Post by oldspook on Mar 8, 2017 21:30:54 GMT -8
Summary: This idea is so convenient that I would rather have spent my money on this bit of kit BEFORE I got an X-Sight II. If I had to choose between the two, for me, it would be no contest the LRF would be my first choice. This tool adds accuracy and speed to ANY shooting setup whether that setup includes an X-Sight II or any other ATN product. It does what ATN says it does and it is simple enough to be a joy to work with in the field. If ATN has any vision at all they will immediately seek to include this technology into a spotting scope offering and a binocular offering.
The unit is well packaged and unlikely to be damaged in shipping.
It ships with a battery, a canvas case with a velcro closure, a wrist lanyard, and a user's quick start guide.
This is a 6x device with a FOV of 7.2 degrees. It measures to +/- 1 yard (meter) and ranges between 5 meters and 1000 or 1500 meters depending upon the unit you bought. It is waterproof and speaks Bluetooth 4.0. It fits the palm well. It is easy to focus the view. It measures inclination (degrees), range (meters/yards), and closing speed (to 300 kph/186 mph). There is a "fog" mode.
There is an application "ATN Ballistics" on the 'droid store and I suppose on the Apple store. It is a free application. The application makes the LRF a very nice piece of kit even if you don't own an X-Sight II (which integrates directly with the unit via Bluetooth). The app allows you to manage up to 5 different profiles of ballistic data. They are completely independent of each other and so could represent 5 different loadings on the same weapon or 5 different weapons or any combination thereof. The "canned" profiles are named: 22LR, 223 Remington, 308 Winchester, 30-06 Springfield and 50 BMG. The X-Sight II itself is not rated to handle the recoil of the latter two weapons. You can edit the profiles, including changing their names but it looks like the limit is five profiles. I have not found a way to create additional profiles.
When you first launch the application it scans for an LRF. If it finds it (because you have paired it previously and it is operating) it automatically connects. If it doesn't it stops at a screen and asks you to scan for the LRF. Touch power on the LRF and the application will find it and pair when you select continue. You are then taken to the profiles menu where you can select a profile or use the "current" profile if no change is necessary. You can also edit the current profile at this point.
If you choose to edit the current profile you will input the same information that most BASIC ballistics programs require; ballistics coefficient, zero range, sight height, and muzzle velocity, as well as bullet weight and drag model. The unit supports most common drag models but lacks support for GA and round balls.
The next screen is for environmental data... wind speed and direction are user inputs. Compass heading is provided BY THE PHONE not the LRF but does not appear to actually be used in the calculation at this point because wind speed and direction are input relative to the line of the shot (we think?) A little range time may be in order before any faith is placed in that last statement. The app is updating the compass heading in real time from the phone.
After you have entered the environmental data you can again press continue and you will be taken to a picture of the turrets of a scope. If your pairing was successful and you range a target the inclination and range will be transmitted to the application and the application will compute the turret corrections for your scope (either MOA, clicks, or MILRAD clicks). Unfortunately the devs are not shooters (obviously). While you can configure the app to compute MOA corrections and present them in MOA by electing 1 click = 1 MOA, you can NOT select 1 click = 1 MILRAD so corrections in MILRADS will always be expressed in 1/10 mil or 1/20 mil. I guess if you know that you can do a quick calculation in your head so... not a huge deal.
I WOULD recommend this device to anyone wanting a quick basic ballistics solution. It is "good enough" for anyone who does not include gyroscopic effects in their shooting solutions or who calculates them manually. The solutions from the app closely agree with the outputs of Strelok Pro, Applied Ballistics, and Chairgun when gyroscopic effects and Coriolis effects are NOT calculated. Unfortunately the application reports that the input range from the LRF is less than 30 yards when the LRF measures a range that is less than 30 yards. So the crossbow crowd takes another hit from the devs doing the ballistics software... That needs to be addressed by the developers. Note to ATN: Set the minimum range to 5 meters kiddies if you don't want to do proper range checking in your code but really... you are not a professional developer if you can't predict where the math will fail and capture that on your inputs.
Note: Realtime weather for the location openweathermap.org/api .
The unit is well packaged and unlikely to be damaged in shipping.
It ships with a battery, a canvas case with a velcro closure, a wrist lanyard, and a user's quick start guide.
This is a 6x device with a FOV of 7.2 degrees. It measures to +/- 1 yard (meter) and ranges between 5 meters and 1000 or 1500 meters depending upon the unit you bought. It is waterproof and speaks Bluetooth 4.0. It fits the palm well. It is easy to focus the view. It measures inclination (degrees), range (meters/yards), and closing speed (to 300 kph/186 mph). There is a "fog" mode.
There is an application "ATN Ballistics" on the 'droid store and I suppose on the Apple store. It is a free application. The application makes the LRF a very nice piece of kit even if you don't own an X-Sight II (which integrates directly with the unit via Bluetooth). The app allows you to manage up to 5 different profiles of ballistic data. They are completely independent of each other and so could represent 5 different loadings on the same weapon or 5 different weapons or any combination thereof. The "canned" profiles are named: 22LR, 223 Remington, 308 Winchester, 30-06 Springfield and 50 BMG. The X-Sight II itself is not rated to handle the recoil of the latter two weapons. You can edit the profiles, including changing their names but it looks like the limit is five profiles. I have not found a way to create additional profiles.
When you first launch the application it scans for an LRF. If it finds it (because you have paired it previously and it is operating) it automatically connects. If it doesn't it stops at a screen and asks you to scan for the LRF. Touch power on the LRF and the application will find it and pair when you select continue. You are then taken to the profiles menu where you can select a profile or use the "current" profile if no change is necessary. You can also edit the current profile at this point.
If you choose to edit the current profile you will input the same information that most BASIC ballistics programs require; ballistics coefficient, zero range, sight height, and muzzle velocity, as well as bullet weight and drag model. The unit supports most common drag models but lacks support for GA and round balls.
The next screen is for environmental data... wind speed and direction are user inputs. Compass heading is provided BY THE PHONE not the LRF but does not appear to actually be used in the calculation at this point because wind speed and direction are input relative to the line of the shot (we think?) A little range time may be in order before any faith is placed in that last statement. The app is updating the compass heading in real time from the phone.
After you have entered the environmental data you can again press continue and you will be taken to a picture of the turrets of a scope. If your pairing was successful and you range a target the inclination and range will be transmitted to the application and the application will compute the turret corrections for your scope (either MOA, clicks, or MILRAD clicks). Unfortunately the devs are not shooters (obviously). While you can configure the app to compute MOA corrections and present them in MOA by electing 1 click = 1 MOA, you can NOT select 1 click = 1 MILRAD so corrections in MILRADS will always be expressed in 1/10 mil or 1/20 mil. I guess if you know that you can do a quick calculation in your head so... not a huge deal.
I WOULD recommend this device to anyone wanting a quick basic ballistics solution. It is "good enough" for anyone who does not include gyroscopic effects in their shooting solutions or who calculates them manually. The solutions from the app closely agree with the outputs of Strelok Pro, Applied Ballistics, and Chairgun when gyroscopic effects and Coriolis effects are NOT calculated. Unfortunately the application reports that the input range from the LRF is less than 30 yards when the LRF measures a range that is less than 30 yards. So the crossbow crowd takes another hit from the devs doing the ballistics software... That needs to be addressed by the developers. Note to ATN: Set the minimum range to 5 meters kiddies if you don't want to do proper range checking in your code but really... you are not a professional developer if you can't predict where the math will fail and capture that on your inputs.
Note: Realtime weather for the location openweathermap.org/api .
