A review of my new Caldwell Chrono

[dave33]

Thought I would comment on my new Caldwell Chrono. Finally got to try it out a couple days ago, mostly worked good but had one(major) problem with it. This is the chrono that comes with 15' of audio cable so you can hook it up to your smartphone (either iphone or android) with a free app that displays the shot info, records strings and does the math for you, and can store or email data from your chrono session to yourself to review later. The chrono does have a display on the front that reads in FPS or MPS so you do not have to have a smartphone hooked to it to use it but it doesnt do anything else besides display the last shot fired.

The good news is the chrono worked perfectly from the first shot to the last shot, about 125 rounds, had one error message where the round was missed by one of the sensors, but that was me, I repositioned it and shot from a slight angle, so no fault of the equipment.

The bad new is the chrono would not talk to my iphone. The directions dont mention any certain order to hook the two together, but I tried every combination possible and nothing worked. The app wouldnt even acknowledge the chrono was hooked to it until I turned the phone off and on again, but even after it recognized the phone was connected it wouldnt read anything. I am going to try deleting the app and reinstalling it and see if that solves the problem but it will be a couple weeks before I can shoot over it again to see if that works. Half the reason I bought the Caldwell was because of the app so hopefully it will be up and running next time.

I did find out Im shooting a little hotter round in competition than I need to but I guess thats better than the alternative. I have been shooting 147gr Blue Bullets out of my XDM 5.25 over e3 and Titegroup. The e3 load at 3.6 gr makes a 144 PF and the titegroup load at 3.4 gr makes a 143 PF. They are both so soft I doubt I will change them anyway.

[RDA]

Which iPhone and which ios?

[The_Vigilante]

A review of the chrono indicates you need to download from the Apple Store the Caldwell Ballistic Chrono program which is only good on IOS 5 or later. Disregard pls

Edited April 14, 2014 by The_Vigilante

[dave33]

Which iPhone and which ios?

iPhone 4s running ios 7.1.

[pobro]

Please make sure the plastic washer (and only one washer) is on the end of the phone that plugs into the IPhone. The 4S has a metal case and needs the washer to keep the plug end from grounding out. If the washer is not there then you can try a piece of paper with a small hole in it. Watch for the plug icon to turn from red to green.

Edited April 14, 2014 by pobro

[dave33]

Please make sure the plastic washer (and only one washer) is on the end of the phone that plugs into the IPhone. The 4S has a metal case and needs the washer to keep the plug end from grounding out. If the washer is not there then you can try a piece of paper with a small hole in it. Watch for the plug icon to turn from red to green.

Before I turned the phone off and on the icon was red, after it was green, it just wasnt transferring or recording any data. That being said, I will check for the washers but Im almost certain they were in place.

Edited April 14, 2014 by dave33

[pobro]

Most likely it is the connection between the plug and the phone. The 4S is finicky because of its metal base.

With the other end of the cable connected to the chronograph.... Try pushing or pulling the phone end of the cable in and out gradually while watching to see if icon changes from red to green. If no luck then call Battenfeld customer service and we'll send you a new tested cord and if that doens't work we can send you a new chronograph.

sales@btibrands.com

or
(877) 509-9160

Edited April 14, 2014 by pobro

[pobro]

[dave33]

Most likely it is the connection between the plug and the phone. The 4S is finicky because of its metal base.

With the other end of the cable connected to the chronograph.... Try pushing or pulling the phone end of the cable in and out gradually while watching to see if icon changes from red to green. If no luck then call Battenfeld customer service and we'll send you a new tested cord and if that doens't work we can send you a new chronograph.

sales@btibrands.com

or

(877) 509-9160

I really appreciate your help, I didnt realize you were affiliated. Of the other folks I've spoken to that have this chrono Im the only one that seems to have connection issues, I dont know if they are using 4s or 5 model iphones. I will double check the connections this evening to see if it helps. Again, thanks for your help.

[rtp]

In for further review details; thanks for sharing.

In particular, would love to know how many strings the app can store(not email or text, as I don't have service at the range I shoot most often at), if it's available w/out the chrono plugged in (to review, and/or send after the range), and if it can be used with a tablet. Also interested in Android usage, as I went away from iPhones..

The Premium kit price is compelling, including the light kit, small tripod, etc...but I get the impression the software may not quite be 'ready for prime time,' at least in reading the reviews of the Android app in the Play store..

