First: Feeling the Love.
I love the remote readout module/computer. Several times, including in the recent past weeks, I have considered buying the remote readout for the Chrony brand. This is going to be a great improvement over having to go to the unit to change/skip/delete shots or strings, not to mention the many errors that display all too often (on the Chrony).
Second: User friendly.
You can actually understand the manual! I think that the Chrony books were written by the guy that wrote the Commodore VIC 20 programs...it may even be an extension of those programs.
Seriously, the Chrony books leave a lot to be desired. If you use it often enough (and have actually read any of the manual) you can get through most of the needed operations. But, if like me, you put it aside for a long enough time span (1-2 years), it's like trying to learn a foreign language...again. There are a bunch of two and three letter codes, upper and lower case intermixed, that I never used or figured out. The CED looks promising in this area.
Third: Construction.
Here the Chrony is the clear winner. At least that is true of my 12+ year old Beta Chrony. I don't know about the newer Chrony models. The CED feels light duty and for lack of a better word, cheap. It has lots more plastic and is flimsy in comparison to the mostly metal (really, all metal except the plastic screens and sensor housings) Chrony. The Chrony has a feeling of ruggedness and durability, very solid and has a positive setup. The CED is shaky and too light weight to be confidence inspiring (again, read durability).
I hope that it holds up half as well as the Beta. At twice the price, it had better.
Fourth: Operation.
This is yet to be determined completely. I did set it up in my basement (took about 2x as long as setting up the Chrony (just for those of you taking notes). I put 15 shots through it from one of my Webley pellet guns. In 15 shots, I had two errors. We'll see. In all fairness, the lighting is not optimal down there, but I did make temporary sky screens to hold the incandescent light fixtures that I bought for the Chrony unit. They seemed to work for the most part. But here again, the weak plastic screen arms tended to suffer under not the weight of the light, but that of the power cords flowing off to one side. This, with most of that weight supported by looping the cord up into the drop ceiling grid. The aluminum rod screen arms of the Chrony never noticed that weight. By the way, the same tripod was/is used for both chronographs. I'm sure that natural daylight will be kinder to the overall operation and accuracy of the sensors. Like I said, we'll see.
Conclusion: Waiting.
It's mine now, the money is spent and I will give it a fair shake. I just don't have the overwhelming feeling that I couldn't have lived without it. I wish that I did, but I don't. I'm counting on the easier, (much) less confusing and hopefully more dependable operation to bring on that feeling in time.
I love the remote readout module/computer. Several times, including in the recent past weeks, I have considered buying the remote readout for the Chrony brand. This is going to be a great improvement over having to go to the unit to change/skip/delete shots or strings, not to mention the many errors that display all too often (on the Chrony).
Second: User friendly.
You can actually understand the manual! I think that the Chrony books were written by the guy that wrote the Commodore VIC 20 programs...it may even be an extension of those programs.
Seriously, the Chrony books leave a lot to be desired. If you use it often enough (and have actually read any of the manual) you can get through most of the needed operations. But, if like me, you put it aside for a long enough time span (1-2 years), it's like trying to learn a foreign language...again. There are a bunch of two and three letter codes, upper and lower case intermixed, that I never used or figured out. The CED looks promising in this area.
Third: Construction.
Here the Chrony is the clear winner. At least that is true of my 12+ year old Beta Chrony. I don't know about the newer Chrony models. The CED feels light duty and for lack of a better word, cheap. It has lots more plastic and is flimsy in comparison to the mostly metal (really, all metal except the plastic screens and sensor housings) Chrony. The Chrony has a feeling of ruggedness and durability, very solid and has a positive setup. The CED is shaky and too light weight to be confidence inspiring (again, read durability).
I hope that it holds up half as well as the Beta. At twice the price, it had better.
Fourth: Operation.
This is yet to be determined completely. I did set it up in my basement (took about 2x as long as setting up the Chrony (just for those of you taking notes). I put 15 shots through it from one of my Webley pellet guns. In 15 shots, I had two errors. We'll see. In all fairness, the lighting is not optimal down there, but I did make temporary sky screens to hold the incandescent light fixtures that I bought for the Chrony unit. They seemed to work for the most part. But here again, the weak plastic screen arms tended to suffer under not the weight of the light, but that of the power cords flowing off to one side. This, with most of that weight supported by looping the cord up into the drop ceiling grid. The aluminum rod screen arms of the Chrony never noticed that weight. By the way, the same tripod was/is used for both chronographs. I'm sure that natural daylight will be kinder to the overall operation and accuracy of the sensors. Like I said, we'll see.
Conclusion: Waiting.
It's mine now, the money is spent and I will give it a fair shake. I just don't have the overwhelming feeling that I couldn't have lived without it. I wish that I did, but I don't. I'm counting on the easier, (much) less confusing and hopefully more dependable operation to bring on that feeling in time.
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