Pro Chrono Digital by Competition Electronics
EDIT: Well it’s been a year that I have had my Digital Model ProChrono by Competition Electronics and it is still working like a champ. Like all chronographs, it sits and does nothing for long periods of time. However, when it comes time to check velocities, this chronograph still works flawlessly. No frustrating error messages. No 10 shot limit. Just good, easy to use, intuitive user interface. I sure am pleased with this unit.
Many of you have also purchased one of these chronographs. How are they working for you? Share your experiences good and bad so the new guys can get a more objective view of the subject.
Those of you who are thinking of buying a chronograph should just do it. There isn’t really any way of figuring out how your trusty airgun is behaving without one. Oh sure, you can shoot into plywood, or devastate soda cans, but you really aren’t sure of what the last tophat adjustment, fill pressure, or different pellet has made to your velocity and shot string data.
It’s here! It showed up yesterday and I like it! 😀 I like that has 9 strings that are easy to switch from one to another. Each string is capable of recording and calculating data for 99 shots! My lame shooting chrony beta would only record 10 shots and then began to dump the earliest preceeding shots. That sucked. The use of this unit is intuitive giving you individual buttons for the options of deleting a single shot, delete an entire string, redisplay (identifies the string and shot number), string change (to go from one string to another), and a review button for tabulating data.
The owner’s manual is in color and has a type face large enough to read easily. The information and instructions is written clearly and is well presented. There are color pictures where necessary to full explain the unit’s functions. In the back of the manual are accessories that are available. There is a kit for connecting the chronograph to your computer. They have their own lighting system. There is a debris shield that appears to be made from plexiglass, and a replacement diffuser set.
The sc manual was printed in very small type and was difficult for me to understand. They did however supply some mathematical equations, although I am not sure what they were for.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the battery compartment had an extra slot for a spare 9volt battery. That’s handy.
The unit is of a fixed legnth configuration measuring 16″. The top of the unit is covered and prevents debris from getting into the unit. The “eyes” or sensors are deeply recessed into the unit. (I placed clear plastic shipping tape over each sensor well to prevent debris from falling onto the sensors.)
The Pro Chrono sky screen material is a little bit thicker and thus more durable. I was however, actually able to use the sky screens and lights from my sc beta unit on my new Pro Chrono. That was a pleasant surprise..
I set it up in my garage, turned it on, and shot my TSS over it with no error messages. That was refreshing. My sc product was very picky about lighting.
I like that I am not getting all of the error messages that I was getting with the beta chrony. (In all fairness, if you get the lighting right, the sc works OK.)
Why do we allow the shooting chrony company to dictate to us that there will only be 10 shots in a string?
Edit added 10-4-10
I just shot my kid’s Red Ryder for the full 99 shots. At that point, the Pro Chrono reads “FULL”. I was adding the required two drops of oil and wanted to see if the velocity would come up. (It did come up, but just by 10 fps, from 240fps to 250fps.) It was then that I realizeed that we are getting screwed by the sc company with their limited shot strings. Again, another reason not to buy a shooting chrony product! Again the Pro Chrono by Competition Electronics has the better product! I like it!!! 😀
For those who may be interested, my Gamo Shadow Express shotgun is doing 674 fps with 15 pieces of #8 lead shot.
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It looks simple but remember, the pellet is 2-3 inches BELOW your sights. I put a wrap of tape on the 4 rods 4+ inches above the top of the sensors.
Powder burners are worse. They spray burning powder that can burn the face of some chronographs.
Good luck and enjoy!
Found the electronic manual; looks real simple: http://www.competitionelectronics.com/media-files/ProChronoDigitalManual_2009.pdf
Okay, you bastards, I just ordered my first Chrono and its a ProChrono. Midway has them on sale for just $96 until 1/31/2011. Why the cussing? because I will lose a day measuring everything I own 🙂
Finally I can get some FPE numbers on my airguns and likely some real numbers for my 17 HMR next time I’m at the tactical range.
