The Perfect Shot Timer

[Peally]

For 100 bucks they should last a hell of a lot longer considering what little they do. I eagerly await a timer model that can survive simple WI humidity and cold longer than 8 months.

[41magfan]

I had 2 of the old Rogers Timers circa 1980 or so that had manual setting dials.

Man, that's going back to the true beginnings of electronic shot timers as I'm pretty sure Bill's invention was the first one commercially available though I don't recall it being very successful.

[41magfan]

For 100 bucks they should last a hell of a lot longer considering what little they do. I eagerly await a timer model that can survive simple WI humidity and cold longer than 8 months.

Just as a point of context, my old Pro-shot timer cost the same amount in 1982.

[HopetonBrown]

Buy 2 timers from Brownells. When one stops working, send it back for their lifetime replacement guarantee and use the 2nd in the interim.

[41magfan]

Perhaps it's been mentioned here in the preceding 20+ pages (which I haven't reread), but has anyone determined what it is that's causing all these commercial shot timers to stop working?

I would guess that I've needed service on half a dozen over the years and the causes of the malfunctions varied. Significant exposure to moisture is a common culprit and was the demise of at least 2 .... a faulty circuit board caused another to act up .... one was completely blitzed when a muzzle break got too close to it while shooting from the bench ... and the others were simply wear and tear issues with the input keys.

In every case, I received great CS from PACT and Competition Electronics and the only harm experienced was the inconvenience.

[Fiddler]

This looks awesome. My buddies work with Arduinos all the time. How do I go about getting your code for the shot timer? Great work.

Code and a link to a video demo are available here:
https://code.google.com/p/arduino-shot-timer/

The code could definitely use improvements - I haven't really touched it since that last post of mine.

The biggest issue with adding the SD card support (something I still haven't gotten around to) was the lack of PRAM on the arduino - there are whole new generations of Arduino and Arduino compatible boards out there now, so it's probably fixable.

But hey - it's open source - so maybe someone else will come along and help me fix it.

[JLM]

Perhaps it's been mentioned here in the preceding 20+ pages (which I haven't reread), but has anyone determined what it is that's causing all these commercial shot timers to stop working?

THIS! And, what's is everyone buying these days? My friend bought a Pact, but haven't had a chance to play with it much yet. Seems solid so far.

[LittleLebowski]

Code and a link to a video demo are available here:
https://code.google.com/p/arduino-shot-timer/

The code could definitely use improvements - I haven't really touched it since that last post of mine.

The biggest issue with adding the SD card support (something I still haven't gotten around to) was the lack of PRAM on the arduino - there are whole new generations of Arduino and Arduino compatible boards out there now, so it's probably fixable.

But hey - it's open source - so maybe someone else will come along and help me fix it.

Goddamn, that's really cool. May I share out the link to this post on other forums?

[Peally]

I would guess that I've needed service on half a dozen over the years and the causes of the malfunctions varied. Significant exposure to moisture is a common culprit and was the demise of at least 2 .... a faulty circuit board caused another to act up .... one was completely blitzed when a muzzle break got too close to it while shooting from the bench ... and the others were simply wear and tear issues with the input keys.

In every case, I received great CS from PACT and Competition Electronics and the only harm experienced was the inconvenience.

I can echo this. While many last quite some time if taken care of there's no particularly durable ones that exist. The electronics simply can't handle moderately extreme weather or humidity. There is currently no "toughbook" of timers (WHICH I WANT)

[EMC]

Instead of reinventing the wheel, is there a possibility of making a shockproof/waterproof case for existing models like is done with smart phones? Maybe that would cause issues with mic sensitivity.