Breathalyzer for smartphone:

[Lurker27]

A cheap arduino enabled chrono that did logging and such would be a very interesting product

[neftaly]

Thanks, but it's pretty much just a piece of pipe with some wires sticking out, connected to a board (hookup wires, I haven't even bread-boarded it). It looks really awful and the code is embarrassingly lazy - all I wanted was a data logging chrony That said I'll take a shot early next week.

Bluetooth is more for personal devices and isn't really a good choice for monitoring players in-game (poor range, expensive components, power consumption, poor security on pre-built boards, etc). I started on something pretty much perfect for this application very recently, will post about it in the next fortnight or two.

[Lurker27]

Awesome! I look forward to it.

[pbjosh]

I can RP some cases if we want testers.

Huh, this could be reallly do-able. Sweet.

[bronc]

We actually were talking with a company that works with doppler radar stuff on making an integrated chrono without a display that could link to your gun (i.e. the readings show up on your guns OLED screen).

It turned out the only viable way we found was to use a USB cable and hook it to your gun. Using bluetooth made it fairly big, since you then needed AA batteries to power it (like the size of the old hand held Radarachrons), and the 2 batteries died fairly quick. Actually this other company had done some R&D into it already.

WE had envisioned a tiny USB sized stick that possibly attached to your barrel bag and hooked to your gun via a USB, but it wasn't perfect. The old pre-shoebox shocker (by Pneuventures?) included a break beam chrono on their gun way back in the day, but it also require a wire running back to the guns LCD screen.

But this is something we're super interested in too.

Let me see if I can find the work we did on this. Mostly it was our ideas being shot down by this other company but at the same time it helped keep us from wasting time on unviable ideas.

[neftaly]

Tried to make something to slip on the end of the barrel like a suppressor... didn't have any properly-sized stock so I cut holes in either end of a deodorant can I found. Bad idea, the whole shop now smells like a high-school gym. Honestly should have seen it coming haha.



Bluetooth board on top, smaller micro underneath. Fits inside the can easily.
Can do it with a single board when the Nordic SOC's I'm waiting on arrive.

[pbjosh]

If you can do up some CAD, I have a Replicator 2 from Makerbot. I just need an .stl file and a few hours.

[Simon]

You'd be surprised at the things I have used to make prototypes over the years and the results. Destroying a deodorant can is a new one on me though.

Give us some more dimensions and I am sure we can help with the CAD if it's not something you can do your self. How it fits to the end of the barrel is always the issue with something like this because there are so many barrel sizes. I think we probably just need to make it so it hangs on for ease of use. How far can the sensors be from the bore? Making a version to use while playing would be a different thing.

[cockerpunk]

any way you could use the microphone to chrono?

you know, measure out ten feet, something that make sound when its hit, and then use the smart phone's mic to time the ball over that distance?

[pbjosh]

you know, measure out ten feet, something that make sound when its hit, and then use the smart phone's mic to time the ball over that distance?

I have been chewing on this, I think the accuracy wouldn't be to great, but it would get you within the ballpark. I might run some guess numbers, but the high point of the sound signature from the gun and the impact signature would need some clean signals.

Do-able. Accurate.... maybe not so much. Especially with different guns, and the potential for different distances. But you could use it. That wouldn't be too hard.