Modifying F1 Master Chrony

[Bulletstarter]

I have been shooting and reloading since the 60's. I started with and still have an Oehler 33 with unshot screens that still works. However I bought an F1 MASTER Chrony for convenience. I was disappointed in the unreliability of it and bought the lighted shades. They worked fine on cloudy days but only God has control of the weather. Most of the days I want to shoot, the sun is out in all its glory. I taught and built all kinds of digital electronics. So I built a number of different screens to no avail. One day I had a "DAH" moment and found a solution to shoot in all kinds of light conditions. I simply made a frame and turned the whole Chrony unit upside down! The sensor is looking DOWN at the led lights and never misses a reading. If anyone asks, I will upload some pictures.
As I get older, I have more time to make things convenient for myself. I put a 12 volt lawn and garden battery in a plastic battery box and mounted 3 switches and 3 cigarette lighter outlets on the side. I bought a 9 v output cigarette lighter plug-in to power my chrony, a regular 12 v to power the led lights, and a third 5 v plug-in to power old cell phones. When I'm shooting my 20 practical, I mount a cell phone on my scope and another on my spotting scope. No parallax on the rifle and great picture on the spotting scope for my older eyes. I'm 73 and having the most fun ever working up new loads. Just started loading 45 long colt black powder and am having a blast! I really like this forum! Very informative!
I have made the boxes and modified the Chronys for several friends and they talked me into posting this.
PS: Now my Grandkids love to hunt prairie dogs with their cell phones mounted. They record the shots (and misses) and send to their buddies. My 20 practicals and 20 vartarg work great with cell phones but not 300 mag!!

 

[dgod]

I love the Idea... I have the Chrony Master with the Printer/Remote and Ballistic III Software. I am really interested in seeing what you have done to modify your setup.

Thanks
Dan

 

[Walkalong]

I simply made a frame and turned the whole Chrony unit upside down! The sensor is looking DOWN at the led lights and never misses a reading. If anyone asks, I will upload some pictures.

Pics would be great, never thought o turn one upside down.

I'm 73 and having the most fun ever working up new loads.

That's awesome.

Welcome to THR

 

[FROGO207]

Great idea! Thinking outside the box always pays dividends to those that want to do it.

My grandfather always said that there are more ways to skin a rabbit than there are rabbits.

 

[Bulletstarter]

It may be a few days to get the pics because I'm in the middle of my annual root canal, aka income tax appointment. I appreciate the comments and will take detailed photos and put together detailed instructions. I was a teacher for 29 years so bear with me if I over-explain. Thanks for the comments. Wasn't sure if anyone would be interested.

 

[Walkalong]

bear with me if I over-explain

No such thing.

 

[bullseye308]

Looking foreword to it. That's what makes this forum so great is different perspectives and different ways of doing things based on so many varied backgrounds. Different people look at the same problems and come up with different and unique cures for everyday problems and share them. Thank you sir.

 

[dh1633pm]

All I can say is is sweet.

 

[Bulletstarter]

I had a senior moment when I titled this thread by saying I have an F1 Chrony. I had an F1 Chrony and several years ago I got caught in a violent downpour, grabbed my rifles and forgot my Chrony. Several hours later I waded down to the Chrony which was underwater and retrieved it. The Chrony was toast but the lighted screens were fine. When taking photos today I noticed that I had purchased as a replacement a Beta Master Chrony which was written on the remote display unit. I sincerely apologize for the mistake. However, I'm thinking that turning them over might work for any Chrony.
I still plan to publish the pictures and narrative later this week. While looking on the internet today, I found out that you can purchase a Caldwell chronograph that is already inverted. Not sure on the price so I'm going to continue using my upside down Chrony because it works just fine and I already own it. Anyone reading this thread and doesn't have a chronograph might want to look at the Caldwell unit because it is already upside down!
PS: Haven't gone back to the 'swamp' to shoot but I do have weather alerts on my cell phone now.

 

[ants]

• If you have your chronograph on a camera tripod that tilts and the sun is out, you can always tilt the unit 90 degrees left or right to get it out of the direct sunlight. Just as Bulletstarter discovered that they work upside down, they certainly work sideways too.
• Another trick is to place a target stand with a sheet of cardboard adjacent to the chronograph, turn the target stand & cardboard whichever way required to make shade for the entire unit.
• Shooting Chrony and others have curved plastic diffusers above the unit, I stretch a notebook size paper over them like a barrel arch. It makes a nice big white backdrop, and shades the unit if the sun is directly overhead.
• I got wood dowels in place of the metal rods for the plastic diffusers. If it ever gets damaged or hit by a bullet, the wood just breaks and easily replaced. Hit a metal rod and it takes the whole unit and tripod down range a few yards (or so they tell me, it would be too hard for me to admit it myself).

 

[Bulletstarter]

Had my annual root canal (aka income tax appointment) yesterday afternoon and got my taxes done. This morning I finished taking pictures and now am ready to start the narrative. I've written all kinds of computer programs but have not tried to put a presentation on this site. So bear with me:

Taped Chrony

• Bulletstarter
• Apr 15, 2017

If you open your Chrony and turn it over you will notice several holes that need to be taped. In the photo you will notice that I cut the duct tape at the fold so I could close it for storage. This may cause a problem if you pick up the Chrony and it folds in the middle while you have it mounted because the Chrony is on the top and not on the bottom anymore. You may not want to cut the tape in the middle.

