ShotMarker, maximizing the service life

[davidjoe]

“Red, Blue, Orange, Green,
At the speed of light my 9 is seen;

To pull more targets they do not care, said the spindle to the paster, in despair;

Never again to the pits will they go,
As muscles succumbed to the I-Phone Pro.”


—————-

True now, so long as our ShotMarkers make electrons move.

We are some years out now, from the introduction of Adam’s Marvel, and the sun tends to treat 3D printing in general kind of like a Thanos Snap. Batteries remain mortal.

The solid state functions of the ShotMarker are fantastic. What are folks doing to and suggesting to keep these “alive”?

 

[jim1903a1]

My biggest problem is the audio cable connection jacks inside the sensor hub and microphones. The retention springs wear out and don't hold the cables. Anybody got a good way to get around this? I'm using a bit of duct tape to tape the cables to the target just below the microphones to take the weight off the jack. My target is pretty old and has about 18k rounds through it. New cables work the same and you can't replace the jacks.

 

[dcali]

The connectors have been the biggest problem for me even under light usage. I have half a mind to crack it open and replace them with something more suitable. The audio jacks are just not good.

 

[dcali]

My biggest problem is the audio cable connection jacks inside the sensor hub and microphones. The retention springs wear out and don't hold the cables. Anybody got a good way to get around this? I'm using a bit of duct tape to tape the cables to the target just below the microphones to take the weight off the jack. My target is pretty old and has about 18k rounds through it. New cables work the same and you can't replace the jacks.

I think opening it up and replacing the connectors with something more appropriate (maybe automotive connectors?) would be the best way. It's a bit of work, but they're just two wire connectors. Nothing fancy.

 

[VA_XTC_Shooter]

The sensors are set up where the cable comes out the bottom...with gravity.
Could you not just rotate the sensors so cables face up and plug them in tonthe appropriate jack on the hub?
Basically bottom left would move to top right, etc. But sensor location on frame would match hub designation.

 

[Rook 6]

The sensors are set up where the cable comes out the bottom...with gravity.
Could you not just rotate the sensors so cables face up and plug them in tonthe appropriate jack on the hub?
Basically bottom left would move to top right, etc. But sensor location on frame would match hub designation.

I believe you can unscrew the sensor from the base and rotate the base 180 degrees also?

 

[Liven The Dream]

Oh ! Those good old days ?
Heading down to Sacramento CA. State Mid-Range 99.7% chance Lickem and Sickem ?
ShotMarker in hand for Friday Club Match.
All that pulling, works up your appetite for Lunch.

 

[dcali]

The sensors are set up where the cable comes out the bottom...with gravity.
Could you not just rotate the sensors so cables face up and plug them in tonthe appropriate jack on the hub?
Basically bottom left would move to top right, etc. But sensor location on frame would match hub designation.

The problem I've had is that the fit is too lose and unreliable. it works most of the time, but occasionally a mic drops out, which is kind of annoying. Otherwise the thing seems pretty solid.

 

[NZ_Fclass]

Connectors are always an issue - in every industry, particularly where equipment is transportable. Take it from an old rock n'roller that toured with several well known bands in the 70's and 80's. Whether it be audio jacks, XLR mic cables-often the most reliable, various speaker connections and the bain of all - multipin connectors -40-80 pins (which soon fell out of fashion), they all needed constant repair. The Silver Mountain targets originally had the 'orrible BNC video connector. Terrible idea. Too fiddely - never supposed to be on a portable unit. There's no good answer. You are limited by the space available, the materials used to attach to the fixed side .

Mini audio jacks have a lot of advantages - a small hole in the equipment, reliable concentric screw fixing often with fibre washers, can be gold plated, usually a good solder connection, cheap and available everywhere. From the cable's perspective - again gold plated jacks are common and you can get a replacement from just about any electronics, music stores or RadioShack ( do we still have Radio Shack?).

The excellent XLR and it's smaller cousins from Neutric and others are good - but cost, size of the equipment side and fixings may preclude their use. An alternative or modification may be to hard wire a, say 6in cable into the sensor and fit a high quality connector to the tail - but you would need to anchor the cable securely, with a gland. The connectors would be then easily maintained.

