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Precision Rifle Gear Labradar - help

racerbart

Private
Minuteman
Mar 31, 2019
12
3
Florida
Hello,
Was working up a new .338 LM load yesterday and noted two small issues with the Labradar that I could use some advice.
Berger 300 gr. projectile. Suppressed. 100 yds. No other shooters at the range. No reflective surfaces.

Firmware: 1.2.7
iOS app. (changelog 2.4.1)
MKM sight
JKL trigger

All seemed to be working well. No problem triggering with this setup. No errors. When reviewing the data velocity plot graphs I see no data was collected at 100 yds and the graph just falls off after 75 yds. (settings 5, 25, 75, 100 yds). I rechecked the target aim was correct. I have worked up 223, 308 and 6.5 CM in the past with this unit and don't recall this issue. I did recently update the firmware.

A second minor issue I see is that when I use the app to get the Labradar settings it reports a bullet weight of 299.4 gr. instead of the actual setting of 300 gr. Odd?
I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app with no change.

Is there something else I should be checking? User error is not out of the question since I don't get the time to use this unit very often and have to repeat my learning curve each time. :unsure:

Appreciate any insight.
 
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I would try it without the JL trigger. I'd set up the labradar so the very end of the can was next to the Lavradar, I mean like 1mm away! Then it would register and be more accurate.

When I use my exterior trigger, if I flick my gun it sets off the labradar...

Try that, that's what we have to do with the Labradar and cans... the trigger drove me nuts
 
If your target is set at 100 yards, and you want to know the velocity of the projectile at 100 yards, it would make sense that the LabRadar will not be able to track the bullet once it has entered the target. Also, if your settings are set to track at 5yds, then you won't have a 10yd data point.

As far as bullet weight goes, hopefully someone else can chime in on that.

EDIT: If you simply are not able to get data points under 10yds, and I'm reading your post wrong, then it could be the bullet is not entering the radar beam before 10 yards (due to radar misalignment with the target, or a really big *true* radar/muzzle offset.)
 
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Labradar is weird that way it tracks some shots better than others same target
same bullet.

I was shooting at targets at 500 yards and the labradar was tracking the same 6.5 bullet
54 yards on the low side and 108 yards on the high side with most shots in between.

Use Excel and open up the .CSV files in the "TRK" subdirectory and you will see the
raw tracking data foe each shot.
 
I would try it without the JL trigger. I'd set up the labradar so the very end of the can was next to the Lavradar, I mean like 1mm away! Then it would register and be more accurate.

When I use my exterior trigger, if I flick my gun it sets off the labradar...

Try that, that's what we have to do with the Labradar and cans... the trigger drove me nuts
I was having a problem getting it to consistently trigger with the can on so I started using the JL trigger. At first I had the same problem you describe but after setting the trigger level to setting 3 it worked well. It triggers now consistently on every shot. Admittedly, I had the Labradar slightly behind and about 14 " away from the end of the can so that was probably not helping. I will certainly try it again the way you suggest next time out and see how it performs.
 
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If your target is set at 100 yards, and you want to know the velocity of the projectile at 100 yards, it would make sense that the LabRadar will not be able to track the bullet once it has entered the target. Also, if your settings are set to track at 5yds, then you won't have a 10yd data point.

As far as bullet weight goes, hopefully someone else can chime in on that.

EDIT: If you simply are not able to get data points under 10yds, and I'm reading your post wrong, then it could be the bullet is not entering the radar beam before 10 yards (due to radar misalignment with the target, or a really big *true* radar/muzzle offset.)
Sorry, my bad, typo on the 10 yds (meant 100 yds) I corrected my post.
I get your point about the 100 yds tracking though. Makes sense. I will try and see if it's tracking out to 100 yds on a 200 yd target then try setting it at 95 yds on the 100 yd target and see if that makes a difference.
Thank you.
 
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The yardage settings are simply distances which you wish to VIEW on the LCD display or in the app.
It does not tell the unit to only measure at those distances, it measures each shot from as close as it can for as far as it can every time.

You can see this in the individual .TRK files on the SD card along with the signal to noise ratio at each measurement.
If you happen to notice a pattern where the SNR is worse then better further out examine what is in the path on your range.
Proper and session consistent alignment of the radar to the target is the key to good readings.
 
Labradar is weird that way it tracks some shots better than others same target
same bullet.

I was shooting at targets at 500 yards and the labradar was tracking the same 6.5 bullet
54 yards on the low side and 108 yards on the high side with most shots in between.

