Just want to share a battery upgrade to my ProChrono. I bought the lighting system and Bluetooth module. I don't have a convenient place to plug in the 24V AC for the IR lights and don't want to deal with switching out batteries (3 AAAs for the Bluetooth and 9V for the ProChrono).
I had some phone charger battery packs lying around (1 being 20000 mah). So I figured with some voltage converters, I should be able to power everything up with it.
Here's the journey and final product. Hope it helps.
I was overly excited when I put the thing together the first time and I accidentally shot a hole in the front panel. Luckily hole was put on the edge of the pane and didn't damage the electronics. Nothing moldable plastic couldn't fix. I also had to replace one of the push buttons.
BTW, regular LED lights WILL NOT WORK. The sensors require IR. I found out the hard way. You can see below, I used LED tape at first to try to save a few bucks. Save yourself the hassle and buy the lighting system.
ProChrono take 9V. I just attached wires to the 9V connector in the battery bay and pulled the wires inside and then out through a hold on the side.
The detectors work with IR and not visible light. So I had to put my LED tape mod aside.
I made a stupid mistake and shot a hole in the front panel. Fixed easily with black electric tape and moldable plastic.
I had to replace one of the touch buttons. I damaged one of the traces on the board while removing the broken button. I had to add a green wire for it to work. The new button is much more tactile than the original.
You can see here on the upper right corner of the sensor housing is where the pellet was stopped. Nothing else broken.
Here's the ProChrono almost reassembled. All this because I wanted to route the 9V wires inside and then out the little hole on the side.
I used a JST plug to finish the wire end.
Did a similar thing for the Bluetooth module. Open it up and solder wires to the power leads. Note that the unit takes 3 AAA batteries so that's 4.5V. My battery pack outputs 5V so no voltage conversion necessary here.
For the others, I used a step up variable converter (5V to 24V). Make sure it's rated for at least 5A; the step up is not all that efficient and the IR lights draw quite a bit of current. You can use another one of the same converter for the 5V step up to 9V, but it was simpler to just buy a dedicated 5V to 9V step up for the Bluetooth module.
Here is the final product. Notice I opened up each of the IR lights and brought out wires for the power. I didn't have a round connector plug that would plug into the existing plug. I could have cut the AC plug that it came with and used the round plugs there. But I didn't want to cut up the AC adaptor in case I wanted to hook it up to the wall. In hindsight, I should have just cut up the AC adapter as it would have save me some work and will never plug into the wall anyway.
Here is the battery pack I use. It has 3 5V output which is all I need to feed the entire chronograph. Now I only have to charge 1 pack and the thing lasts for days. I haven't tested the runtime per charge. I estimate 1 charge will give about 8-12 hours of runtime. It's easy to charge after every use anyways.
Enjoy!
I had some phone charger battery packs lying around (1 being 20000 mah). So I figured with some voltage converters, I should be able to power everything up with it.
Here's the journey and final product. Hope it helps.
I was overly excited when I put the thing together the first time and I accidentally shot a hole in the front panel. Luckily hole was put on the edge of the pane and didn't damage the electronics. Nothing moldable plastic couldn't fix. I also had to replace one of the push buttons.
BTW, regular LED lights WILL NOT WORK. The sensors require IR. I found out the hard way. You can see below, I used LED tape at first to try to save a few bucks. Save yourself the hassle and buy the lighting system.
ProChrono take 9V. I just attached wires to the 9V connector in the battery bay and pulled the wires inside and then out through a hold on the side.
The detectors work with IR and not visible light. So I had to put my LED tape mod aside.
I made a stupid mistake and shot a hole in the front panel. Fixed easily with black electric tape and moldable plastic.
I had to replace one of the touch buttons. I damaged one of the traces on the board while removing the broken button. I had to add a green wire for it to work. The new button is much more tactile than the original.
You can see here on the upper right corner of the sensor housing is where the pellet was stopped. Nothing else broken.
Here's the ProChrono almost reassembled. All this because I wanted to route the 9V wires inside and then out the little hole on the side.
I used a JST plug to finish the wire end.
Did a similar thing for the Bluetooth module. Open it up and solder wires to the power leads. Note that the unit takes 3 AAA batteries so that's 4.5V. My battery pack outputs 5V so no voltage conversion necessary here.
For the others, I used a step up variable converter (5V to 24V). Make sure it's rated for at least 5A; the step up is not all that efficient and the IR lights draw quite a bit of current. You can use another one of the same converter for the 5V step up to 9V, but it was simpler to just buy a dedicated 5V to 9V step up for the Bluetooth module.
Here is the final product. Notice I opened up each of the IR lights and brought out wires for the power. I didn't have a round connector plug that would plug into the existing plug. I could have cut the AC plug that it came with and used the round plugs there. But I didn't want to cut up the AC adaptor in case I wanted to hook it up to the wall. In hindsight, I should have just cut up the AC adapter as it would have save me some work and will never plug into the wall anyway.
Here is the battery pack I use. It has 3 5V output which is all I need to feed the entire chronograph. Now I only have to charge 1 pack and the thing lasts for days. I haven't tested the runtime per charge. I estimate 1 charge will give about 8-12 hours of runtime. It's easy to charge after every use anyways.
Enjoy!
