Garmin Xero C1 Pro Chronograph, review after a year of use – Snipers Hide

Desk of Contents:– Introduction– Unboxing,Look, and Really feel– Ballistic Software program– Subject Utilization and a few Specifics on the Garmin’s Operate – Abstract and Conclusion

Introduction:

Garmin by no means says die. (Does anyone nonetheless get this reference?) Significantly although – few firms survive a seismic shift of their core enterprise as something greater than a shell of their former selves. Simply ask RIM or Nokia about that. Garmin, alternatively, survived the close to complete dissolution of the aftermarket standalone automotive GPS market they so dominated and rebounded to grow to be a bigger firm than on the peak of that market. It is a feat uncommon sufficient that I’ve seen their rebound talked about in quite a lot of enterprise and tech publications. Garmin’s survival and supreme success was a results of their diversification to merchandise effectively outdoors the core market by which their merchandise had grow to be so dominant and made a lot cash. Along with quite a lot of GPS gadgets, Garmin right this moment makes a big selection of smartwatches for various completely different markets, satellite tv for pc communications tools, marine navigation and autopilot tools, sonar, aviation navigation and autopilot tools, bow sights, train bikes, and a nearly countless number of different stuff, together with this Xero chronograph. That is actually an astonishing number of merchandise from an organization far bigger than is typical within the out of doors tools {industry}. At 42B in market cap, Garmin is definitely a extra priceless firm than Ford Motor. I can attest that, regardless of this large dimension, they’re far nimbler than I might count on from such a large firm. Generally, I’ve discovered that the bigger the corporate, the slower their communications response and the much less knowledgeable their persons are about each their merchandise and the {industry} they’re competing in. This has not been the case with Garmin. They’ve been each immediate and educated of their responses to my queries.

Unboxing, Look, and Really feel

Boy this Garmin chrono is small and lightweight. Within the Web parlance of the day, it’s lower than half a banana lengthy and weighs in at lower than half a banana as effectively. For many who bear in mind wallets, it’s smaller and lighter than these, too. It is going to simply slip into your vary bag finish cap pocket, although it’s possible you’ll need to discover some type of small ditty bag to guard it. Regardless of its $600 price ticket, the Garmin Xero C1 Professional doesn’t embody even a softshell carrying case just like the one which my $40 Teslong borescope got here in. For disgrace. All that’s included with the Chrono unit is a USB A-C charging cable (no transformer block) and a little bit plastic ¼” threaded tripod. The chrono has a regular ¼” threaded stud molded into the underside so you possibly can connect it to the included tripod or to some other ¼” threaded tripod. For what it’s value, regardless of its perfunctory look and full lack of adjustability, the little included tripod has really confirmed fairly serviceable for each bench taking pictures and for these little tables you get at standing indoor ranges.

The Garmin Chrono bodily structure is fairly easy. It has 4 good, agency, and clicky buttons on prime for navigating the menu system that don’t really feel like they’ll disintegrate and switch to slime in 5 years, a USB-C on the aspect for charging and for connecting to the PC Garmin Specific software program, and a black and white LCD show on the again. This display screen has each useful backlighting for indoor use and wonderful vibrant out of doors daylight efficiency. It doesn’t wash out or mirror and glare like many shows. I’ve discovered the navigation of the inner menu fairly easy. It has a simple wizard to arrange recording on a brand new shot string and a pleasant historical past of earlier strings. These are organized by the routinely recorded date and time of the string. You may view all of the pictures in a string and take away pictures from strings fairly simply, in addition to view the principal variable resembling ES, SD, Imply, Min, and Max. You don’t seem to have the ability to add new pictures to an previous string, although, resembling you would possibly need to do when you paused taking pictures a rifle to let it calm down and needed to shoot one other rifle whereas it cooled whereas taking information on each rifles. You may pause and restart strings to go down vary or one thing, however you possibly can’t take information in between. This, and the truth that the bullet weight you enter when organising a string doesn’t present up on the string historical past within the unit, are my solely complaints in regards to the in-chrono software program. It’s fairly good and I nearly at all times used the chrono unconnected to the telephone software.

