Doppler Radar Chronograph

slimjim · Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 6:13 am Post subject: Re: Doppler Radar Chronograph

Yesterday afternoon had calm winds with light rain. We have had 7 to 9 inches of rain in North TX over the last week so I took a chance and headed to the range to get some recoil therapy with some new loads. I set-up my LabRadar and did all my shooting with no issues. Even tried the Doppler trigger mode with the suppressor using subsonic loads and it picked up every shot. No way to have done that with an optical chrony with such thick cloud cover and rain.

PaulS · Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2018 12:45 am Post subject: Re: Doppler Radar Chronograph

I'm jealous! I haven't gotten my LabRadar yet. I hope to get it before the summer gets going here.

Azar · Member Joined: Jan 04, 2010 Posts: 275 Location: Utah

I've used mine a couple of more times since getting the tripod. It now puts the LR right equal with the muzzle and hasn't missed a shot since then. I'm liking it more and more.

slimjim · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 5:45 am Post subject: Re: Doppler Radar Chronograph

The only thing I haven't done is frequently operate the unit with lots of shooter close by. I've had the unit trigger once on the muzzle blast from the next bench. It shows an error message that you have to clear or it won't record your next shot. I also have had it trigger with error message a couple of times when the bolt slams closed on an AR-10. To compensate, I now hit the down button to relight the black screen to ensure the unit is ready to capture my bullet.

GLShooter · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 4:30 pm Post subject: Re: Doppler Radar Chronograph

This is my cure for the issues in lining it up. A 4zX scope on a mount I got over on the Cast Boolits forum. Works like a champ!! This is my new 6X6.8 from Tactical Ordnance.

Greg

hunterjoe21 · Posted: Thu May 10, 2018 8:50 pm Post subject: Re: Doppler Radar Chronograph

slimjim wrote:

I use the decal data at these distances to derive actual BC.

Slim,

You have mentioned several times in this thread calculating actual BC’s of the bullets you are testing. Out of curiosity, what is the formula you use for this?

I don’t have anywhere near enough data using mine. I’ve only had it out once and used mainly factory loads so I could work through the set-up and menu options, but I want to start testing some of my handloads now.

slimjim · Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 1:06 am Post subject: Re: Doppler Radar Chronograph

hunterjoe, you don't need a lot of data to derive the BC. Even a couple of bullets with the down-range velocity data from the LabRadar have produced very accurate BC numbers. The key is accurate weather data. I use a close weather station but I've actually found a couple of ranges I frequent that I can't derive valid BCs because the weather data from the local station is unreliable. Here are the details in this thread. Let me know if you have any questions.

www.huntingnut.com/ind...=ballistic

slimjim · Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 1:17 am Post subject: Re: Doppler Radar Chronograph

Oh, When I switched from a chrony to the LabRadar, the derived BCs became much more consistent range to range session. It really does have accuracy down to 1 fps. Even deriving BC from the velocity decay from the muzzle to 25 yards is precise enough to give you an accurate BC at that specific velocity. I set my unit up to record velocity at the muzzle and then 25 yard increments out to 125 yards. It doesn't track that many bullets out past 75 yards (depends on the caliber and the type of boat-tail). Most .223 bullets with BTs drop off after 25 yards.

I have noticed the precision of the velocity data from LabRadar can start to be off a few fps the further away the bullet gets. I stopped using velocity at 100 yards when deriving BC and sometimes I don't use 75 yard data. I do a quality check be monitoring the amount of decay every 25 yards. If the decay from 50 to 75 yards isn't a close match to 0 to 25 and 25 to 50, I only use the data out to 50 yards to derive the BC. I just keep changing the BC value in the on-line calculator until the velocities match at that distance.

English Mike · Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 2:17 pm Post subject: Re: Doppler Radar Chronograph

GLShooter wrote:

This is my cure for the issues in lining it up. A 4zX scope on a mount I got over on the Cast Boolits forum. Works like a champ!! This is my new 6X6.8 from Tactical Ordnance.

Greg

Can't see your photo direct matey but can see the link if I quote your post.

That'll certainly ensure exact alignment.

Oh & a belated welcome.

I reckon at 12 years, you must hold the record for longest time between joining the Nut & making a first post. Very Happy

Vince · Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 5:39 pm Post subject: Re: Doppler Radar Chronograph

As Mike said GLShooter, welcome to The Nut fire mate. Don’t be a stranger...feel free to jump in with your knowledge and experience...12 years is a long time between drinks.

hunterjoe21 · Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2018 9:40 pm Post subject: Re: Doppler Radar Chronograph

I received an email from Labradar to inform me that their Bluetooth app is ready for the Android platform. If I understand it correctly, it will allow you to access your Labradar settings and data from your mobile device. I’m thinking that a dedicated “handloading” tablet might be in order, especially if the “Pointblank” mobile ever comes to fruition.....(Hint, hint, hint)...

slimjim · Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2018 8:51 am Post subject: Re: Doppler Radar Chronograph

hunterjoe, let us know how it works out!

Azar · Member Joined: Jan 04, 2010 Posts: 275 Location: Utah

I saw an e-mail that effect over the weekend. It requires you to download an updated firmware (v.1.2.0) that enables to the bluetooth on the LabRadar.

I downloaded both the firmware for the unit and the app for my phone. It wasn't hard to update the firmware on the LR. The phone app works pretty slick and is fairly responsive. You can change the units on your LR or have different units setup on your phone. You can view shot strings on the LR and you can even enable/disable the radar from the app. I like it!

Of course, I went to the range on Saturday morning after getting it working and left the tri-pod at home... Sad

So I didn't end up shooting and giving it a go.

The one thing that I'm not sure I cared for was that there is no pairing between your phone and the LR over bluetooth. That's certainly convenient as it's easy to get your phone to communicate with your LR. But that also means that anyone else with the LR app on their phone within bluetooth range could connect to and mess with your LR (even accidentally).

PaulS · Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 10:49 pm Post subject: Re: Doppler Radar Chronograph

Azar,
Perhaps you can answer a question for me on the blue tooth operation.
Does it allow a password to protect it from being hacked or can anyone with the app on their phone take control of the lab radar unit?
I sent this question in to the Lab Radar folks but haven't gotten an answer yet.
Also is bluetooth the only upgrade or does it upgrade other parts of the firmware?

Azar · Member Joined: Jan 04, 2010 Posts: 275 Location: Utah

Paul,

As far as I know enabling bluetooth is the only update. Perhaps there is a changelog that talks about other minor changes? There is no password by default and I haven't played with it enough to know if you can specifically say only connect to X device or anything of the sort. It definitely will make it easy for non-technically inclined people to get their phone to connect to the LR, but I don't like the idea that someone could have the app on their phone and mess with mine while I'm using it (even accidentally if they were trying to connect to their own LR but connected to mine instead).

P.S. Just checked mylabradar.com for a changelog for firmware version 1.2.0 and they have already published version 1.2.1:

Bug Fixes and improvements:

- Minor Bug fixes
- Improvement for external adapter

Found previous firmware version 1.2.0 at AppliedBallistics.com and changelog said:
Bug Fixes and improvements:

- Minor Bug fixes
- Bluetooth Communication Enabled
- Mobile Application Ready

So, enabling Bluetooth, minor bug fixes, and "Improvement for external adapter" (whatever that means) are what you will get with version 1.2.1.