Chrony troubleshooting

[joachimM]

Hi Folks,

I finally bought a Chrony M1 (in Europe it measures in mps). Till now, I mostly chronographed my bows with the technical archery arrow speed software, which worked pretty fine for me. And I did some distance shooting now and then, which (at least with regular arrows) gave pretty consistent results according to the formula
Distance (in yards) = (arrow speed)² times 0.007
(Basically, an arrow shot 205 yards had an initial speed of c. 170 fps, 300 yards corresponds to 205 fps, give or take). Badger gave these estimates, and when I get my Chrony to give good readings, they correspond very well with my distances.

The past few days I've been trying out my chrony, but I get error readings (err1 or 2, front or rear sensor not tripped) 90% of the time.
I've been shooting outside in the late afternoon (3PM) cloudy weather but pretty grey too. Might there be too little light for the sensors? Or could it have to do with heavy arrow paradox (spine not perfect), as a result of which my arrowheads miss either the front or the rear sensor?

thanks for your comments

[DC]

Paint two inches of the tip flat black, that helped me a lot. I also found that using a stiffer arrow was necessary sometimes. There were some arrows I just couldn't get a reading with. Maybe stand back a bit farther to give the arrow room to settle down. I sometimes have to shoot from 10-15 feet from the chrono. I don't use the shades. I hit one of the wires once and it totally disassembled one of the sensors. I managed to re-assemble it but haven't trusted it since. I have a new one sitting under the Christmas tree. They can be frustrating. There is a learning curve like everything else. I've had mine for a couple of years and still get lots of errors.

[joachimM]

DC, I followed your previous post on arrow speed and your chrony issues. I already tried painting the tips black, but that didn't help me. I guess it's a spine issue ...

[DC]

If you're getting Err messages at least it's seeing the arrow. If you have the shade off you can get a reading by waving a stick(or arrow) across the sensors. You have to wave it hard. The best I could get was about 50 fps or so

[willie]

Or could it have to do with heavy arrow paradox (spine not perfect), as a result of which my arrowheads miss either the front or the rear sensor?

if the paradox is horizontal, and the chrony prefers readings directly "above" the sensor, couldn't you lay the chrony on its side and shoot next to it?

[Del the cat]

Or could it have to do with heavy arrow paradox (spine not perfect), as a result of which my arrowheads miss either the front or the rear sensor?

if the paradox is horizontal, and the chrony prefers readings directly "above" the sensor, couldn't you lay the chrony on its side and shoot next to it?

Or, easier, cant the bow over horizontal...
Del

[joachimM]

Will try!

I also have an air rifle with which I can test whether or not I have enough light on these cloudy grey days. At least those pellets should shoot straight 

[DC]

It amazed me that I could have so much trouble trying to get arrows to work and yet if I used my pellet rifle(that I hadn't shot in 30 years)it registered every time. On my Chrony the sweet spot is only 3/4" wide apparently and when you shoot like me that's a really tiny spot.

[willie]

hmmm  3/4"  isn't  a very wide window, I can see that being a field of view sort of thing with the sensor
how tall is the window? does brighter light make it taller?

[DC]

I don't think I've had any problem with the height of the window. That said I'm not sure how I would know for sure. It's the shadow of the arrow that the thing detects so until the height gets to be enough that the shadow fades I don't think it's a problem. You have to keep in mind that these things will detect a bullet going close to 10,000 fps so it doesn't take much to trigger it. I would think that if it didn't trigger then the arrow didn't go over the sensor.

[Badger]

  I have a box full of chronos that don't work right. I have the worst luck with them. I have no idea why. Most of my problems started when I moved my shooting area to a rear patio, I have telephone wires about 15 ft to the right of where I shoot and I think that might be the problem. My readings seem to be 20 fps fast or 20 fps slow from what I can tell.

[BowEd]

My chronograph works well on a sunny day.Cloudy days not.

[bradsmith2010]

sunny days with the shields on works best for me