Brown should deliver it 2/2/2011.
Ya the ProChrono rocks! I’m glad I got one!!!
Excellent!
Thanks for the welcome!
I’m a new member but I’ve been looking through what seems like every thread on this forum for many many hours.
I am brand new to airguns. A while back I thought about the idea of a pellet gun to take care of some pests around my house and it sounds like a fun hobby. I was looking at the RWS 48, but the AF rifles caught my eye. I’ve seen PCP guns before and my first thought was “why would I ever need something like that. I really just want a small pellet gun for small pest control.” Then I thought of the other fun applications that a PCP gun can be used for and I started researching PCP. Soon after starting my research I completely moved away from a springer type rifle and now I don’t think I want anything else currently available. The Edgun Matador is my first purchase and I’m planning on pest control/hunting and target practice to begin with.
If you’ve read some of Hoot’s posts, I’d eventually like to do something along the lines of shooting my neighbors walnut tree and have them come over asking if I’ve ever heard of exploding nuts from high temperatures 😀
I thought I’d start out with a Hill pump with dry pac being that it gets pretty humid in Michigan. I’m also going this route in case we lose our power, say around 2012, when all the planets are supposed to line up and create massive solar flares that could wipe out our entire grid system. If that is the case, I’ll still be able to fill my gun to help with finding food. Anyway, I’d eventually move up to an 88cu ft 4500 psi tank with the possible shoebox compressor. I’m pretty strong so I think I can handle the workout from the pump; it shouldn’t bother me too much.
Hi Ryasee,
Welcome to the TAG! You are going to love your Edgun. They are powerful, accurate, and quiet. Ed himself monitors and posts on this forum. I think that is awesome. I don’t personally own an Edgun, but all I have heard is positive.
As for the chronograph, you are going to enjoy using your Pro Chrono. I love the 99 shot string capability. Others wonder why someone would want to shoot 99 shots and compare them? Those are the people who have chronys and are stuck with their limitations. What I like even better is that there are virtually no error messages like what I was getting with my beta unit. So again, I am so very pleased with my Pro Chrono Digital model. I hope that are pleased with yours too.
Are you new to airguns? What do you own and what do you do with them? You may have noticed that I shoot the rats and ground squirrels. I really like my .25 Marauder. 😀 Again, you are going to love your Edgun! What a great choice.
What are you going to do for a HPA air source? You are going to be using alot of it. Don’t get me wrong, the Edgun sips air, you are just going to shoot it a whole bunch. 😉
I read your frustrating experience with the Shooting Chrony company and I like what I see from the Pro Chrono Digital. I’m brand new to the boards and I just put down my deposit for an Edgun Matador. It was a tough decision between an Air Force Condor and the Edgun, but I decided to go with the Edgun.
Anyway, I decided that I’m going to need a Chronograph eventually to test different pellets at difference velocities to get the results that will work best for me. I thought I would let you know that I’m going to go with a model from Competition Electronics and it will probably be the Pro Chrono Digital model. Without your review, I probably would have settled for the Alpha model from Shooting Chrony. I thought I would let you know that I’m not going to let the Shooting Chrony Company dictate anything to me about a lousy 10 shots per string (32 for the model I was looking at but only one string).
Thanks for the review.
n0tzl, welcome! Which caliber Marauder did you start with? Do have any other airguns yet? I guess that you have noticed that I really like my .25 Marauder. 😉 Do you hunt? Eliminate pests? Target?
Thanks for registering to share your experiences with your Pro Chrono Digital model. Especially thanks for telling us about the software and the ins and outs of using it. I never even thought about connecting external power. I use incandescent lighting with mine and haven’t any errors. I’m really happy about that. That stupid beta chrony threw error messages entirely too often. I have mine sitting on a workbench and have secured it in place with a piece of 1/16″ welding rod. I don’t want the next earthquake to throw it to the ground like a ragdoll.