Use Excel and open up the .CSV files in the "TRK" subdirectory and you will see the
raw tracking data foe each shot.
That data will be interesting to look at. I have not tried this yet. Do I need to remove the SD card to get the data directly or can I do it some how from the iOS app? I see the app has an Export Data selection under the settings but I can't seem to figure out how to get it to work.
It shows "no exported series recorded"
 
That data will be interesting to look at. I have not tried this yet. Do I need to remove the SD card to get the data directly or can I do it some how from the iOS app? I see the app has an Export Data selection under the settings but I can't seem to figure out how to get it to work.
It shows "no exported series recorded"
The full trk file view has to be done on a computer, remove the SD card and place in a card reader.
 
The full trk file view has to be done on a computer, remove the SD card and place in a card reader.
I had some time to review the trk files and found some unexpected things.
The trk file reports velocity recordings all the way out to 105 yds +/-. The berm is about 5-7 yds beyond the paper target so that would make some sense if it were able to track it beyond the target. All the shots look pretty consistent.

I'm not sure what to expect for the SNR. It is about 30-35 at 10 yds then falls below 15 around 50 yds and ends up around 7-10 at 100 yds.

The odd thing is that about 50% of the time if you look up the same shots in the series report the V100 and Ke100 are reported as "0". So that explains the graph error plotted in the app.

So perhaps a glitch in the software or an error on the SD card. I guess if all else fails I can try a reformat and reinstall the firmware?
 
Make sure your distance setting between the barrel and Labradar is correct.
 
I had some time to review the trk files and found some unexpected things.
The trk file reports velocity recordings all the way out to 105 yds +/-. The berm is about 5-7 yds beyond the paper target so that would make some sense if it were able to track it beyond the target. All the shots look pretty consistent.

I'm not sure what to expect for the SNR. It is about 30-35 at 10 yds then falls below 15 around 50 yds and ends up around 7-10 at 100 yds.

The odd thing is that about 50% of the time if you look up the same shots in the series report the V100 and Ke100 are reported as "0". So that explains the graph error plotted in the app.

So perhaps a glitch in the software or an error on the SD card. I guess if all else fails I can try a reformat and reinstall the firmware?
It won't hurt anything to do so. Most likely there was something else in the path (another shot at same time?) or as suggested radar offset was outside what the device was expecting (Setting for 6" and unit was at 7.5" etc). The SNR range is normal for small diameter bullets. With a quiet range and .22LR it will range from 38.9 at 6 yards to 10.3 at 185 yards for me. It can dip 5 dB at intervals when there was another shot or enough of the concrete target stand footers are exposed.

On your phone do you still have the legacy LabRadar app installed? If so purge all the stored data for it and uninstall it, then re-install the new app.

There are multiple reports of the inability for them to co-exist on the device causing incorrect view of data on the phone.
 
The yardage settings are simply distances which you wish to VIEW on the LCD display or in the app.
It does not tell the unit to only measure at those distances, it measures each shot from as close as it can for as far as it can every time.

You can see this in the individual .TRK files on the SD card along with the signal to noise ratio at each measurement.
If you happen to notice a pattern where the SNR is worse then better further out examine what is in the path on your range.
Proper and session consistent alignment of the radar to the target is the key to good readings.
Oh wow... the more you know. This makes way more sense than my previous understanding how how it works. Certainly going to check the data out now :D

Edit: This data is very useful.
 
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The radar tracks some bullets better than others. If your bullet is a boat tail, that is a big reduction in surface area to get a return from. Spitzers work better and larger diameters can be tracked further than small diameters.

You can set the radar to report on the 90yd velocity, instead of 100yds. 100yds is where your target is so there's a good chance it won't be able to discern the difference between bullet and target.

The radar works by extrapolating back to the radar when the bullet enters the arc downrange. Having the radar at the correct distance from the gun is important.
 
I was going to get a LR but i see way to many issues. I would hope they come out wit a GEN 2 upgrade that works. I may try the new AndiScan micro A2 The ANDI SCAN seems less finicky then the LR or I will just stick with the Magneto speed.
Please post what you find for a solution
 
Is anyone having any luck with the new app & update? I find myself using in manual mode mostly. I can't believe that's the best they can do to integrate with the unit. Very frustrating
 
Mine is working very well also. Biggest positive change I made was to purchase and use the Piet trigger. The other positive additions are a small tabletop tripod and mounting a red dot for aiming purposes
 
The new app is useless. Better connectivity but keeps freezing on transferring data.