Timers

[DoubleDelta]

I looked at the mother of all timer threads and all I got was confused. The thread is seven years old, dating back to when Brian-apparently-sold PACTs here and Flexmoney was a dealer. Now Brian carries no timers and Flex is saying that the CED 7000 is king. Is there something wrong with PACT that Brian no longer sells them?

All I want is a reasonably priced timer I can use with Steve Anderson's book!

Forgive the noob suffering from sensory overload!

Edited November 30, 2009 by DoubleDelta

[Glockcomma]

I've had a Pocket Pro by Competition Electronics for along time. It was cheap does everything I need it to do and has been really durable, all the clubs I shoot at use the same timer.

Tim

[JimmyZip]

I've had a Pocket Pro by Competition Electronics for along time. It was cheap does everything I need it to do and has been really durable, all the clubs I shoot at use the same timer.

Tim

+ 1 I'm using this same timer myself and am very happy with it.

[racerba]

Now Brian carries no timers and Flex is saying that the CED 7000 is king. Is there something wrong with PACT that Brian no longer sells them?

Brian not carrying timers may have to do with his agreement with the various companies (just speculating).

The CED 7000 IS king right now. But the pocket pro does a great job as a cheap durable timer, as Tim stated.

[Nik Habicht]

Back when I got my Pact Mk. IV it was king --- as well as offering a built-in chrono. A few years later that timer went away and got replaced by the Mk. IV XP, I think, and we started getting the occasional trouble report. My club bought six of the Pact Club timers to fix the heat related issues we were having with another timer's display. We went back to using the other, older timers, as we could not guarantee that half of the Pacts would pick up the last shot fired.....

If it weren't for the rechargeable battery (maintenance issue, multiple disciplines, not wanting to have timers die in the middle of a match), the club might have bought CED7000s.....

If you're looking for a timer for personal use, I really like the CED7000.....

[Jman]

Have only seen the Pocket Pro and Pro 2 used out here for matches.

TGO uses Pact timers (he endorses them) for our monthly drills. Kind of

a bulky ham radio type thing. I don't care for them much.

Jim

[Pat Miles]

I use a PocketPro which does everything I want a timer to do, is easy to use and fits my hand.

That being said I will offer a few nuggets of information for you to keep in mind while shopping. Be aware of the size of the timer. Some are big as far as timers go and are somewhat akward to handle. Some are also akward to start, having to push a button to ready the unit then push another button to start it. Another you have to hold the start button down and release it to get the start beep. I am not naming these brands for obvious reasons. Whatever you do make sure the timer you buy has a delayed start option as well as a par time. Both are necessary for practice on your own, dry fire and live fire.

Check out what your friends or club may be using. Keep in mind the above points.

CYa,

Pat

[Jeff686]

Every club and match I've ever been to are using 10-15 year old bricks. Most of them are heavy and ugly, and have an old segmented display with very few features. The reason they are so good for a club is that they are actually 20 year old technology, and therefore cheap and robust. They are a good choice if you want to toss it into a range bucket with some rocks and old spikes, or forget it on your truck hood and see it bouncing down the road in your rear view mirror.

Personally, I like something a little more modern with more features and a sleeker design and user interface. I really like my CED 7000. It has lots of features and is small and lightweight. There are several accessories for belt, wrist, and neck wear during practice. It is easy to use and quick to lookup draw and split times. I honestly don't know how it would stand up to club use over several years, but it is definately not shoddy or low quality.

Oh, and if you own an iphone, just download the shot timer app instead.

[Chris Keen]

I have a PACT MKIV and a CED7000 and I like them both but for completely different reasons. The CED7000 is very versatile and compact but cost a little more than than the Pocket Pro. The only reason to get a PACT timer is if you want a chrono/timer package. Very nice, but kinda cumbersome.

[DoubleDelta]

Thanks for all the replys! I think I have settled on the Pocket Pro 2. The price is right and based on the website it seems to have all the features I need for dry-fire.

[BigTinVA]

The Pocket Pro 2 is a good timer with nice features, but in my opinion the button layout is not optimal. The way I hold that timer it is too easy to inadvertently hit one of the menu buttons and blow the time during someone's run. Matter of fact I lent my timer to an RO that was running a guy on our squad and that's exactly what happened. The button layout of the older Pocket Pro makes more sense to me. Just my $0.02

[Greg Bell]

The Pocket Pro 2 is a good timer with nice features, but in my opinion the button layout is not optimal. The way I hold that timer it is too easy to inadvertently hit one of the menu buttons and blow the time during someone's run. Matter of fact I lent my timer to an RO that was running a guy on our squad and that's exactly what happened. The button layout of the older Pocket Pro makes more sense to me. Just my $0.02

I hold mine in the palm of my weak hand clip down. This keeps the mic toward the shooter, my fingers away from any buttons, and the biggest benefit is as the shooters run is finished I just rotate my arm up at the elbow and the time is visable over my shoulder to the score keeper as I unload the shooter.