Good luck with your new addiction, sorry…I mean hobby. 😀 Don’t be a stranger; join the fray. 😆
Been lurking for some time but had to register so I could add some comments about the Pro Chrono Digital.
I recently got the airgun bug and when the dust settled somewhat had a new Marauder to tune up & needed a Chronograph for the first time in 15 years or so, figured there should be some really nifty ones out by now given all the advances in electronics but about all anyone had were the same moldy old “Shooting Chrony” brand ones I’d used 15-20yrs ago working up loads and they hadn’t changed or upgraded them at all.
Ran across the Pro Chrono on Midway’s website & did a bit of research, the digital looked like about what I wanted so ordered it with the computer & indoor lighting kits, whole thing was under $200 from Midway a week ago.
Now I’ve only had this setup since last Tuesday but have fired 500+ rounds over it indoors, can’t shoot outdoors around here so haven’t tested that but it has really surprised me. I was used to chrony’s that didn’t catch half the rounds or complained about them and that in general were just frustrating to use.
This one misses rounds occasionally, usually the first one after its been waiting for me to pump the rifle back up but sometimes in the middle of a string, seems to be due to lighting conditions but am not sure yet. Mostly it just sits there & works – the FPS pops up on my netbook screen as soon as it does on the units LCD and the indoor lighting kit uses IR LED’s so there is no glare right in front of my scope, I really like it so far and would also recommend it over the other models on the market.
The software for the computer could use some smoothing out, have to click on a button to download a string, another to get the stats – expected it to keep running totals. Its a bit clunky to save or print strings but it does everything I really need.
The lighting screens have been the only casualty so far, my dog tipped the tripod over when I was taking a break & let him back into the area, the cord yanked the power connector right off the board in one of them, I tack soldered it back on but was surprised they used surface mount power connectors, I’ll have to upgrade the one and might do the other while I’m at it with more robust sockets that mechanically attach to the board.
My other disappointment is that it has no external power socket, there are two mystery holes in the panel with the power switch & serial connector so maybe they are thinking about adding that. Its not been a real problem as it hasn’t run down the first 9v battery yet with over 20hrs of use.
I’m very happy with it, for a total computer connected, indoor lit package the price can’t be beat and it has more features than any competing chronograph I could find even at double the cost.
73, Dan
I’m glad that you got one. It’s even better that you like its performance. I really like the 99 shots per string. Now that’s a string! 😀
Bump
Scratch that, no need for anyone to put their hand up to help out a fellow AF rifle user.
I received my Pro Chrono Digital today 😀
I am super happy with it. Already shot it to bits and it registered the velocities. Now I’m going to buy some super glue and glue it all back together. Ahh No.
It is awesome I use it under normal incandescent lighting and it worked 😉
Can’t wait to try and shoot it topeices with my Talon & Condor…..
I am “Sold”.
Steve you should be a distributor 😛
The fact that it plugs into the lappy is a nice option.
Upload directly to [url=http://talonairgun.com]TAG[/url]
They are not on special anymore 😥
Who want’s to pick one up and ship it to New Zealand for me?
Pro Chrono Digital.
My Alpha Shooting Chrony does 32 shot strings and I find that adequate for calculating SD. I wondered why a shooter would buy just a 10 shot model.
I’ve got a lot invested in my SC, what with LED Lights and Printer. So, I won’t change unless I can get something a lot better. Or if I shoot it and repairs are more that say $40.
Does it cost more for the USB hookup and software for the Pro Chrony?? That could replace a printer. I wish SC would give up the software then I wouldn’t think about a change until maybe a service problem pop up.
Let’s hear more about poor lighting situations. Are they using Pro Chrony at any matches? Do they need to put them in a covered enclosure to guarantee readings??
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I like the tape idea a lot. I was also thinking about setting up a target just beyond the second sensor with a bull 4″ above the sensor.
From what I’ve read it has a wide sensing “zone” to spot the projectile. Is there anything I need to know about that before shooting? I’m guessing I may benefit from marking the housing where the center is at front and back to ensure a correct line up?