Have a ProChrono currently, which I still carry around in it's box (no carry case), and an overly large tripod...so the convenience factor is there to have it all packed up and complete in a single bag, if it proves to be reliable.

Biggest dislike is being unable to use the chrono in a useful fashion w/out a phone attached (single shot data only, no buttons, etc.)

In for more info/future details.

Edited April 15, 2014 by rtp

[pobro]

The app allows you to store as much data as your phone or tablet has available memory. Chances are you will long run out of ammo way before you run out of memory. This was the whole intent of our concept... Instead of duplicating the hardware that is already on your smart device we decided to leverage it instead by allowing the chronograph to use it for display, storage, computation, and communication.

We released a new android version today that fixes the bugs that some have identified.

I have been reading this forum for a long time because there seems to be a good collection of thought leaders on here when it comes to chronographs.

[dave33]

OK, confirmed all the washers are in place like they are suppose to be, still not transferring data. I can plug and unplug the cable and watch the icon turn from green to red like its suppose to, but no data is transferring. Looks like I need to call to Battenfield customer service this afternoon and go from there.

[pobro]

Did you ever get your phone to connect? Most likely it is the mic settings under privacy. You need to make sure the app is enabled.

[dave33]

Did you ever get your phone to connect? Most likely it is the mic settings under privacy. You need to make sure the app is enabled.

As it turns out I just got it sorted out Tuesday evening and had a chance to shoot it yesterday, and it was the microphone setting that had to be manually turned on. I did contact Battenfield and spoke to a product engineer who I went back and forth with for a few days trying different things, and I must say Battenfield was absolutely great to work with. You could tell the guy helping me was genuinely concerned with solving my problem.

Now that I have full connectivity I must say this is a pretty slick setup. Setup the chrono, attach the cord to the phone, and start shooting. You can put load data in, run a string and the app does all the math for you. From there you can keep your data stored and/or email it to yourself. The chrono and phone were connected for over an hour continually yesterday, and it had little effect on battery life so no problems there. I must say I am completely satisfied with my Caldwell chrono.

[Warpdrv]

Ordered one of these, I like the new Android connectivity to help me log and develop loads. Looking forward to testing it out.

Thanks for the review.

Any further info would be welcome

THAT IS THE SOUND OF INEVITABILITY !

[rtp]

Did you ever get your phone to connect? Most likely it is the mic settings under privacy. You need to make sure the app is enabled.

As it turns out I just got it sorted out Tuesday evening and had a chance to shoot it yesterday, and it was the microphone setting that had to be manually turned on. I did contact Battenfield and spoke to a product engineer who I went back and forth with for a few days trying different things, and I must say Battenfield was absolutely great to work with. You could tell the guy helping me was genuinely concerned with solving my problem.

Now that I have full connectivity I must say this is a pretty slick setup. Setup the chrono, attach the cord to the phone, and start shooting. You can put load data in, run a string and the app does all the math for you. From there you can keep your data stored and/or email it to yourself. The chrono and phone were connected for over an hour continually yesterday, and it had little effect on battery life so no problems there. I must say I am completely satisfied with my Caldwell chrono.

What do you mean by put load data in? Meaning it lets you separate/track strings, calculated ES, SD, Lo, Hi, shot count in string, and then has spaces to add your projectile/wt, charge, OAL, etc. ?...or something else?

[dave33]

Did you ever get your phone to connect? Most likely it is the mic settings under privacy. You need to make sure the app is enabled.

As it turns out I just got it sorted out Tuesday evening and had a chance to shoot it yesterday, and it was the microphone setting that had to be manually turned on. I did contact Battenfield and spoke to a product engineer who I went back and forth with for a few days trying different things, and I must say Battenfield was absolutely great to work with. You could tell the guy helping me was genuinely concerned with solving my problem.

Now that I have full connectivity I must say this is a pretty slick setup. Setup the chrono, attach the cord to the phone, and start shooting. You can put load data in, run a string and the app does all the math for you. From there you can keep your data stored and/or email it to yourself. The chrono and phone were connected for over an hour continually yesterday, and it had little effect on battery life so no problems there. I must say I am completely satisfied with my Caldwell chrono.

What do you mean by put load data in? Meaning it lets you separate/track strings, calculated ES, SD, Lo, Hi, shot count in string, and then has spaces to add your projectile/wt, charge, OAL, etc. ?...or something else?

