Weird Scatt POI problem...

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tsokasn
Posts: 299
Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:22 am
Location: Athens,Hellas

Weird Scatt POI problem...

Post by tsokasn »

Hello my friends!

I am facing a weird problem with my scatt...
Here goes the story:

In prone dry practice,while I have centered the shots,the POI changes without reason?
I center the shot again and the POI goes back to the previous setting...
I thought that it might be a aiming error but I shot 2 or 3 shots before I center the shots...

A few words about the target setup:
5 meters for prone and 6 for standing-kneeling(small house)
The target is placed in front of the lining room's window with the window shutters fully closed(no light coming from outside as it changes POI if it's cloudy)
I use a led spot in front of the target and the living room light(halogen I think)
The problem appeared in the last two practicies.Before that,it was working just fine...
And it only happened in prone(kneeling and standing is OK)

What do you think?
Thank you!
ZD
Posts: 150
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 8:07 pm
Location: Washington State

Post by ZD »

I'll take a stab at this problem; I work with SCATT at least twice a week. From what I gather from your post, you have a good light set up for your target. However, I will list as many possible factors and things to try that may be of some help. I

1. Since this is only happening in prone, I would first look at where your main light is set up. Make sure the lamp isn't in front of the top sensor and has some gap. Also, see if it might be something as simple as bumping the rifle into the floor. You probably aren't, but if you are it is very easy for the sensor to rotate. Also, if you floor is reflective, this may be causing issues. While I have not had this problem myself, if my memory is correct I believe I have seen this on target talk as a possible problem.

2. If you have consistent problems at the start, go up to Shooting on the menu and click on Adjust Optical Sensor. Make sure that the crosshair is sitting within the center circle, as there are is an outer and an inner circle. Also, make sure that when you take your calibration shot, you call it a ten. SCATT treats your shot on the adjust optical sensor menu as a 10.9. While you can still drag the shot in to the center after you start shooting on the target, I have found that if SCATT is saying you are shooting sixes and you are calling nines and tens, it is best just to recalibrate the shot, taking as many attempts as you need to. It seems to not like dragging the shot more than about two rings or so.

3. Reset/restart/unplug

Usually I reserve resetting for when SCATT just will just not read the sensor. Try hitting Ctrl H when you have a SCATT session started up; this will reset the hardware, then pull up Adjust Optical sensor. If not, just try restarting SCATT and or the computer.

4. Call it a day, or just focus on other readings on the SCATT.

While SCATT is a great tool, it is in my experience very unreliable. My college team has four of them, and I am constantly working with them. I brought one home for the summer, and I have been using it at five meters, and I have had issues just simply getting it to sense every time, however once I do it usually works for the whole session. Unfortunately I cannot complete with the alignment of Saturn or what have you. Days where I have messed with SCATT for a long period of time often end up better when I leave it be after a while and work with it the next day. Anyway, not sure this will help but I hope it does.

-Zach
KennyB
Posts: 396
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 5:32 am
Location: London, England

Post by KennyB »

My 2 cents,

I'm finding SCATT to be problematic to use at home during the hours of daylight - as soon as the sun sets my trace length halves and all is pretty much on call... I've tried screening off the windows and masking off areas where ambient Infra Red might be causing problems without too much success.
None of this happens the winter - I'd guess that there might be a temperature threshold above which the system can't cope.

One thing I would try is putting the rifle in a rest, pointing it at the target and leaving it untouched while observing the trace on the screen.
When I do this and everything is functioning properly, I get a small random jitter (around 12mm/s trace length) and the POA is constant.

It would allow you to discover if and how the POA moves in your environment, what is causing it and what you can then do about it. I've found that a cat sitting next to the target causes POA shifts...... (I'm sure she does it just to annoy me.)

Good luck
Ken.
redschietti
Posts: 386
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2011 4:31 pm

Post by redschietti »

Ken, are you using 50m setting? I'm trying to compare. Ours in a vice is 3m/s and her hold most days in standing air is 12 m/s...am I comparing apples to oranges.. 10m to 50m?
redschietti
Posts: 386
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2011 4:31 pm

Post by redschietti »

Comparing her 50m and10m files it appears to simply be 5x larger
KennyB
Posts: 396
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 5:32 am
Location: London, England

Post by KennyB »

From memory that 12mm baseline was "50m prone" at a target distance of 10m indoors during the winter.

I have a suspicion that the L value doesn't scale properly if the target distance is reduced from 10m.
When using SCATT indoors at the club at 10m my L values are on average >40mm compared to when I train at home with the target at 4.5m and L values in the low 30's / high 20's.

When the sun is up my L values can be 60+........
Mind you, at the club last summer I had the rifle on a rest and SCATT was giving an L value of 27 while just sitting there - it was quite a hot day though.

I also did a session outdoors at 50m with a friend's NOPTEL recently and again, with the rifle in a rest, the random jitter was very pronounced - mirage possibly?

Ken.
tsokasn
Posts: 299
Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:22 am
Location: Athens,Hellas

Post by tsokasn »

So,after reading all your helpful answers,I began experimenting.

I changed the led spotlight position and placed a small rag under it and in front of the target(I had read once here that reflection is a problem)

Problem sold for me!!!(till the next time of course)

Thank you everyone!!!
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