Both SG Timer and SG Timer 2 support dry fire practice, catching the trigger pull sound.
Select the “Dry practice” mode. Then go to “Settings” and set the exercise settings. Here you can also set up the sensor by clicking on “Sensor Setup”. We will go into more detail about the settings later in this video.
You can set up the sensor both on the timer and in the Drills app. To set up the timer through Drills, connect the timer to the app via Bluetooth and click on the timer icon in the upper left corner and click “Dry fire preset”.
Classic Mode vs Smart Mode
SG Timers are designed for dry fire practice in two modes — Smart and Classic. To switch between modes, go to “Settings” — “Mode”.
- In Classic mode the timer will just cycle in repetitive PAR mode without registering any sounds.
- In Smart mode, the timer will register the sound of a hammer fall, or any other short and distinct sound you want to capture in your training.
During practicing, the timer may pick up other unwanted sounds, like reload, slide, gear rattle, etc. To avoid this, use the “Waiting time” setting in “Sensor setup”. During the practice, after completing the final action (pulling the trigger), you need to wait the “Waiting time” period without making any noises until you hear the end signal.
During Smart dry fire, it is recommended to keep the timer on the belt facing the weapon or on a table right under the weapon.
Settings can be divided into 2 categories: sensor setup, where you can control everything related to sensor and buzzer, and programming settings, which control the program the timer will use when giving signals.
With SG Timer or SG Timer 2, all these settings can be changed on the timer itself or in a Drills mobile app.
Sensor setup
Now let’s look at the sensor settings.
“Waiting time” is a safe zone period. During dry fire there are many extraneous sounds like reload, slide or gear rattle, which may be perceived by the timer as a hammer fall. Since hammer fall is very similar to all those other sounds in terms of loudness and sound, it makes it impossible to distinguish electronically.
Therefore, the timer counts down the time from the last sound it registered, and if it doesn’t register any more sounds during this period, it acknowledges this sound as a hammer fall and ends the set.
For example, let’s take a reload drill. Waiting time is set to 1 second.
The mag drops at 0.5 sec — timer registers it, but does not acknowledge it as a finish yet, starts counting 1 second.
At 1.1 sec you insert a new mag. Timer registers the sound, but doesn’t acknowledge it, because it’s been less than 1 second from the last sound. It starts counting 1 second again.
1.4 sec — slide racking sound. Same as with the previous sound.
At 1.8 seconds you pull the trigger and freeze for 1 second after that. Timer registers this sound and starts counting 1 second. And since you didn’t make any more sounds after the trigger pull it acknowledges this sound and gives an end signal.
This way you don’t have a pile of unusable timecodes — only the actual time of execution.
You can also program the timer to your needs by adjusting the waiting time.
“Sensitivity” defines how sensitive the shot sensor is. It is recommended to keep it at 100 in Dry fire mode.
“Volume” sets the loudness of the beep. If you are using high noise canceling headphones, we recommend turning the volume to maximum. If you are using a smartwatch, it will also vibrate when starting.
Gun type
The first line you see in the beginning is “Gun type” In fact, it doesn’t affect the timer’s operation. It’s used to display the weapon you used in session history in the timer and in the Drills app. Thus makes it easier to identify sessions later. Gun type is also used to form “Statistics” in Drills app.
Delay
After the “Sensor setup” and “Mode” lines which we already talked about, we can see “Delay”. This parameter defines the delay between the press of a start button and the beep. By default the delay is random (from 2 to 4 seconds). To make it instant, press the “Up” button one time, the indication will change. To set a custom delay, keep pressing the “Up” button. To switch back to random — adjust this parameter with the “Down” button until you reach it.
Sets
Sets mean the number of PAR times in a session. In Classic mode, the timer will end the session based on the “Dry time” setting. If the number of sets is greater than 1, repetitive PAR mode gets activated. The timer will repeat sets for a set number of times with a pause between each set. In Smart mode the timer will not end the set until it acknowledges the hammer fall.
Dry time
“Dry time” is time allotted for a set.
In Classic mode, once this time is over, the timer will give an end signal and finish the session if the number of sets is 1, or start counting the pause time before the next set if the number of sets is greater than 1.
In Smart mode this time will be used as a reference to show the results correctly. For example if you set the dry time to 2.0 sec, and pull the trigger at 2.8, the timer will not give you a signal at 2.0 sec, it will wait until it acknowledges the sound, give an end signal, and then show that you were 0.8 sec late.
Pause time
Time of pause between sets, if the number of sets is greater than 1.
Dry Fire drills
Programming settings can be saved into training. It is similar to live fire presets. Currently you can only create, edit and select them from the Drills app.
When you select a training in the app, the settings will be automatically uploaded to the timer.
To start dry practice in the app, select the “Training” mode. Click the button in the upper right to create a new drill. Set the name of the exercise, time, delay, pause between reps and weapon type. Then click on this drill, select the number of sets (how many times you want to repeat the exercise), and click “Start”.
Settings of the selected training will be uploaded to the timer and remain until changed manually.
You can also use the “Record Video” function to analyze your actions on the recording. Your videos will be saved in the “Activity” and “Gallery” sections in your Drills profile.
Also learn: Drills app Guide
If you still have questions, feel free to contact our technical support: support@shooters.global