That's exactly what I mean. In the app you can select "new group". From there you can add as many notes as you want such as powder charge, projectile info, whatever you want, then hit the big green START button. Fire as many rounds as you want in your string, when done hit the big red END button and all your data is done for you. One side of the screen gives all your string shots individually in FPS or MPS, the other side of the screen displays all your math including hi, low, extreme spread, average, standard deviation, and true MV. It even stores, date, time, temperature and barometric pressure. It also has a place for distance to chrono, ballistic coefficient, and group size if you are accuracy testing at the same time. It will store as much data as your device can hold, and/or you can email the results to yourself. I'm telling you this thing is slick. If I wasn't on the mobile version of this forum I would post some screen shots of my saved groups to give you some visual aids. Maybe I can put some pics up Monday when I have access to a desktop.

[Olivers_AR]

Anyone have these in stock? I see backorders and longer leadtimes at the usual places?

Would like to use 'Driod and chrono before the Area 8 sectional May 14th.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Olivers_AR

[rtp]

Did you ever get your phone to connect? Most likely it is the mic settings under privacy. You need to make sure the app is enabled.

As it turns out I just got it sorted out Tuesday evening and had a chance to shoot it yesterday, and it was the microphone setting that had to be manually turned on. I did contact Battenfield and spoke to a product engineer who I went back and forth with for a few days trying different things, and I must say Battenfield was absolutely great to work with. You could tell the guy helping me was genuinely concerned with solving my problem.

Now that I have full connectivity I must say this is a pretty slick setup. Setup the chrono, attach the cord to the phone, and start shooting. You can put load data in, run a string and the app does all the math for you. From there you can keep your data stored and/or email it to yourself. The chrono and phone were connected for over an hour continually yesterday, and it had little effect on battery life so no problems there. I must say I am completely satisfied with my Caldwell chrono.

What do you mean by put load data in? Meaning it lets you separate/track strings, calculated ES, SD, Lo, Hi, shot count in string, and then has spaces to add your projectile/wt, charge, OAL, etc. ?...or something else?

That's exactly what I mean. In the app you can select "new group". From there you can add as many notes as you want such as powder charge, projectile info, whatever you want, then hit the big green START button. Fire as many rounds as you want in your string, when done hit the big red END button and all your data is done for you. One side of the screen gives all your string shots individually in FPS or MPS, the other side of the screen displays all your math including hi, low, extreme spread, average, standard deviation, and true MV. It even stores, date, time, temperature and barometric pressure. It also has a place for distance to chrono, ballistic coefficient, and group size if you are accuracy testing at the same time. It will store as much data as your device can hold, and/or you can email the results to yourself. I'm telling you this thing is slick. If I wasn't on the mobile version of this forum I would post some screen shots of my saved groups to give you some visual aids. Maybe I can put some pics up Monday when I have access to a desktop.

Thanks, Dave.

I went ahead and ordered one, will see how it goes. Will need to remember to put my phone into airplane mode every range trip, or likely have my phone go empty in the middle of shooting..

[rtp]

Anyone have these in stock? I see backorders and longer leadtimes at the usual places?

Would like to use 'Driod and chrono before the Area 8 sectional May 14th.

I ordered the premium kit from Midway with one of their discount codes.

[M852]

Have a ProChrono currently, which I still carry around in it's box (no carry case), and an overly large tripod...so the convenience factor is there to have it all packed up and complete in a single bag, if it proves to be reliable.

Biggest dislike is being unable to use the chrono in a useful fashion w/out a phone attached (single shot data only, no buttons, etc.)

If you've got a ProChrono Digital and an Android device you could try it with a Bluetooth interface and Android app.

[rtp]

Did you ever get your phone to connect? Most likely it is the mic settings under privacy. You need to make sure the app is enabled.

As it turns out I just got it sorted out Tuesday evening and had a chance to shoot it yesterday, and it was the microphone setting that had to be manually turned on. I did contact Battenfield and spoke to a product engineer who I went back and forth with for a few days trying different things, and I must say Battenfield was absolutely great to work with. You could tell the guy helping me was genuinely concerned with solving my problem.

Where exactly are you finding the MIC settings, and on which Android version?

The Android app definitely seems on the 'light' side, but the icon for the jack I'm assuming should be white vs greyed out?

Clicking on the icon pretty much guarantees to see 'disconnected' here, while selecting 'com retry' in app options seems to go into an endless loop across two different devices (4.0.x tablet, 4.3.x phone).

