Since DryFire was first shipped in the year 2000, some new customers have called to say, “my gun won’t shoot.”

Based upon personally speaking to several hundred of these customers, over many years, let me give you a path to determine your problem.

First, you need a little knowledge regarding how the DryFire system deals with every shot. When the target is launched, the camera, mounted right next to the visible laser is turned on and is responsible to let the system software know when it sees invisible infrared light in the circular area around the visible target laser. The camera also provides the size of the infrared spot on the wall by passing onto the software the actual number of camera pixels it saw.

Note: Your gun laser is highly focused and produces a spot which occupies between 8 and 12 camera pixels.

If the number of pixels is less than 20, DryFire processes the location of the infrared spot believing the spot was created by your gun laser.

However, if the number of pixels seen by the camera is 20 or greater DryFire ignores that anything has happened. In other words, if the number of pixels is 20 or above the assumption is made that the infrared couldn’t have come from your gun and therefore going through the normal process would be wrong.

Therefore, as you consider your problem be aware that “my gun won’t shoot” is very likely being caused by (1) unwanted infrared on your shooting wall, which has created a spot size of 20 or more camera pixels.

However, (2) it could be that your gun assembly is not delivering a pulse of infrared light to your shooting wall. Either of these scenarios could be the problem.

So, the first thing you need to do is determine which of the above conditions is the problem.

The best approach is to wait until after nightfall, go into your DryFire room, leave all the lights off, except for your computer screen. Close all the doors in the room and begin shooting.

If the gun shoots every time you pull the trigger, then you have proved you have an infrared lighting issue. Once you have proved to yourself you have a infrared lighting issue you will be able to fix the problem.

Look for the following:

1) Outside light has a large component of infrared which you can’t see because your eyes can’t see the infrared wavelength. But, it is there. So, make sure you block out all possible sources of outside light. Also, most indoor light sources produce some infrared. Fluorescent  and LED light sources produce the least.

2) Do not have a light in front of the DryFire unit. When the DryFire camera looks directly at a light of any type, it will see enough infrared to cause a problem.

3) It is possible to have “hotspots” or regions on your wall that have to much infrared. This is usually caused by spotlights.

4) Do not have windows, doors, or lights behind your background canvas as the camera will see infrared through the canvas.

If during the troubleshooting process you proved the room was not the problem, then continue on to the next topic.

“Troubleshooting my Gun Assembly”