[raz-0]

I'll give a brief summary of timers and their issues.

Pact MKIV - awesome, expensive, discontinued. Display does well in heat.

Pact MKIV-XP - Better display (more reflective backround material helps contrast at all angles and light conditions), and display also doesn't go black in heat. Logs a LOT of strings. If you are running it on instant, and you have logged a lot of strings (like say dedicated RO at a match), instant can have a delay as long as 12 seconds. I have reproduced this, and told pact how, and asked for a fix. They tell me it is impossible to reproduce. Effectively had to throw out $1200 of timers.

Pact club timer - horrible UI for anything but instant run of the mill timing. It does it, but setup is stupid. Display is very sensitive to heat (goes black), and so is the timing electronics. THey start missing shots and failing to start and start producing random results before it is obviousl that the heat is getting to them. A total waste of money IMO, also more delicate than they should be. Tried to get PACT on the line for some support issues repeatedly, had some forum folks try for us too. STILL haven't been able to reach CS in over a year.

Pocket pro - dead simple, display is heat sensitive and lacking a lot of info.

pocket pro 2 - not as simple a UI, but a good display that is easy to read under lots of light conditions, with lots of info, and does basically everything you need. Haven't seen the display have heat issues, and neither did the benosverse when I asked about it.

CED 8000 - lets you practice dry firing with headphones. Unfortunately ONLY with the supplied headphones (stupid move). VERY, VERY easy to read display in all lighting conditions. Works great clipped on the belt for practice. Beep is an odd tone. Some folks with hearing loss find this easier to hear, other folks find it harder to hear. Initial run had some issues with a stuttering beep which may or may not be fixable (call CED if yours has this problem, they will at least talk to you about it and try to fix it). Pretty complicated to set up, but does have presets to help you stumble through. Upside is that you can set up some pretty complicated par time setups for drills, probably more so than any other timer. Biggest design flaw is the sensor is right next to the beeper, and in about half the sensitivity settings, you will never have a first shot time without doing some math because it will actually pick up the pulses that make up the beep. Thus, it can be set sensitive enough to time airsoft, but you may not be able to use it for such dependant on the unit and the environment unless you are using the headphones. Additionally, it goes through batteries pretty quickly relative to other timers. not enough for me to care in practice, but I'd want plenty of spares using them at a match.

CED 7000 - Has a non-removable rechargeable battery and that is part of what makes it small and light. Unfortunately for running a match that means you have to manage the wall warts for all the timers. For multi-day matches, this can be a PITA. They make a AA battery pack for it, but then it isn't as small and there are parts to lose that make it not work. Some of the older guys have problems with the size of the device and positioning of buttons as well as reading the display. Under good light, the 7 segment blocky old school calculator style numbers are ok, but it can be a challenge as the display heats up. The display IS heat sensitive, but from what I have seen it is just reduced contrast rather than going black like other ones that are heat sensitive. However, haven't had a chance to beat on it on a sunny 95+ degree match day. I'd love it if it had a headphone jack, or given it's small size and wrist strap, a vibrate mode.

RU Ready shot timer - display is heat sensitive, and goes black. Controls are dead simple and do just enough for running a match. Some of them can be REALLY sensitive, which means you have to be careful of ejected brass and knocking it into your belt or other gear while running someone or wind up will a wrong time. Sure, you can review, but the way review works, it is easy to erase the string. This is the pre-2004, which doesn't fix the display, but does have a sensitivity adjustment. No idea if they fixed the shot review UI issue. Latest version adds random delay, but in general i wouldn't recommend it as a practice timer for anything other than live fire. If they'd put a more heat tolerant display in it, it'd be near perfect for a match timer.

I own a 8000, and I'd say the pocket pro 2 is probably the best combo of features vs. flaws out at the moment. If it had a headphone jack it'd probably be the one timer to rule them all.

[Sudden Death]

Go with the CED 7000, I have one and like it very much, has alot of good features. The IPSC guy that runs our matches liked mine so well he bought 3 for the club and we are going to get 3 more next year.

[DoubleDelta]

Thanks for all the info! Raz-o's post was particularly informative. Perhaps time for a new sticky?