Screen Frontside

• Bulletstarter
• Apr 15, 2017

I made a form to hold the two light screens. The plate in the middle is a 5" square electrical box cover as shown by the ruler. The only box I could find had a knock out in the middle. It would be better to use one without the knock out. I drilled a 1/4 " hole in the middle and a smaller hole for a pin in your tripod mount to keep the unit from rotating. Drill the 1/4" hole first and then put the plate on your tripod and mark where you need to drill the other hole.
Plug in the jumper cable between the two light bars. That will insure that you get the correct orientation front and back for the light bars. I purchased a 4' x 1/2" x 1/8" aluminum bar and cut it into 4 8" pieces. You will need aluminum (do not use any hard metal pop rivets or you could damage the light screens) pop rivets to secure the plate to the light screens. It is very important to make sure that the rows of led lights are directly above the sensors in your chrony. Lay your chrony completely open on a table and measure center to center of the sensors which are in between where you insert your screen support wires on each end. I'm not sure if all of the chronys are the same so that's why you should measure. That is the distance you need from center to center of the led lights. Place your led lights on a piece of cardboard and set them exactly parallel and the same led distance apart as your chrony's sensors. Mark lines around the two light bars so that you can maintain those distances. Then, using the aluminum bars, pop rivet the plate and light bars together maintaining the correct distances. Be sure that the aluminum bars don't interfere with mounting the plate to your tripod. Depending on what angle you use for the aluminum, you may have to shorten the aluminum bars. They shouldn't extend beyond the light bars edge. (more later)

 

[Bulletstarter]

Part II

Screen Backside

• Bulletstarter
• Apr 15, 2017

This is the backside of the unit. There are some velcro strips on there because I tried using attached cardboard to shield the screens but it didn't work. That's when I decided to turn it upside down. You will notice chrony took the old sky screens and riveted them together and attached the led lights. (I noticed in Walmart that you can buy strips of red leds that you can put in your car that operate on 12 volts. I'm wondering if they will work on a chrony. You already have the sky screens without the leds. I'm hoping that some one has some of these leds and tries them out on their chrony and lets the rest of us know if they work. The operating frequency of the light produced would be important.)

Mounting Parts

• Bulletstarter
• Apr 15, 2017

Above is a photograph of the parts needed to mount the chrony to the tripod and also a picture of the 4 rods that I bent to point straight up when attached to the chrony.
My tripod did not have a bolt long enough to attach through the plate. I had to tip the top up and take out the bolt and drill through the tripod mount and the tipoff mount with a 1/4" bit. I then placed a 1/4 x 1 1/2" bolt through the tripod mount and tipoff mount. You can see the square head of the bolt.

Mounting Parts2

• Bulletstarter
• Apr 15, 2017

In the picture above I turned the tripod mount over and you can see the bolt protruding through the mount. I then lowered and tightened the tripod top so that it was horizontal with the tripod placed on the ground. The large fender washer is needed on my setup because of the knockout in the center of my electrical box cover. Next to it is a 1/4" lock washer and then a 1/4" wing nut. These will be used later to secure the completed unit to the tripod.

Chrony With Rods

• Bulletstarter
• Apr 15, 2017

Place the bent rods in the chrony so that they are pointed straight up.

Chrony With Screens

• Bulletstarter
• Apr 15, 2017

Attach the light screens to the rods as shown above. I never use a chronograph when its windy because I want the wind factor to be zero when trying new loads. In the next section you will be flipping the assembled unit over and it will be top-heavy with the chrony on top. I've never had an issue with it but if you shoot in the wind then you may want to put on some type of strapping holding the top and bottom together. Put it on the ends and out of the shooting area. Also, you may want to use camping stakes to secure the tripod legs to the ground and prevent tip over.

Flipped Chrony

• Bulletstarter
• Apr 15, 2017

Now flip the unit over as pictured above, holding the middle of the chrony and the light assembly together.

Chrony On Tripod

• Bulletstarter
• Apr 15, 2017

Now you are ready to mount the unit on your tripod. Extend the legs of your tripod and don't use the center crank to raise the tripod because you want the tripod to be stable and spread out as much as possible. Be sure all parts of your tripod are tightened and secure. Place the assembled unit on the tripod, rotate until the rotation pin pops through the plate, place on the fender washer and lock washer and secure with the lock nut. Be aware that the unit may be unstable if you don't have everything tightened and secure. The Chrony led screens are marked Front and Back. Front is closer to your shooting position and Back is away from you per Chrony led light instructions. Be sure to read the Chrony led screen information.

 

[dh1633pm]

That is so cool. I took the cover off mine and I could easily mount the display upside down as well. Thank you for posting the pictures.

 

[Bulletstarter]

Lost pictures to this post but now have them restored.

 

[LoonWulf]

Great info thanks for posting! If your wife gets up set about holes in her potting soil tell her it was the rats.....thats what i did

 

[dgod]

Superb Information, I think you did a great job presenting the information. Helpful, easy to understand.

I would like to know what & where the LED's came from.

Thank You for Great Information
Dan

 

[TigerCreek]

This is an excellent idea!
What type of LED lights are you using?

 

[Reloadron]

Just a note of many thanks for sharing that.

Ron

 

[Bulletstarter]

The led lights are from Chrony. As I mentioned in the article, I'm not sure if automotive light strips will work. The strings you can buy at automotive stores are longer and I would think that might increase the Chrony's field of view. Anyway, this is kind of a work in progress. My unit works very well. I already had the Chrony and the Crony led light screens. If I remember right, the Chrony led light screens were relatively expensive. So, if you don't have them, maybe some one else will come up with an alternative and post it here.
Anyway, thanks for the comments and the questions.

 

[Bulletstarter]

I forgot to point out, I used a low powered pellet gun on the potting soil. Don't try anything any bigger. I just got the thought that I didn't want some one thinking it was safe to use potting soil as a backup. I had 2 bags, one behind the other and only for a low powered pellet gun!!