Now let’s get to the largest poor design determination. As you’ll have guessed, the battery is sadly not of the simply replaceable selection. It’s a rechargeable inner lithium ion like many cell telephones have. You need to partially disassemble the chrono if it’s worthwhile to get at it. Moreover, Garmin doesn’t provide a battery substitute service, nor do they instantly promote replacements. Thankfully, a few of our helpful discussion board customers have completed a little bit reverse engineering and located the battery to be a reasonably commonplace sized (not less than for the second) 820mAh 3.7V battery pack that may be had on-line for round $25. There does look like some ungluing concerned in a battery substitute, so care would should be taken to not injury issues, because the battery seems to be glued on or close to the again of the show. I’ve checked with Garmin and the battery and chrono don’t embody any pernicious anti-third-party restore prevention software program to forestall substitute. In abstract, an eventual consumer battery substitute is feasible, however just isn’t as simple as swapping out an 18650 lithium ion cell. Moreover, within the occasion the Garmin chrono has a useless battery, whether or not quickly or completely, the unit could be run utilizing an exterior energy pack connected to the USB port. That is additionally a superb mode to run the unit in when you want greater than 6 hours runtime, resembling when you’re commercially utilizing it in a check vary. Lastly, changing the battery within the Garmin Chrono your self will void the guarantee, however that’s actually not a lot of a priority as its guarantee is just one 12 months and it’s fairly unlikely the battery will die in that span. Talking of these 18650 batteries they need to have used, the 18650 is a chargeable commonplace of lithium ion battery that will have been an incredible selection for this machine. They’re the identical chemistry and ensuing voltage because the Garmin inner battery and are extensively obtainable from very prime quality manufacturers for $10-$20 a bit. They’re even the best dimension to have simply included within the design. Most of us have already got them as a result of that’s what most rechargeable headlamps run on. As a bonus, 18650s have round a 3,500mAh capability and so would supply 4x the quantity of runtime because the chosen 820mAh inner battery for a minimal enhance within the dimension of the ensuing machine. There may be actually no excuse for this inner battery design. This isn’t the cellular phone {industry}. I count on most shooters intend to maintain these gadgets longer than common lifespan of a chargeable battery and worth simply replaceable put on elements.

Ballistic Software program

The Garmin Xero C1 Professional Chronograph can interface with each the Garmin ShotView telephone software particular to this product and the multi-product Garmin Specific PC software. In principle, ShotView can perform all of the features mandatory, however as we’ll see, it has some points.

The Garmin ShotView telephone software is meant so as to add important performance to the chrono in addition to deal with firmware updates and mean you can retailer your information in your account within the Garmin cloud. Putting in the app sadly does require you to arrange a Garmin account to facilitate this cloud storage while you set up even when you decide out of the cloud storage function. You are able to do the whole lot within the app that you are able to do on the machine itself along with various different issues. In case you are utilizing the app whereas recording shot strings on the chrono, the pictures can even replace within the app. Within the app, you may have extra labeling performance, resembling altering the identify of a shot string so as to add extra element or writing notes to be saved with the string that may embody info like atmospherics or load information. That is fairly essential stuff in your information file. Within the app you might be additionally not restricted to the 50 strings of 100 pictures every information storage most the machine itself has. The chrono itself seems to have solely 56megs of inner reminiscence, no slot for extra, and a tough restrict of fifty strings even when these strings are just a few pictures every. After that, you might be prompted to delete a string every time you need to add a brand new one. On condition that your labeling of strings within the machine may be very restricted, that is most likely loads of capability, as I’m certain you possibly can’t maintain monitor of what every string was anyway. The app doesn’t have these limitations and so you possibly can feasibly maintain a file of all of your classes there with notes on what every string represents. The app additionally permits one to export this information right into a CSV file which you could e-mail to your self if you’d like one other solution to maintain your information, which is a pleasant function.

The problem I’ve with the Garmin ShotView app just isn’t its performance, however somewhat that it has some bugs. It’s purported to routinely replace the firmware within the chrono every time there may be an replace, however mine didn’t accomplish this and so I wanted to obtain the Garmin Specific app for the PC to perform a firmware replace. The PC app doesn’t have some other features with the Xero C1 Professional Chronograph. It simply updates the firmware and provides itself to Home windows startup, because it evidently thinks this once-in-a-blue-moon perform justifies routinely operating each time you begin your PC. The ShotView smartphone app additionally struggles to finish various its different duties and is liable to crashing. It’s supposed to tug new shot strings that have been taken when the app was not linked to the chrono from the chrono when it reconnects nevertheless it struggles with this and seems to tug simply 3 or 4 new strings every connection earlier than inexplicably stopping. In the event you attempt to hit the refresh below the machine display screen, the app then simply locks up and must be restarted. I suppose I’ll finally have all my strings pulled over, however in 5-6 connections they don’t seem to be all there but. I respect the added perform the app provides the chrono, however as feels fairly par-for-the-shooting-industry-smartphone-app-course, it’s buggy.

Subject Utilization and Some Specifics on the Garmin’s Operate

I’ve now used the Garmin Xero C1 Professional Chronograph at all kinds of ranges with quite a lot of each handgun and rifle cartridges for greater than a thousand rounds. I’ve used it on .22lr (waxed with rifle and naked lead with handgun), 9mm, .223rem, .308win, 6.5cm, 45-70gvt, and 350L. On this lineup, solely the .22lr is especially difficult for a lot of chronographs. I like to recommend this PrimalRights video when you’re concerned about seeing efficiency information from some unique and difficult cartridges. In my testing, I’ve used the Garmin chrono on crowded taking pictures strains and on their own. I’ve used it standing, seated at a bench, and inclined. I’ve used it positioned correctly the right distance from the muzzle and I’ve used it sitting on that little fold-down desk indoor ranges have which is nowhere close to as near the muzzle because the Garmin advice.

