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Thread: The Perfect Shot Timer

  1. #1
    We are diminished
    Join Date
    Feb 2011

    Cool The Perfect Shot Timer

    It is safe to say that I have used, abused, and broken just about all of the shot timers on the market. Over the course of two years I had four CED7000s die on me. The Pocket Pro IIs I bought fourteen months ago both died on the same day last weekend.

    The shooting world needs a better shot timer.

    What are some features we'd like to see? Here is a starting list from my perspective:

    Durability. We use these things for outdoor sporting activities and military/LE training. They need to work in the heat and the cold, the rain, the mud, and the sand. They need to be tough enough to withstand getting dropped on concrete from shoulder height. If my cell phone and iPod can work for hours a day every day for years, I'd really like a shot timer that can put in at least 500 full days of range use before it craps out.

    User interface. The current trend toward having minimal number of buttons and driving everything through complicated menus is annoying. I shouldn't have to memorize a 20-page manual to set a PAR time. The CED 6000 was one of the best for this. You could set fixed/random/instant for the buzzer and both set & clear PAR times without going into any menus. I don't mind menus for semi-permanent settings but the stuff you want to change from drill to drill should be accessible through hardware.

    Display. Needs to be readable under all lighting conditions (backlight could be something that was menu-activated). Primary display should be big and readable enough for the 60-something crowd that often volunteer their time to help run matches. An option (again could be menu-driven) to display either just the overall time or a more comprehensive list of data like on a Pocket Pro II would be a plus. Seeing first shot, last split, and number of rounds fired without having to page through menus is nice.

    Size & weight. As long as I can hold it in my hand and toss two in my range bag without taking up inordinate amount of space, I'm happy. The trend toward tiny little timers is probably one big reason they've become so dang fragile. I know that small is cool, but I'm not willing to compromise on durability or functionality just to have something tiny.

    Sensitivity. Needs to have the ability to adjust sensitivity from as quiet as a dry-fire or airsoft shot to being useful at a public indoor range. The Pocket Pro II does this fairly well; I use mine at a very busy indoor range regularly and it picks up my pistol without picking up nearby rifles if I get the sensitivity settings right. This could be menu-driven. Bonus if you set up "profiles" so instead of changing three settings each time I could just have custom-set Indoor, Outdoor, and Dry-Fire options. Sensitivity absolutely must be adjustable digitally; one of the PACT Club Timer's and CED 6000's greatest failures is the difficulty of changing sensitivity.

    Loudness. Along the same lines, it needs to be loud enough that people can hear it while wearing muffs and plugs at an indoor range. As a plus, adjustable loudness would be nice for those times when someone wants to dry-fire in the basement without shaking the house with a monstrous BEEEEEEP! every ten seconds.

    Memory. The timer needs to record multiple runs. The Pocket Pro II's lack of this capability is a major negative. The CED7000 handles this well.

    Data transfer. Bluetooth connectivity would be ideal. Failing that, how about storing data on a micro-SD card? I'd like the ability to take, say, all of my students' FAST runs and just dump them into my computer. Better yet, Jesus will personally come down and shake your hand if you can integrate it with my iPad. Plus that would open up a whole world of app possibilities to partner with your awesome new shot timer. Heck, even a mini-USB port would be better than nothing.

    Battery. Absolutely positively must take common batteries available at 7-11 or the local grocery store. 9V or AA are best. Personally, I'd be fine with 123s as well but not everyone keeps 50 of those lying around. Rechargeables are right out. No matter how long you think they'll hold a charge, they won't. And I don't want to drag another charging cable everywhere I go. Nothing recharges as fast as a battery swap.

    Price. Honestly, I don't care. If you could provide all of this wish list for $350 -- which is about three times the price of a current timer -- I'd buy two. If you could do it all for $200 or so, most people would be willing to spend the extra $70-80 for that level of functionality and durability.
    Last edited by ToddG; 05-19-2011 at 10:29 AM.

  2. #2
    Bluetooth syncing via an app on your mobile device is long overdue. If said app integrated with say...Dropbox or any other type of cloud storage, that would be perfect.
    #RESIST

  3. #3
    Dot Driver Kyle Reese's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Central Virginia
    Any timer that shaves .5 seconds off any of my runs......

  4. #4
    Site Supporter MDS's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Terroir de terror
    Needs to support Mississippi timing - I just did the FAST in 0.63 seconds. Approximately.

    In all seriousness, though. I'm not Todd, I don't make a living with my shot timer. But I'd buy at least one, even at the $350 price tag, if it had all these features. I use my shot timer every day, and for everything I do with it, I'm always compromising or working around a limitation of the timer. Doing dry fire? No option but par. Doing live fire? Everybody with a rifle is now a jerk. Want to track my progress? This is the only hobby on the planet where a pad and pencil is the most reasonable option for storing a day's worth of data. (On this last point, I'm seriously considering an iPad specifically so I can transcribe my times only once. It's ridiculous that I have to transcribe them at all...)

  5. #5
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Northern Virginia
    In addition to the features already mentioned, I liked having "spy mode" on the CED 7000. Spy mode allowed me to gather data at matches without bothering the RO to look at the stage timer.

  6. #6
    A CED7000, that doesn't feel like it's made from the parts of a cheap chinese knockoff gameboy, with a common replaceable lithium ion battery, say, from an android phone, so it can be ordered and just swapped when it finally tops out its recharge cycles, and the ability to transfer it's recorded date in real time or off its memory, through a cable, an attachable bluetooth module, or the microSD card that's crammed in the back.

    All of this technology currently exists and is common in the cell phone world. I'd happily pay ~$350 for a timer like this.

    I always find it depressing whenever I pick up any timer. They all look and function as if they were designed and made in 1995, if not earlier. (Except the CED7000, that looks like it was made in 2001 in Taiwan.)

  7. #7
    Going along with the profiles, there should be an obvious 'easy button' for competition ROs who pick up the timer for the first time in a match. This should set the sensitivity appropriately for an outdoor pistol bay, disable any par times, set instant start, turn the beep volume to max,and put the display in 'time as big as possible and no other clutter' mode.

    Adding to your durability standards, make it waterproof to IPX7 (immersion at 1m for 30 min).

    My day job is writing software for devices like this, so if you decide to make an official PFC timer, give me a shout.

    ETA: reasonable people can differ on rechargable vs battery. Maybe an internal charging circuit for NiMH AAs?

  8. #8
    Site Supporter MDS's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Terroir de terror
    Quote Originally Posted by jar View Post
    My day job is writing software for devices like this, so if you decide to make an official PFC timer, give me a shout.
    Maybe we could recruit some folks from, e.g., hackaday to make an open-source, community-designed shot timer that doesn't suck?

  9. #9
    Site Supporter Jay Cunningham's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Must have the following features:

    • foliage dark taupe
    • aggressive stippling
    • free floating
    • M1913 rail
    • kydex AIWB case
    • interchangeable backstraps

  10. #10
    Don't forget an ASAP plate, so I can wear it on my super sweet Magpul sling!

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