This should answer your question.
There are 2 ways to input atmospheric conditions. The default which is by entering some combination of altitude/humidity/temp/pressure and by "Density Altitude". If you prefer to use Density Altitude, you must enable this option in the
Preferences.
Location & Density - In the grey colored bar at the top of the Atmospheric Conditions inputs, you'll see these two values. "Location" will be populated when using the "Auto Atmosphere" feature (see
Preferences) or when manually pulling values by touching your device's Menu button and choosing the "Station Atmosphere" option. The "Density" value updates as you change atmospheric inputs to show the corresponding air density. This is particularily useful if you are comparing Shooter's calculations to some other calculator so you can be sure that the air density for both calculators are the same before making the comparison.
Density Altitude - If you have enabled Density Altitude in Preferences, then pressure input type, altitude, humidity and pressure inputs will be gone and you will see Density Altitude and Temperature instead. If you've enabled Density Altitude then I assume you know what it is and how to use it. If you don't know, then just don't use it and skip this. The reason you must enter Temperature as well (even though the Density Altitude value incorporates temperature already) is because the actual Temperature must be known for Shooter to calculate the speed of sound which is important for calculating an accurate trajectory.
Pressure Input Type - This is for specifying how you want to input your current pressure. There is a "?" button right next to this input which explains each option.
Altitude - Your current altitude. This field will be disabled if you chose "Station" for Pressure Input Type because Station pressure is absolute and altitude is irrelevant.
Temperature - Your current temperature.
Rel. Humidity - Your current Relative Humidity.
Pressure - Your current pressure. This will be disabled if you chose "By altitude" for Pressure Input Type because the standard pressure at the altitude you specified will be calculated for you. If you chose "By altitude and corrected SLP" then you need to enter the barometric pressure here. If you chose "Station" then you need to enter the station (absolute) pressure here.
Using GPS and the Internet to pull in current atmospheric conditions
Shooter offers the ability to populate your atmospheric inputs by grabbing your current location via the GPS in your device and then downloading current conditions from a nearby weather station using the Internet. To use this feature, you must obviously have a device that has GPS capability and is connected to either WiFi or a data connection through your phone's service provider.
There are 2 ways to pull this data in:
- Auto: By enabling the "Auto Atmosphere" in the Preferences. When this is enabled, Shooter will attempt to get a GPS fix and download weather data as soon as you open up the shot data input screen. Once it gets this data, the atmosphere fields will be populated for you and the "Location" will be updated to show where it pulled weather data from.
- Manual: You can touch the Menu button on your device and choose the "Station Atmosphere" option. This does the exact same thing as "Auto Atmosphere", it's just invoked manually. You can use this even when "Auto Atmosphere" is enabled to force it to re-pull data.
If you have a Bluetooth-enabled Kestrel Weather Meter along with a Bluetooth-enabled device running at least version 2.0 of Android, you can pair them and load the readings from your Kestrel directly into the atmospheric inputs of Shooter. This requires you to download the free plugin "Shooter BT Plugin for Kestrel" from the Android Market. In the shot data input screen, touch the Menu button on your device and choose the "Kestrel Atmosphere" option. A dialog will appear asking if you want to download the plugin from the Market. Choose Yes and download and install the app just like any other application from the Market. This plugin is not an app you can find and launch from the application launcher of Android -- it's only accessible from within Shooter as explained below.
Once you have the plugin installed, follow these steps to get your Kestrel talking to Shooter:
- Turn on your Kestrel and go into the settings and then "Bluetooth". Set Bluetooth to "On" and then go to "Info" and note down the PIN it shows.
- On your Android device, go to Settings (not settings in Shooter, settings of Android itself) and then Wireless & Networks. Make sure Bluetooth is enabled and then go to Bluetooth Settings. Touch the "Scan for devices" option and wait for your Kestrel device to appear under the "Bluetooth devices" section. Once it does, touch that device and a dialog will appear asking for the PIN. Type in the PIN that you noted down in step 1 from your Kestrel. It should now say, "Paired but not connected". Once you do this, you never have to do this again. Android will remember your Kestrel device.
- Now open up Shooter and choose your firearm and ammo and then once in the Shot Data input screen, touch Menu and go to "Kestrel Atmosphere". You will be brought to a screen showing your paired devices. Touch the device that is your Kestrel and you will be brought to a screen of the current atmosphere readings from your Kestrel (it can take a couple second to start showing the values). Touch the "Load" button at the bottom to get dropped back to the shot data input screen and those values populated into your atmospheric input fields.
When you're using the plugin, you can touch the Menu button on your device and go to Preferences. Here you can set the Default Device. Choose your Kestrel device from that list and the next time you open the plugin, it won't ask you to choose your device again and take you right to the current readings screen. This saves a little time.
HTH,
Scot E.