[rtp]

Dave - let me know if you'd prefer this moved to another thread - just had a Caldwell 'Premium' Kit show up here.

Haven't used it as of yet, but initial impressions...

I like the overall package - this is one of the reasons for buying one, vs my ProChrono w/out a bag, larger tripod, etc..the Premium kit bag holds the tripod, chrono, sunscreens, lighting kit, cables, etc., in a fairly reasonably sized single bag/kit.

The chrono itself is made of the usual plastic, slightly thinner than the plastic on the ProChrono, but not by too much.

It's a bit more comfortable to grab easily vs the ProChrono, due to it's thinner mid-section.

I like the sunscreens- they're wider, and they have grooves in the plastic to store the screen rods in when not put together, a nice touch.

It has options for Meters per Second or Feet Per Second. Unfortunately, it's combined with the power switch vs being an independent DIP or other switch..not a huge fan of this, as there is no 'positive off setting,' meaning the Off position sits in the middle of the two powered On settings. Time will tell if I accentually eat batteries or not.

The tripod is small, but doesn't hold a candle in sturdiness to a $30 cheap Chinese Wal-Mart tripod. No hook on the bottom to add weight, and in general, it's cheaply made.. I wouldn't put my DSLR on it, ever, but - it's only intended to hold a much lighter chrono, so we'll see how it does, and how long it lasts. It does fold up conveniently into a smaller package, around half the length of my heavier/sturdier cheapie tripod. It also comes with the standard camera adapter to thread into the chrono for quick-release.

Powering the chrono on, gives a countdown of 5 seconds or so to get into the 'ready' mode. No buttons anywhere, so only the FPS will show if using it without a phone or tablet connected - no string chance/delete, etc.

On the software side...I've got it installed on an Android 4.0.x tablet and a 4.3.x smartphone. I can't definitively tell if it's connected to either. There's an audio jack icon, which is greyed out, and I'm assuming is supposed to color change once connected. Clicking on it just says 'disconnected.' There's an option for COM port reset, but so far, that just brings up 'COM retry' every few seconds, which leads me to believe the app has issues, or the devices aren't hand-shaking at this point in time. I did finally see the icon go white once, but only after it told me after multiple COM resets that it can't connect to the device, ironically after which clicking again states Connected [No Audio], so needs some more looking at.

A battery icon also exists, which pretty much doesn't read anything on Android, and just displays 0MV any time it's pressed. No help for the app, nor is it even mentioned at all in the instructions. Not that an app like this should need instructions, really..as of yet, I haven't been able to get it to recognize anything thrown across the sensors, which is entirely possible it's too slow, or maybe I need to set up the light kit. I do like the app recording temperature and pressure, although I'm curious of the data source, as I shoot in a spot with no cell or data connections. I also like being able to add in descriptions of each load.

Not exactly flawless nor a great app, but there's room for it to be corrected, assuming the hardware is solid. Assuming I can in fact get it to connect reliably, and it gets a reading from the sensors, will use it and compare to my ProChrono within the next few weeks. If it reads accurately, lasts at least a few years, and the software/setup is improved, might be a nice package.

Edit/adding - seems like I do have a connection to my phone now, although I'm stuck w/out a way to easily verify it - apparently I'm unwilling to throw something across the sensors fast enough to register inside the house (with light kit on and turned on). I'd also love to see it working with my tablet, as I too frequently forget to put the phone in airport mode (latest Android on Samsung made this more difficult to do :-/ ) so it winds up draining batteries quickly.

Anyone know the min FPS needed to register?

Edited April 30, 2014 by rtp

[dave33]

Dave - let me know if you'd prefer this moved to another thread - just had a Caldwell 'Premium' Kit show up here.

Haven't used it as of yet, but initial impressions...

I like the overall package - this is one of the reasons for buying one, vs my ProChrono w/out a bag, larger tripod, etc..the Premium kit bag holds the tripod, chrono, sunscreens, lighting kit, cables, etc., in a fairly reasonably sized single bag/kit.

The chrono itself is made of the usual plastic, slightly thinner than the plastic on the ProChrono, but not by too much.

It's a bit more comfortable to grab easily vs the ProChrono, due to it's thinner mid-section.

I like the sunscreens- they're wider, and they have grooves in the plastic to store the screen rods in when not put together, a nice touch.

It has options for Meters per Second or Feet Per Second. Unfortunately, it's combined with the power switch vs being an independent DIP or other switch..not a huge fan of this, as there is no 'positive off setting,' meaning the Off position sits in the middle of the two powered On settings. Time will tell if I accentually eat batteries or not.

