to get current conditions from, say, your phone's weather app or where. If it's from a manual input, I haven't figured out how to do that.
...
I know that, for more $$$$, Caldwell offers the G2 model, which is essentially upside down from my model. Haven't seen a video for my "economy model" where they do that. Would be interesting to see.
...

This is going to be a little geeky. I couldn't find a way to enter the weather info either. What I did find out through google searches is that both Android and IOS have a software API (application programming interface) that apps can call in the background to get weather data. From there Android calls out to an IBM weather server that aggregates weather info from multiple sources (ie NWS, Accuweather, Weather.com, etc). IOS does similar, but Apple has their own weather server. Looking inside the Caldwell App APK text strings there doesn't appear to be a direct call to the source of weather data (for example directly to the NWS, etc). So I assume it makes it weather data request through the API via the IBM and Apple servers.

Here is a link to one of the elsewhere posts showing upside down usage.
https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/my ... ns.712900/

[Mr. Neutron]

Man, Mags, Thanks a ton for that info, and for the link as well! That helps a ton!

I can live without the Caldwell weather info. I already have a Hornady app on my phone that lets me manually punch in essentially all the same info, and more. I would rather have the Caldwell app to work as it should, but at this point, it feels as if just getting it to feed info from the chrono to a phone is milestone enough.

The photos in the link kinda confirm what I was attempting to do with my HF flashlights, also. I wanted to try to rig up an LED strip on each sun shield like he did, as I'v seen others do in various youtube vids. I have seen a vid where a guy double sided taped similar LED puck lights underneath the sun shields, then uses a remote to turn them on/off. What I like about the LED strips is that there is less underhang beneath the shields. Probably would help keep them from being accidentally shot. But first I wanted something cheap and easily reversible to try out, just to see if I was even on the right trail.

Again, Mags, thanks for all the help, Sir!