For the rifle rounds, I’ve at all times correctly positioned the Garmin and it has by no means missed a single spherical. It has additionally by no means improperly recorded a spherical from the lane beside me, although it has had ample alternative. That is merely exceptional. It simply plain works, on a regular basis. It’s not finicky or temperamental. Actually, it has even picked up the overwhelming majority of handgun rounds I fired quickly on the indoor vary with the Garmin sitting on the little vary desk method under the place it was purported to be positioned relative to the muzzle and with solely about 20ft of distance to catch the projectile in earlier than the goal. I’ve additionally talked to various people who’ve connected the Garmin on brackets to their rifle so they may file whereas actively transferring from barricade to barricade. Regardless of the Garmin not being labeled for this, they’ve had good perform and never skilled breakage. The Garmin merely works. It even works in a whole lot of conditions the place you aren’t following the instructions.

A bit of word on precisely how the Garmin Xero C1 Professional works. It’s a Doppler radar based mostly unit. This implies it sends out pulses of radio waves to bounce off the projectile and measures the shift of their return frequency to calculate their velocity. In contrast to another Doppler models, the Garmin sends these pulses out consistently when it’s on and never simply when particularly triggered by the sound or recoil of a shot. Every time a shot string is energetic, the Garmin is at all times sending out pulses and measuring returns. That is why it doesn’t have problem failing to set off on a shot or triggering mistakenly on anyone else’s shot. Additionally of curiosity, the Garmin does see these different pictures from close by lanes. It simply has the flexibility to detect that their trajectory originates too removed from the unit to have been fired by the meant shooter and due to this fact determines they shouldn’t be recorded. Regardless of the exceptional period of time it spends actively measuring, the Garmin will run a very long time on a battery. They promote it will possibly actively measure for six hours on a cost and that is in keeping with what I’ve noticed. That’s fairly spectacular for a tiny 820 mAh battery. It’s sending out very low power pulses certainly.

Concerning accuracy, I had meant to measure the accuracy of the Garmin readings for this assessment utilizing the tremendous costly laboratory grade chronograph on the Lapua rimfire check facility domestically. Sadly, after I known as them up to take action, I discovered that, regardless of the Garmin solely being out for just a few months at the moment, that they had already changed that costly laboratory chronograph with the Garmin unit I needed to check. That most likely tells you the whole lot it’s worthwhile to learn about its accuracy, although I’m unhappy to say I don’t have any important information so as to add on the query as I used to be unable to discover a significant commonplace to measure in opposition to.

Abstract and Conclusion

Prior to purchasing the Garmin chrono I’m right here reviewing, I used to be utilizing an Oehler P35 chronograph whose design dates again to 1989. Through the years alongside the best way, I’ve used various associates’ chronographs, together with the Magnetospeed. Many of those have been an improve from the Oehler in some ways. I simply hadn’t felt they have been higher sufficient to be value upgrading, regardless of the large ache the butt that logging the suitcase-sized Oehler to the vary and setting it up on a tripod was. I had thought-about doing so various instances, however the downsides of the barrel harmonics change I had seen with the Magnetospeed, inconsistent triggering others had informed me about with the unique LabRadar, and the problem each have with .22lr had stored me from dropping the substantial coin. This 12 months, due to the quantity of measurement I anticipated to want to do surrounding the 350L PurePrecision SKLTN straight wall cartridge construct, and what good issues I had heard, I went forward and bought the Garmin. This ended up a massively essential selection, as that cartridge has definitely lived as much as its finicky fame and the information I’ve taken with the Garmin has been important to determining what’s going on with specific a lot of ammunition and specific hundreds. A lot of this was information I possible wouldn’t have been in a position to gather with the Oehler, as its setup and positioning is time-consuming and finicky sufficient that you simply just about have to have the vary to your self to make use of it. This requires me to make use of a special vary twice the space from my residence and it prices $20 per journey as an alternative of the nearer one which prices $24 a 12 months. The Garmin made taking measurements simple, nonetheless, and so I had the information that proved so essential in diagnosing particular ammunition points.

It truly is exceptional how small, simple, easy, and dependable the Garmin Xero C1 Professional Chronograph is. It will probably actually make you overlook how a lot of a PITA utilizing a chrono was earlier than it existed. In that regard, it introduces a completely new period to the {industry}. Each future product can be measured relative to the Garmin. It’s not an ideal product:  It’s very costly, has a inbuilt battery that won’t be enjoyable to finally change, a really quick 1-year guarantee, software program that may be a bit buggy, and it lacks a top quality case or equipment. Nonetheless, it’s merely exceptional in terms of how simply, and reliably, it is going to measure just about any projectile. I’ve not had a single missed rifle spherical out of roughly 1,000 rounds throughout 5 calibers and with not a single spherical mistakenly recorded from one other shooter within the subsequent lane over. That’s simply unbelievably good from a unit that’s smaller and lighter than my pockets.