Lane

I'm not totally sure what you mean by this... My shot timer saves every shot string up to the point the flash memory is full. Let it time out, or turn it off; take it home. You can also log into the web interface over WiFi and download the data at any time; even while you are shooting if necessary (that's what I did the other day from my phone when it was cold outside). Not much of an update here; but the menus finally animate the way they were designed to. Every thing I have left is minutia; adding or deleting a single line or two of code here and there. Soldering connectors on the parts, and headers on the boards.

I tried; but got hung up on some code here and there. The rest of the parts either showed up in the mail today or were harvested from other electronics. Two blue boards and one green board are lithium battery chargers with and without protection, and a 3.3v DC/DC converter. The two red boards were lithium battery alarms. I broke the first alarm sounder trying to remove it, but I cut the second one off the back of the board, thereby ruining the circuit board but saving the alarm. This type of alarm is much louder and still frequency tunable; so that's settled. I had actually ordered 10 of those parts last week; but the order got canceled on Sunday because of low stock. Pretty much the only urgent matter left in some code is the menu system; which is the main user interface on the display. The software needs to differentiate which routine is running at the time; and process the rotary encoder and button presses accordingly. Then to build some portable battery powered units for some more real world testing...

I was initially a bit concerned about those rings on the neck of the brass; I hadn't ever noticed them before. I just looked at some of the brass from my latest 7.62x39 AR build though; and I see the same rings give or take. I did check the headspace on that build before firing; and the bolt closed snug on the Go gauge, and not at all on the No Go. My very first round was a nightmare to extract; but they got much easier as I fired it a few times. My anecdotes are no substitute for getting the headspace checked; but I suspect you are in a good spot, and just need to break it in. Light primer strikes when cycling rounds is not something I've experienced. I do remember reading that the Armalite AR-10 has a sprung firing pin to prevent that from happening. Someone else would have to chime in about compatibility of that part in your build though.

I'm not sure if I'll have this finished by the time the show opens or not. I do get a few bonus hours since it's in a different time zone. I ran into a fair number of glitches trying to get everything running flawlessly. A few strange ones where it would crash after five, or thirty minutes of run time. That stuff is all resolved once again; but adding the rotary encoder hardware made it crash too. What do you know, the internal pullup resistors are apparently too weak. Now; even with encoder/button interrupts enabled, the shot timing code is still stable. I think everything else is cosmetic from here. A bit of parsing data in the shot timer programs, and menu code is pretty much all that's left. That and turning off all my debug code for speed and elegance. I had forgotten there wasn't mail on Monday; still missing a few minor pieces of hardware, the loud buzzers, and LiPo charging boards.

Sounds good; I'll try to land well better than that.

Carbon based; or plastic type? I'm just fine with less lead in the projectile.

So even a 10 minute window is acceptable? Does anyone's pager style shot timer do better than 1ms resolution?

I'm definitely good with a big long shot string; should be able to diagnose full auto fire too. I never thought about an auto-shutdown time. That would do a lot in terms of battery savings. How long do you care about leaving it on and running? That was and still is a huge issue in terms of RAM calculations which I haven't finished yet.

This one's for you sir. I just got a powder trickler in the mail yesterday. I think it needs a larger size stepper motor to make it look nice; but I'm not paying someone $200 to attach a rubber band between a motor and a trickler. If you've ever seen or heard a 3d printer run; you'll know stepper motors can be made to sing. That could help ensure single kernel output and perhaps help reset any scale errors with the vibration.

Oh yeah; that's close to how I ran my game in the cold weather. Shooting from a rest is a waste of time to setup in the winter since my body temp and motor skills get worse by the second out there. I put the shot timer directly in front of my barrel, between me and the target. When it goes off I echo-locate to the target the best I can, shoulder the rifle, drop the bolt on a magazine; and fire when I can see the target clearly. Similar game when already prone would involve inspecting the ground around you, hearing the buzzer, grab the rifle, etc...

That's how this timer works as well. I thought I remember you saying earlier you can press GO and let it run all day long though. I had to add a few extra settings to make this run consistently with both loud and quiet shots. The 7.62x39 build is significantly quieter than my .308 AR which clued me in to that. It really happened because I'm not processing any kind of delay after the initial shot peak shows up; I'm aware there should be a dead space to let the shot ring out and echo back. The quiet stuff needs a much smaller shot threshold (volume) which, if set improperly, can lead to multiple readings per shot on large calibers. I actually built auto-threshold into the code early on; but it never really worked the way I wanted it to. Something I want to revisit after this next bit... That all lead me to add a second piezo shot pickup to the build. After thinking about it; there is no reason not to add a third and call it 3D sound. Those extra pickups are very cheap and fit into the case perfectly. That also allows me to look at each shot in more detail to determine it if was really a gunshot, or something less explosive; like getting slapped by an angry primate, or dropping the shot timer on a rock. I was pretty sure you needed to have that worked out already... "Copper" grounding rod is really steel core; but C101 is about $24 a foot in 5/8"; if each one is 3" long that's about $6 per projectile. I'll turn some test projectiles on the Unimat when I get all this other stuff all finished up, (just for fun of course). ... 911 grains to grams is about 60; thats about two troy ounces, a forged gold projectile would be about $2,570 a round; but silver on the other hand is closer to $31 a pop. You know; just in case...

