New tool - labradar

Just received my new "chrono" a labradar.  The earliest I will be able to test it out is next week, and I'll post a review when done.

Labradar is a personal doppler radar that can track your bullet up to 100 yards.   The main reason I bought it is you set it up next to you, not forward of the line, so you can set it up and take it down without having the line go cold AND you can chrono and ransom rest at the same time  - very difficult to do with screens.  Plus the main range I use is considering not allowing ANYTHING including chronos forward of the firing lines.  

Not cheap at 2X the price of a CED Millennium 2 with IR sky screens.  I was planning on buying a MagnetoSpeed for my rifles and decided to buy this instead because it will work with the pistols too (even archery), one unit for everything.  So I will probably be selling my CED-2 once this is fully tested.

- Dave

I've been following this since it was first presented at the 2015 shotshow
https://www.facebook.com/mylabradar/

For a second there I thought you where talking about dogs:)  Let us know how your new tool works.

Dronning what kind of money are you talking for that unit?

Skid wrote:Dronning what kind of money are you talking for that unit?

 $550.  $600 with a case.

Like I said not cheap.  I have an CED Millennium-2 that I mostly use with my rifles.  

I was considering a MagnetoSpeed so I wouldn't have to wait for the line to go cold to set up & take down my chrono.  Since the MagnetoSpeed will only work on rifles I'd have to keep my CED M-2.  It made more sense to sell my CED M-2 (with IR screens, battery pack & case) and buy the Labradar instead, which I can use for both rifle and pistol.  This approach will actually end up saving me a little money too. 

- Dave

Do you end up chronographing everyone shooting next to you also?

OldMaster66 wrote:Do you end up chronographing everyone shooting next to you also?

No, I did a lot of research on this, the unit projects a cone and if a projectile enters the cone to far down range (you can set this parameter) it will be ignored.  Also the unit is triggered by the shot blast and if the blast is too far away it won't start tracking.  It actually can give your velocity at the muzzle and all the way to the target.  You can set the increments it displays on the screen, up to 5 I believe, but it stores the continuous data of the shot not just the increments you set.

There are some issues getting the unit to trigger when using small caliber rifles (22LR) with suppressors.  Suppressed pistols even 22lr seemed to work fine - that's according to the results others have had.

Set up in relation to your guns muzzle and making sure the unit is pointed toward your target are the main things you need to be aware of but both are easy to get right.  Also some rifle calibers like the 45-70 do better when set on pistol mode - bigger slower bullet.

- Dave

Thanks, very interesting stuff.

I made it to the range on Friday to test the LabRadar and Ransom Rest some new loads.  Man was it busy there today.  On a day like this I would have skipped trying to even set up the chrono.

Opinion - expensive but I'm very happy with my purchase. It does exactly what it's suppose to do and then some.  So easy to set up.  Having a professional camera tripod really helped, but after using it I am going to make a plate mount for bench shooting, LabRadar sells a plate mount but I have what I need to make one.

At the Range:
The first thing I did wrong was to leave the manual at home, at least I thumbed through it when I opened the box..  This turned out to be a good test to see how intuitive the unit is to use.  It's menu driven, so by walking through the menus it was easy to figure out.

We had several rifles (.223, 22-250, .308) and pistols (9mm & 45acp) with different loads to test.  The .223 was first and I quickly found out I had to adjust it to the most sensitive setting for the .223 to work.  Everything else could be set at lower sensitivity.  One setting that is interesting is you enter bullet weight because it will calculate your loads power factor.  When you take a shot it displays muzzle velocity 5 other distances, that you entered in the set up.  Besides all the traditional chrono results it tracks the bullet all the way to the target.  This data is stored on a SD card that you can load into your computer for history or analysis.

Very easy to set up and use, in fact I was late getting to the range and my buddies were already shooting.  I set it up next to the first shooter and in about 2 minutes we were getting results.  Then I moved it next to the second shooter. The move and set up took less than 5 minutes with almost no interruption, other than to watch what I was doing.

Off to shoot pistols on the Ransom Rest and chrono at the same time - something I would have never attempted before..  My 9mm was up first I suspected some Atlanta Arms ammo I bought from another shooter was bad because I was having a bunch of off call shots and it felt like I was getting both hot and soft loads.  The chrono showed the spread was 225fps (1052 to 1278) and the groups were around 4".  The exact same AA ammo I bought from the factory was grouping around 1" at 50yards.

I just developed some new (to me) loads, 45ACP Zero 200gr SWC 4.1 WST, .469 crimp & 1.24 OAL.  Very happy with the results, they had a 20 shot spread of just 11fps and the 20 shots at 50 yards grouped under 1 1/2".  KC built this 45, Thanks KC!


- Dave

Testing the 9MM!

I just ordered one.  I tried entering "ronning" in the discount code.....but it did not work :-)

Chip

ChipEck wrote:I just ordered one.  I tried entering "ronning" in the discount code.....but it did not work :-)

Chip

Did you try all CAPS?? 

Greetings,

Out of curiosity, what Country is the Labradar manufactured?

