I bought this chronograph about two years ago and it has giving me more error messages then anything. I just loaded 20 rounds and shot through it and only one actual reading came up. Is this thing a piece of shit or what am I doing wrong? Before I bought this one I borrowed a friends chronograph I can't remember the name of it. It was the cheapest one out there and that thing read everytime. I thought this one was going to be better but I was wrong. Iv tried mine with and without the screens, with clear skys and cloudy. Between 8' to 14'. Whats going on?  Thanks

I had problems with mine on occasion, so I bought the IR light kit and not one failure to read since.  where I shoot there is no power outlet so I just plug it into either a portable battery pack that has a built in transformer or plug it into a transformer that plugs into my lighter socket in my truck.

Funny you should mention this, as I have a 15 year old Model 1 and it's been pretty stable for the most part.  I have noticed that over the last year, it's been problematic, picking up the shooter's shots to my left, on three consecutive sessions, being more finicky on placement and Tuesday I had only 12 shots out of 65 picked up in sunny and overcast weather.  I took the older style sensors apart and cleaned the two prisms with a plastic polish, as they were hazy/dirty to a small extent.

I called PACT Wednesday and the guy said I could send it and the sensors in, along with a check for $14.95 and they'd go through it.  I was thinking that they might just send me a new XP with the new generation sensors, as that's probably a cheaper way to go for them, but I don't know...I'll take it out once more and see how it does.

I have two friends that bought CED M.2s in the early part of this year and last year and both crapped out on them in the first few sessions, although CED did make good on both.

Shit happens.

Chris

My Pact 1 would work well on nice days in the summer when the sky was bright, but no readings in the fall, winter, spring when overcast.  Bought the infra red screens and power supply kit at Christmas last year and they work well in any weather.  You can even put a cover over the chrono screens and shoot in the rain.  However, at my range, plugging the infra red power supply in is difficult, so I have to go to radio shack to pick up some parts to rig for batteries.  That will be better than lugging around a cord and running cord 100 feet to shooting bench and keeping cord out of way of other shooters.  

BTW, when I got the Pact, I left the 9 volt battery hooked up full time with the chrono off.  Somehow that seemed to drain the 9 volt and every time I got to the range the battery that was new last time was dead.  Now I disconnect the battery between uses and no further problems.  All in all, I like my Pact.

Sir, as the others have mentioned the sensors have to "SEE" the bullet as it goes by.  Shot placement can be an issue as the bullet has to go over both screens.  The screens may actually be at a slight angle to the direction of your bullet so both screens may not be seeing your bullet.  When I set up the sky screens of my XP I place a target down range with my rifle pointed at the target on the bench.  I very carefully place the sky screens in front of the rifle and look through the sights of the rifle to make sure both screens are in line with the rifle and the sensors are about six inches below the line of the rifle bore.  Careful placement of the screens is important to enable both screens to see the bullet.  Once I've set up the screens properly I've never had any further problem with my PACT chronographs, but as another poster already mentioned it's prudent to remove the 9v battery when you put the unit away.  That way you'll always have a fresh battery.  FWIW I have lots of spares.  HTH, 7zero1 out.

I took it out again today and shot 40 more rounds through it and it didn't read one of them.  I'm not sure if i want to put another $50 into by buying the light kit. I'm going to call them tomorrow and see what they say but if it doesn't go the way I want I'm just going to throw it in the garbage and figure out what my friends is and buy that one.

I shot through about every open space and didn't get any readings. Maybe mine was bad from the factory. I don't know.

I took it out again today and I got it to read. I had to shoot almost to the top of the screens but it read.  It read every shot put through it.