The tripod is small, but doesn't hold a candle in sturdiness to a $30 cheap Chinese Wal-Mart tripod. No hook on the bottom to add weight, and in general, it's cheaply made.. I wouldn't put my DSLR on it, ever, but - it's only intended to hold a much lighter chrono, so we'll see how it does, and how long it lasts. It does fold up conveniently into a smaller package, around half the length of my heavier/sturdier cheapie tripod. It also comes with the standard camera adapter to thread into the chrono for quick-release.

Powering the chrono on, gives a countdown of 5 seconds or so to get into the 'ready' mode. No buttons anywhere, so only the FPS will show if using it without a phone or tablet connected - no string chance/delete, etc.

On the software side...I've got it installed on an Android 4.0.x tablet and a 4.3.x smartphone. I can't definitively tell if it's connected to either. There's an audio jack icon, which is greyed out, and I'm assuming is supposed to color change once connected. Clicking on it just says 'disconnected.' There's an option for COM port reset, but so far, that just brings up 'COM retry' every few seconds, which leads me to believe the app has issues, or the devices aren't hand-shaking at this point in time. I did finally see the icon go white once, but only after it told me after multiple COM resets that it can't connect to the device, ironically after which clicking again states Connected [No Audio], so needs some more looking at.

A battery icon also exists, which pretty much doesn't read anything on Android, and just displays 0MV any time it's pressed. No help for the app, nor is it even mentioned at all in the instructions. Not that an app like this should need instructions, really..as of yet, I haven't been able to get it to recognize anything thrown across the sensors, which is entirely possible it's too slow, or maybe I need to set up the light kit. I do like the app recording temperature and pressure, although I'm curious of the data source, as I shoot in a spot with no cell or data connections. I also like being able to add in descriptions of each load.

Not exactly flawless nor a great app, but there's room for it to be corrected, assuming the hardware is solid. Assuming I can in fact get it to connect reliably, and it gets a reading from the sensors, will use it and compare to my ProChrono within the next few weeks. If it reads accurately, lasts at least a few years, and the software/setup is improved, might be a nice package.

Edit/adding - seems like I do have a connection to my phone now, although I'm stuck w/out a way to easily verify it - apparently I'm unwilling to throw something across the sensors fast enough to register inside the house (with light kit on and turned on). I'd also love to see it working with my tablet, as I too frequently forget to put the phone in airport mode (latest Android on Samsung made this more difficult to do :-/ ) so it winds up draining batteries quickly.

Anyone know the min FPS needed to register?

I have an iPhone so not familiar with the android version. The chrono needs access to the phone mic to transfer data and on an iPhone 4s you have to go into privacy settings to turn it on, that was my problem all along. I only got the basic kit as I already had a tripod and figured I would only ever use it outside so didn't see a need for the light kit.

The chrono can pick up as little as 5 FPS I think. A good way to test the chrono is to take off the shades so nothing is over the chrono, get a flashlight and run it over the sensors, front to back. No need for any special lights in the room to do this, just run the flashlight over the sensors and you should get a reading, I usually got 10 or 11 FPS, depending on how quickly I moved my hand.

If you can't get it to work call Battenfield, their number is listed above in an earlier post. Those guys are great and really want to help you.

[rtp]

I have an iPhone so not familiar with the android version. The chrono needs access to the phone mic to transfer data and on an iPhone 4s you have to go into privacy settings to turn it on, that was my problem all along. I only got the basic kit as I already had a tripod and figured I would only ever use it outside so didn't see a need for the light kit.

The chrono can pick up as little as 5 FPS I think. A good way to test the chrono is to take off the shades so nothing is over the chrono, get a flashlight and run it over the sensors, front to back. No need for any special lights in the room to do this, just run the flashlight over the sensors and you should get a reading, I usually got 10 or 11 FPS, depending on how quickly I moved my hand.

If you can't get it to work call Battenfield, their number is listed above in an earlier post. Those guys are great and really want to help you.

I found an alternative - plugging in the light bars, then toggling the power on and off will get a reading. Not sure it should, but it does.

Have the phone able to connect, but still working on the tablet.

Good tip on the flashlight, though, as the data from the IR light toggling on and off is truly random/all over the place, be nice to see something more consistent like 10-20FSP, but confirmed I can at least get data from the chrono to my phone.