No you're not. You make guns. I only fabricate my own stock. I only want a set of reloading dies for that 500 Blackout before I can commit. And I also need a kit so I can build it myself. No barrel threads thanks to NYS law.

No "draw" for me. Shouldering a rifle for the time being. But yes; I can see how every motion counts. Tell me about how many calibers you shoot with your shot timer. If you set it to record all day; do you have to adjust it at all? It is perfect with a quiet .22 through whatever monster cannon you guys have going off now and then? Shooting a shot timer is more fun than I wanted it to be. I only wanted to illustrate how much slower my 7.62x39 straight pull was. Thanks for the gas tube roll pin Sir.

It was still on my screen to post again when I sat back down. I didn't click submit twice.

I wasn't talking trash with the grain of rice post. This is all chinese hardware with an American fabricator. I always buy two or three of everything when I work with electronics because you never know if you'll get a dud. It also helps with testing and swapping things around to make it work right in the end. Every single one of the piezo shot sensors I got are wired backwards; which means, applied backwards on the brass plate substrate. Sold as seconds for cheap; you just have to figure it out; the red wire is ground, or else you'll get a negative voltage. That could fry the micro on a bad day. This shot timer build has been running 72 hours nonstop on the demo loop; and no crashes or false shots read. Memory management is pretty solid. I'm going to get back to work. Can you shoot in Vegas? Last time I was there it was 110F and I was sweating.

I wasn't talking trash with the grain of rice post. This is all chinese hardware with an American fabricator. I always buy two or three of everything when I work with electronics because you never know if you'll get a dud. It also helps with testing and swapping things around to make it work right in the end. Every single one of the piezo shot sensors I got are wired backwards; which means, applied backwards on the brass plate substrate. Sold as seconds for cheap; you just have to figure it out; the red wire is ground, or else you'll get a negative voltage. That could fry the micro on a bad day. This shot timer build has been running 72 hours nonstop on the demo loop; and no crashes or false shots read. Memory management is pretty solid. I'm going to get back to work. Can you shoot in Vegas? Last time I was there it was 110F and I was sweating.

The plastic box is the fastest build. I was thinking earlier today that I should try to get it done before the opening of the show. There is a bit of electrical tape involved in making this current build work on the inside; I guess I can add a piece of duct tape too. You got it. I have a whole string of new updates on this build; but it's better if I just keep working and get it done. All I can say is; this B works! Also, it's definitely going to become a part of my daily shooting routine. I had no idea how bad my reaction times were.

There is one of these with your name on it, gratis; with an easter egg in software and hardware if you want it. You just need to choose the enclosure Sir.

I saw some .338 Lapua ammo at the gun store the other day when I had to wait around, (very busy almost every time I go)... I guess that will be a new mountain to climb for me, but I'm game; it's kind of a hard cartridge to ignore. And you already have me pricing parts on a .260 build; just because I can make the ammo...

I should have mentioned I have a 5 round ACS .308 magazine for hunting. I honestly don't care about the 5th round. I use magpul polymer magazines for almost everything else myself. Adjusting a metal magazine can't hurt (and might be necessary); but it should last a lifetime after that. You could also just shoot 1,000 rounds and see if it gets better. That is why I didn't fret over my feed lips at all; I'm pretty sure it will get better with age.

Fantastic! I have more questions; but I'll let the dust settle first. I don't think you'll have any trouble attracting attention at the show, this is so BA!

Do you plan to load solid copper, or is it for testing/demonstration purposes? Years ago; I looked at trying to reduce lead in projectiles because I like to shoot at home. Certainly not a lot of lead free ammo on the shelves around here... But if this is a realistic option; you might have made my day. That gun is hot looking by the way; I don't know why I haven't tried a handguard that extends out to the barrel length on a build yet. I can't tell for sure if that lower is longer than standard or not; the magazine catch makes it look long. I do see a radius at the rear... I can only guess that it might be a different cut on a DPMS style 308 type lower?

Every time you trickle an update this just keeps getting better; and it was already off the charts. I have to ask; are those solid copper projectiles pictured above?

Getting ready to wrap up the first version of the shot timer hardware. I have to solder on some connectors and header pins yet, and I'm waiting for a lithium charger and voltage regulator module; plenty of room inside for both. The big white thing is a foam spacer to keep things intact until I can design a suitable skeleton or tray to hold all the components in place where they need to be. I also need to 3d print some button hats for the tact switches, and drill for those controls and USB port; the only one currently punched is the jog wheel. Quite frankly I'm less than sold on this particular case material and design. It was convenient because that's what the microcontroller shipped in; but either wood or metal would be better in the long run. The case is currently less than 2" wide, so if I used a hardwood 2x4 I could get ~35 cases out of a 6' board. That comes out to about $0.60 a piece for a wood enclosure. Finding a pre-made aluminum enclosure in these specific dimensions isn't quite as simple. It would probably have to be either a custom build or a redesign of the internals to fit what is available. I updated my CAD drawing to match this current prototype, and another with top side controls which also appears to be an option in terms of fitment and ease of use.

I've had issues with my .308 ACS mag. I have yet to modify the feed lips at all, but I had to file the mag catch hole to even make it work. I am sure that polishing the feed lips on mine would be enough to fix it; but a slight bend wouldn't hurt. The quality on the magazine was great, just needs to be adjusted. On a side note; I can't even load the last round in mine because it's so tight in the wrong way.