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To do anything with the Shooting Chrony, you have to initialize communications.  This consists of opening up a connection on the serial port, and then sending the command SYS0 in plain text.  The Chrony will reply with a response 0:rdy>.  The display will change to - PC -, so you have a visual cue that the Chrony is in communication with your computer.

This response of 0:rdy> seems to be the standard response from the Chrony after it has been initialized for serial port communications.

Example

(note that commands to Chrony are purple, while the responses from the Chrony are in blue)

SYS0
0:rdy>

With this done, your Chrony is now ready to talk to your software.  I'm not sure if the Chrony will response to it's sensors at this point, i.e. I suspect that they are turned off, but I am not 100% sure of this.

At the end of your conversation with the Chrony, you should clean up after yourself and tell the Chrony that you're done with it.  You that as follows:

X.END
{}ok!<CR><LF>

Note that <CR><LF> is my way of expressing Carriage Return (0x0D) and Line Feed (0x0A) respectively (in ASCII).

The chrony communicates via an RS232 serial port: 8 stop bits, 1 data bit, no parity (8N1 for those who remember their old dialup modems) and at 4800 baud.  Well, I use 4800 baud.  I think 9600 baud might work, but I will have to double check that.

When the Shooting Chrony is turned on and working, it appears to be broadcasting the velocity that was just measured, the string number, and the shot number within the string. The Chrony Beta will hold six strings of ten shots each. As well, it is possible to initiate a "conversation" with the Chrony, and ask it to dump out it's memory.

The interface for the Chrony beta is some sort of 3mm stereo jack.  You can order from Shooting Chrony a cable that will allow you to connect to your computer via a DB9 RS232 serial cable.  Now, of course, in this day and age serial ports aren't all that common on computers, but USB is.  So, you will also need to purchase a serial-to-USB cable as well.

If I had the electronics background, I'd consider trying to cobble together some sort of direct-to-USB cable, but I don't some I have to work with what I've got.

To evesdrop on the Chrony, I used Eltima's Serial Port Monitor. One of the neat features of this piece of software is that it allows you to monitor/observe, in real time,  the traffic on the serial port.  It also allows you to save this traffic to a text file, and replay it back later.  You can also send commands over the serial port and see how the chrony reacts.

Another useful utility from Eltima is their RS232 Data Logger.  This is a free program that will capture the communications on a serial port and save it to a file.  You can't really watch the traffic in real time, nor can you interact in realtime with the Chrony, but if all you want is a raw dump, this application will do the job for you.

And finally there is good old Hyperterm that comes with Windows.  Treat your chrony like a modem, and away you go.

A couple of years ago, I acquired a Shooting Chrony, a Chrony Beta to be specific.  If you're in the market for a chronograph, I'd recomend considering one of these.  They are relatively inexpensive, easy to setup, and have a good warranty.  I've been told that if you have the misfortune of accidently shooting your chrony, they will fix it free of charge.

Anyway, the one thing I don't like about the shooting chrony is the fact that the software they sell for it is, well, substandard.  It seems like an old VB5 program that was written in the late 90's, and is functional, but kind of clunky.  It is definately NOT work the $80.00 they charge for it, not by a long shot.

Of of personal curiousity, I started playing around with my chrony to see if I could figure out how it works and how to communicate with it.  To help me remember what I have observed so far, and in the chance that somebody else might find this information useful, I figured that I would document what I have found out here.