When the connectors wear out on my unit or the club ones - I may come up with a different solution - but so far - so good

On a similar note....I hate the connector between the scale and trickler on my V4, Adam...it will be replaced!

 

[Alfred]

Match management software would be great, especially if it was directly integrated to send match data to the NRA.

Thoughts?

 

[NZ_Fclass]

Match management software would be great, especially if it was directly integrated to send match data to the NRA.

Thoughts?

I believe the Kongsberg target system already has this - but I suspect that it's government level funding...

 

[Walt Krafft]

A thin coat of dielectric grease on the connectors helps. It displaces moisture and lubricates the spring contact inside so it is not damaged. Also works good on the battery connectors inside the units. I have seen people just yank the cables out of the upper mics when helping take down targets at the end of the day. That can't do anything good to the cable or the plugs.

 

[shoot4fun]

The connectors have been the biggest problem for me even under light usage. I have half a mind to crack it open and replace them with something more suitable. The audio jacks are just not good.

I bought magnetic cables from Amazon for my Labradar. No more constantly exercising those delicate jacks.
I have no idea if they exist for ShotMarker but would be a big help if they did.
Like these:

Amazon.com

 

[Sandstorm]

Magnetic connectors or Mil spec stuff.....but I like Magnetic better and alot cheaper too.
Good point David on the Solar effects on all this stuff as well. Plastics don't do well in outdoor environments.

 

[Acyr]

I replaced the offending connectors on my mics. Connector is a PJ-392.
It does require some delicate desolder/soldering.

 

[dcali]

I bought magnetic cables from Amazon for my Labradar. No more constantly exercising those delicate jacks.
I have no idea if they exist for ShotMarker but would be a big help if they did.
Like these:

Amazon.com

I was thinking about swapping them out for something like these: https://www.amazon.com/Nilight-Wate...fix=automotive+connectors,aps,100&sr=8-3&th=1

 

[dcali]

Match management software would be great, especially if it was directly integrated to send match data to the NRA.

Thoughts?

It would be possible (and not even very hard), but would probably take some coordination with Adam to pull it off in a sane way. Ultimately, you have to submit the scores the way the NRA can handle them, so it'd be a two step process. (asking the NRA to be able to handle automated electronic data is a pipe dream). But you could have the shotmarker export the match results in a format that could be easily and automatically transformed into whatever format is needed.

The trouble is that if everything doesn't go exactly right during the match, you get a lot of edge cases that need to be ironed out, and that becomes a manual process.

 

[Ned Ludd]

I bought magnetic cables from Amazon for my Labradar. No more constantly exercising those delicate jacks.
I have no idea if they exist for ShotMarker but would be a big help if they did.
Like these:

Amazon.com

Magnetic 1/8th stereo jacks seem to exist...but the ones I found aren't cheap:

Angry Audio MINIM-MAGF 1/8" TRS Male Plug To Magnetic Connector

Buy the Angry Audio Headphone Disconnector (MINIM-MAGF), 1/8" TRS Male Plug to Magnetic Connector at Full Compass Systems. 0% Financing and Free Shipping on thousands of items!

www.fullcompass.com

Angry Audio MINIF-MAGM 1/8" TRS Female Jack To Magnetic Connector

Buy the Angry Audio Headphone Disconnector (MINIF-MAGM), 1/8" TRS Female Jack to Magnetic Connector at Full Compass Systems. 0% Financing and Free Shipping on thousands of items!

www.fullcompass.com

 

[memilanuk]

Wow, this is great timing!

I have my 'personal' Shotmarker, one of the older ones (side ports), and then our club has four 'newer' ones (bottom ports).

I don't think we've *ever* had a match where we don't have at least one target showing the warning message about one sensor or another appears disconnected.

We've replaced sensors, we've replaced cables, I've tried Adam's solution - buy their new, ridiculously expensive (for what they are, bog-standard audio cables, plus the slow-a$$ shipping from north of the border to the USA) cables - which do seat a *tiny* bit more firmly... but due to the way our cables route, there is one that cannot be served with a 12 ft cable - at a minimum it needs a 12 + a 3 ft'er.

