LED lighting for an indoor chrono?

[Cavediver]

Does anyone know if LED lighting will work for a chrono?

The existing setups I've looked at require extension cords and big bulbs; overall it looks like a pretty cumbersome setup. I was thinking about a 12v battery pack and a few focused LED lamps or MR-16 Halogens mounted to the base unit, pointing up at the sky screens. I'd rather use LED lamps as they require less current and don't get quite as hot.

[yoshidaex]

i'm not sure if LED will work but the IR units CED sells work great. Just make sure your sensors are isolated from any fluorescent lighting sources.

[Flatland Shooter]

I've not tried it, but somewhere I read that Brian and Robbie used a couple of flashlights. They were in a bind to chrono some loads for a match so they turned the screens from straight up to horizontal. One held the flashlights and one shot the guns.

As long as there is no fluorescent lighting nearby, it may well work. Shucks, I may go to an indoor range later this week to give it a try. The chrono on one tripod and the flashlights on another.

Bill

[Cavediver]

Bill,

I'd try it, but I don't have that many arms, or a long enough reach I'm sure it works fine with incandescent bulbs or halogen bulbs, I just didn't know if there's a problem with LED flicker, or if it operates at some frequency that the sensors don't like.

BTW, I think I found my own answer.

It looks like Midway has a (new?) "Shooting Chrony" set of LED lamps coming out. I could swear it wasn't listed there last week while I was researching this stuff

Yoshidaex, thanks for your input on the infrared setups. If I were buying a new one, that's probably what I'd go for. However, I'm trying to get a working setup with an existing Competition Electronics (?) model.

[Matt Cheely]

They should work as long as they're bright enough. The only reason you can't use fluorescent lights is because they cycle on and off too rapidly for the human eye to pick up on it.

[shred]

LED's don't typically flicker (over-driven, scanned, christmas lights, and other AC-direct-drive things excepted), which is the big problem with fluorescent lights, but you may have to match the response curves of the LEDs and the phototransistors to get a usable signal. White is probably the best to start with.

[SLM]

A friend of mine bought 4 battery powered LED lights that are for closets, etc. The have double sided foam tape on them and he stuck them on the screens on his Beta and it works just fine inside. I think the lights were like 3 or 4 bucks at Family Dollar or a store like that.

[Cavediver]

A friend of mine bought 4 battery powered LED lights that are for closets, etc. The have double sided foam tape on them and he stuck them on the screens on his Beta and it works just fine inside. I think the lights were like 3 or 4 bucks at Family Dollar or a store like that.

Very good to know. That's even easier than the setup I was planning.

Thanks!

[jmorris]

A few years ago I was helping my brother in law with a science project and we needed to use a chronograph at night. Using a shooting chrony we simply rolled a piece of white cardboard into a loop set the chrony over the seem, inside the loop, on a stool and placed a Makita (90 degree) flash light next to it pointed up, it worked perfect.

Edited March 13, 2008 by jmorris