I'm a bit late to this party but since I initially had problems with my Labradar, and those problems were subsequently fixed, I thought I'd share.
When I first got mine I had severe problems getting it to detect shots when using my 223 bolt gun. I had to put it very close to the muzzle and even slightly in front of the muzzle for it to detect the shots. I verified all the settings several times, trigger level set to most sensitive (Level 1), using Trigger (not Doppler) as the trigger setting, Velocity Range set to Rifle etc. I just couldn't get it to reliably register the shots properly, it was very frustrating.
When I say 'problems detecting shots' I mean that it would not register that the shot had been fired. When it did detect a fired shot, it had no problems measuring the velocity. It was only the shot detection part that was problematic.
I got on the phone with LabRadar and I learned something:
- There is no purely acoustic trigger in the lab radar. When you set it to 'Trigger', it will detect the shockwave / concussion, not the loud noise. Granted, a noise loud enough will produce a concussive wave but what triggers the LabRadar is more so the concussive wave from the gasses escaping the muzzle rather than the loud noise itself. (I say this knowing this might devolve into a discussion of 'shockwave is a variation of soundwave' etc. but as anyone having shot next to a muzzle brake knows, concussion + loud noise is experienced differently from loud noise alone)
This is why it worked when I moved the unit slightly forward of the muzzle. The noise level remains approximately the same but it gets exposed to a larger amount of concussion.
Anyway, what solved this problem in the end was that I went through all my settings with a fellow shooter, comparing his to my settings. In this process we started at the top (Velocity Units) and just went down the list, one-by-one and I re-selected each setting. As we went down the list, all of my settings were the same as his, except for the Projectile Weight, which I believe is only used for energy calculations, but I nevertheless re-selected all settings.
When we got down to the Trigger Level, mine was showing 'Level 4', not 'Level 1'. I know with certainty that I had set it to Level 1, at least 5-6 times as part of my troubleshooting, and also reconfirmed when I was on the phone with Labradar. It was now clearly showing Level 4, so I changed it from Level 4 it to Level 1 and since then it has been smooth sailing, no problems whatsoever. Shooting 223 I can have the unit behind the muzzle and off to the side and it detects the shots no issues.
I think my unit was somehow stuck on trigger level 4, even though showing level 1 in the settings, and going through and re-selecting each and every setting got it to start showing the trigger level correctly.
For what it's worth, here are the settings I am using:
Velocity Units - fps
Distance Units - yd
Weight Unit - grain (gn)
Select vel. range - Rifle
Set proj. offset - 6 in
Set distances - 10, 20, 33, 44, 55
Proj weight - 90 (or whatever I am shooting)
Arm time - 240 s
Screensaver - 10s
Trigger Source - Trigger
Trigger Level - Level 1
TX Power - Standard