This last weekend, we had a small local match. Half the targets had all new cables, and we did the 'tap test' on every single mic before we put the targets in the air. All targets had a 12+3 setup on one sensor, and I'd gone through and picked the splices with the firmest connection - and then taped them up for a more durable connection. The cables are routed through Cord-Trac on the back of the frames, and the top sensors have essentially a drip loop so the cables don't have six + feet of cable pulling down on the plug. Had to rotate or wiggle the plug a little on a few sensors to get them to work, but they all worked when they went up.

Not even an hour later, first shots down range... half the targets had 'sensor disconnected' warnings. By the end of the first relay, they all did. Even my older hub had it, and it *never* does when I use it for personal practice / load development. WTF?!?

Here's the rub. It's almost *always* the same damn sensor - top right. Which, IIRC, is the blue sensor - and probably not coincidentally, the one we have to use a splice connector due to the length of the run. My personal setup normally uses a 4 foot frame, so no extra long run that needs a splice.

Guess the next step is go find some 15 or 20 ft cables for that longer run, and try that. The problem is that due to our range setup, it isn't as simple as just pop the target out and try it - it's drag my 1-ton truck up to the range (I'm the only one that has a full size truck, apparently), get two people to man-handle the frame(s) into the back of the truck, haul them a half mile down to the pits, put them up, try it, take everything down, haul it back to the storage building, etc. And... invariably everything f'ing works just fine when testing... and then takes a dump on the day of a match. So much fun. I really love being embarrassed when we have 'guests' and our targets don't work 100% *again*

 

[shoot4fun]

Wow, this is great timing!

I have my 'personal' Shotmarker, one of the older ones (side ports), and then our club has four 'newer' ones (bottom ports).

I don't think we've *ever* had a match where we don't have at least one target showing the warning message about one sensor or another appears disconnected.

We've replaced sensors, we've replaced cables, I've tried Adam's solution - buy their new, ridiculously expensive (for what they are, bog-standard audio cables, plus the slow-a$$ shipping from north of the border to the USA) cables - which do seat a *tiny* bit more firmly... but due to the way our cables route, there is one that cannot be served with a 12 ft cable - at a minimum it needs a 12 + a 3 ft'er.

This last weekend, we had a small local match. Half the targets had all new cables, and we did the 'tap test' on every single mic before we put the targets in the air. All targets had a 12+3 setup on one sensor, and I'd gone through and picked the splices with the firmest connection - and then taped them up for a more durable connection. The cables are routed through Cord-Trac on the back of the frames, and the top sensors have essentially a drip loop so the cables don't have six + feet of cable pulling down on the plug. Had to rotate or wiggle the plug a little on a few sensors to get them to work, but they all worked when they went up.

Not even an hour later, first shots down range... half the targets had 'sensor disconnected' warnings. By the end of the first relay, they all did. Even my older hub had it, and it *never* does when I use it for personal practice / load development. WTF?!?

Here's the rub. It's almost *always* the same damn sensor - top right. Which, IIRC, is the blue sensor - and probably not coincidentally, the one we have to use a splice connector due to the length of the run. My personal setup normally uses a 4 foot frame, so no extra long run that needs a splice.

Guess the next step is go find some 15 or 20 ft cables for that longer run, and try that. The problem is that due to our range setup, it isn't as simple as just pop the target out and try it - it's drag my 1-ton truck up to the range (I'm the only one that has a full size truck, apparently), get two people to man-handle the frame(s) into the back of the truck, haul them a half mile down to the pits, put them up, try it, take everything down, haul it back to the storage building, etc. And... invariably everything f'ing works just fine when testing... and then takes a dump on the day of a match. So much fun. I really love being embarrassed when we have 'guests' and our targets don't work 100% *again*

Last time out with my buddy that has a ShotMarker we got that sensor message. Turned out we had shot a sighter plate beside the target and shrapnel cut one of the sensor wires.