Cheers,

Dave

From their website 
[size=48]LabRadar was developed by Infinition Inc of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada. Infinition has been the industry leader in Doppler Radar Technology since 1996 with products being used by defense agencies all over the world. Infinition Inc. has unique expertise in Ballistic Instrumentation Radar Systems and highly sophisticated software for the capture and processing of a ballistic event. High quality innovative products and services, timely delivery and superior customer support have all contributed to gaining customers and establishing our solid worldwide reputation. Our radar systems include the most complex long range multiple target tracking systems to small laboratory range applications capturing tiny projectiles at ultra high velocities. From this technology the creation of LabRadar was developed for everyday use by individuals.[/size]

Found a decent review

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2015/12/16/review-labradar-chronograph/


Chip

Found a couple of decent reviews

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2015/12/16/review-labradar-chronograph/

http://www.scout.com/military/snipers-hide/story/1535699-labradar-my-personal-radar

Chip

fc60 wrote:Greetings,

Out of curiosity, what Country is the Labradar manufactured?

Cheers,

Dave

Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada is where it was developed.

ChipEck wrote:I just ordered one.  I tried entering "ronning" in the discount code.....but it did not work :-)

Chip

Who has one in stock? Midway doesn't.

Bill

messenger wrote:

ChipEck wrote:I just ordered one.  I tried entering "ronning" in the discount code.....but it did not work :-)

Chip

Who has one in stock? Midway doesn't.

Bill

Ordered direct from Labradar.  Their site says they will be shipping in June.

Just ordered one. Now I can look like I know what I'm doing at the range. Shhhhhhh, Just don't tell anyone!

If nothing else you can come up behind your friend in their muscle car and turn it on....bet it sets off radar detectors:-)

I read a bit about that device. It seems to be light-years ahead of any chrono I've seen. Great technology. It can ignore other shooters' bullets because it's able to determine that they didn't originate from close to the radar. That company even makes some models to track projectiles while they are in the bore: amazing!

What's even more amazing to me is that it was developed in Trois-Rivières. That's the small town where I grew up. There is a medium-size university, but this small town is not exactly known for being a high-tech research center.

I'll be attending a match in Granby, QC, next week, and I expect to see some guys from Trois-Rivières there. I'll ask them if they've seen the radar boys test their equipment at the range.

Sorry for the delay in the update I should of added this a while ago.  

My experience has been very good up to this point, but unfortunately the unit quit reading/writing to the SD card.  I just put an email in for service we will see how things go with that.  Other than the SD card issue the Labradar is a joy to set up and use.  I have gone to the range several times and just set up to get chrono data and not even set a target up with a rifle I can use just use the target backer that is there and focus on a piece of paper target left behind.

I should note that I can still use the unit with the SD card issue, I just have to write down the results.

Would someone let me know if you can read these files.  They are CSV format.

- Dave

String of 6 Shots

Trace of 1 shot

Device ID	LBR-0000906
Series No	9
Total number of shots	6
Units velocity	fps
Units distances	yd
Units kinetic energy	ft-lbf
Units weight	grain (gr)
Stats - Average	1262.2	fps
Stats - Highest	1277.31	fps
Stats - Lowest	1231.17	fps
Stats - Ext. Spread	46.14	fps
Stats - Std. Dev	18.12	fps
Shot ID	V0	V10	V20	V30	V40	V50	Ke0	Ke10	Ke20	Ke30	Ke40	Ke50	PF10	Proj. Weight	Date	Time
1	1231	1202	1172	1141	1112	1090	386	368	350	332	315	303	138.23	115	5/20/16	1:30:44
2	1269	1239	1208	1176	1145	1116	411	391	372	353	334	318	142.49	115	5/20/16	1:32:53
3	1274	1243	1211	1179	1148	1122	414	394	374	354	336	321	142.95	115	5/20/16	1:33:08
4	1277	1246	1215	1182	1151	1122	416	396	376	356	338	321	143.29	115	5/20/16	1:33:59
5	1249	1219	1189	1157	1127	1098	398	379	360	341	324	308	140.19	115	5/20/16	1:34:16
6	1272	1241	1208	1176	1144	1114	412	392	372	352	334	317	142.72	115	5/20/16	1:34:35

I opened the file in Excel

Thanks Aprilian,

The V0-50 is velocity at 0-50 yards, you can customize at what distances you want it to record.  0 plus 5 custom settings, it will track most ammo out to 100 yards.  It also calculates the kinetic energy at those distances.

Please feel free to ask questions either here or PM me.

Disclaimer, I have nothing to do with LabRadar, I paid full price for the unit, I'm just a tech junkie!

It does what I wanted it to do.  Go to the range set up run my tests take down and go home without having the range go cold and wait for me.  I also mentioned before our range has banned putting anything but paper targets downrange, even chronos.

- Dave

Greetings,

Reviews I read indicated that the unit "may need" the optional external microphone to pick up 22lr. Especially the target velocity.

Also, some user's mentioned that shooting in an area with a lot of brush caused errors.

Cheers,

Dave

Update, I sent the service question on Sat. and got a response today with a couple of things to try which unfortunately didn't work.  Very happy with that kind of response.  Looks like the unit will need repair of the card reader.

On the 22LR and need of external mic.  the latest firmware addresses that issue with more internal mic settings.  It was not a problem for any of the 22 pistols I tried but I could see it being an issue with a rifle.

No brush where I am but lots of 3ft tall weeds.

- Dave