SOLO the electronic target
SOLO is the fourth generation of Electronic Target System designed and manufactured by Silver Mountain Targets, the world leader in open sensor target systems.
SOLO sells worldwide for US $850
What is It?
What it Does
More....
What is it
SOLO is an electronic target that reports shot position and value to a shooter who can be 1000 yards away. At US$850 it is priced low enough for personal use but is also capable enough to be used to run small and mid-sized matches, and to be used in large multi-target systems. SOLO is self sufficient and able to operate in austere range environments with no power or shelter, and weighs less that 5 pounds / 2,2kg, SOLO is easy to setup and eliminates multiple trips to the target for refacing, pasting holes, or checking group sizes. |
What you get
SOLO comes with everything needed to start shooting.
- 4 sensor mounting plate
- 4 sensor arrays (8 sensors total)
- 4 color coded sensor cables
- T-SOLO Target-Line measurement unit
- F-SOLO Firing Line WIFI access point
- Two rechargeable battery packs
- Quick start pictorial guides to get you up and running quickly
You supply:
- the target frame
- a WIFI capable display device (laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.)
- bullets on target
SOLO Frequently Asked Questions
What would you like to know? If it’s not here, just ask – email us at ian@vxsystems.ca
Have an answer you’d like to contribute? An improvement to one of these answers? Again, please email us!
SOLO sells for US $850, worldwide.
SOLO ships to you from a dealer in your country:
- you pay regular shipping rates, not expensive international rates
- you do not pay any importation fees or Customs duties
- you get SOLO quickly!
- you get support from an in-country dealer who knows your shooting and your needs
If you buy from one of our non-US dealers, the price will be in your local currency at an amount equivalent to US $850, plus local sales taxes as applicable. See our dealers’ website for full details:
- Australia – charged in AUD, plus 10% GST
- Canada – charged in CAD, plus the GST/HST rate for your province.
- Germany – charged in EUR, plus 19% MwSt
- New Zealand – charged in NZD, plus 15% GST
- UK – charged in GBP, plus 20% VAT
Buy SOLO from the SMT SOLO dealer serving your country:
- Australia – SMT Australia – silvermountaintargets@gmail.com
- Canada – VX Systems – www.vxsystems.ca
- Germany – SMT Europe – silver-mountain-targets.com
- New Zealand – SMT NZ Ltd – https://www.silvermountaintargets.co.nz
- UK – Crispin Engineering – http://crispinengineering.co.ukcrispinengineering.co.uk
If you live in a country not served by an SMT-SOLO dealer, you may order from any dealer or you may order directly from Silver Mountain Targets.
Yes. The wifi network produced by each SOLO is unique. His won’t interfere with yours and yours won’t interfere with his.
Your SOLO might generate a wifi network (SSID) named SOLO-1234 (if your serial number was 1234), and his network might be SOLO-5678
To use yours, connect to your network SOLO-1234. To use his, connect to his network SOLO-5678.
Your SOLO device at the targetline end of the range is programmed to connect to your network, so your shots on your target get delivered to your network..
That’s up to you. No-one can use your SOLO unless you let them. Your SOLO‘s network is password-protected (the network name and password are printed on the product label attached to the backplate on the underside). The password is permanent and cannot be changed.
To share SOLO with a trusted friend(s), tell them your wifi password. Others at the public range won’t be able to access your SOLO.
To share with many others without giving out your password, you can turn on an additional “guest” wifi network that has no password:
- wifi SOLO-1234 – your “owner’s” network. Password-protected
- wifi SOLO-1234-Guest – the guest network. No password, anyone can connect. You may turn this off.
Yes. Set up each SOLO on a target of its own. Have the shooters and scorekeepers connect the the SOLO they are interested in using/watching.
This is a great way to run a small or informal match, or a small practice or training session, where the sophisticated features of an S25 Server are not needed.
Yes. And there are a couple of options available to you:
As-shipped, SOLO will work in its own standalone mode, without interfering with the operation of others SMT e-target equipment.
If you prefer that your SOLO connects to the S25’s SilverMountainTargets network, you can reconfigure it to do so. It will then be available to the S25 as an additional lane. This allows you to run the match using all of the S25’s features (shooter registration, electronic scorecards, neighboring targets view, etc)
The S25 Server supports all SMT target measuring products ever made, and in any combination, from our gen-1 TM-600X, through the G2 and the G3 Plug’n’Play, and now SOLO
Each of the two SOLO electronics units is powered by a standard rechargeable 5V USB power pack, equipped with an LED bar graph to indicate charge status.
SOLO will run for six hours on the factory-supplied battery packs (actually in most of our testing they tend to run seven to seven and a half hours, but six hours is a very safe figure to count on and plan your day around)
They may be charged from any USB port with a microUSB cable.
You may use any 5V USB power pack, so it’s easy to replace, or have a spare on hand, or you can use as large a battery pack as you want for as long a runtime as you might want.
Most of the parts in SOLO are designed to have an indefinitely long lifetime. Where this is not possible it is important that repair or replacement be possible, and cheap. The only two items in SOLO that will eventually wear out are the cables, from repeated flexing and use, and the batteries, from repeated charge/discharge cycles.
An internal battery would be more expensive to replace; only the correct size and shape battery could be used, and the units would have to be opened by a competent technician (unless care is taken, the sensitive internal electronics could be damaged).
An internal battery would also not allow larger battery capacities to be possible, or for “hot spares” of extra fully charged battery packs to be used.
An external battery pack and a microUSB power interface plug gives the SOLO owner full flexibility and control.
You need to provide a “display device”. Anything with wifi and a modern browser should work, such as a cellphone, tablet, laptop etc.
No app is needed, just your device’s browser.
Apple iPhones and iPads work well, as do most Android phones and tablets.
SOLO comes pre-loaded with many of the world’s most common highpower (sling and F-Class) target faces (US-NRA, ICFRA/Australia/NZ, DCRA/Canada, NRA-UK, ISSF-300m, etc).
More target faces are available on the SMT website for free download.
Additional target faces can also be implemented
Some parts of SOLO can be placed out of harm’s way, for example the cables are long enough so that the downrange electronics unit can be placed below grade if shooting on a conventional range with a target gallery, or otherwise placed in a protected location out of the line of fire.
In order to work though some system components must be visible to the shooter and therefore it is possible to shoot them:
- sensor cables
- sensors and mounts
- wifi panel and cable
By far the most commonly shot item are sensor cables; you are trying to hit the middle of the target at a thousand yards and sooner or later the wind will drift your bullet left or right just the right amount to cut a cable. If one sensor cable is cut, SOLO will continue to operate. If two sensor cables are cut it will not be possible for SOLO to provide shot location readings. If you do a lot of long range shooting you might reasonably expect to cut one cable every shooting season.
SOLO sensor cables are ordinary ethernet cables. The only special thing about SMT factory cables are the choices of color and lengths.. You may buy replacements from your SMT SOLO dealer or you can use your own favorite source for ethernet cables.
It is also possible to shoot the panel antenna or its cable, or one of the sensors, however given their “corner” location on the target it is extremely rare for this to happen. They are available from your SMT SOLO dealer but to be honest if you buy them as spares to have on hand you’ll most likely never use them.
Yes.
You can install a set of mounting plates on target frames in every location where you shoot; avoid taking a screwdriver with you to the range and save yourself the installation time!
And their durable construction means they’ll survive pretty a rough life in a target shed, or they can be left outdoors year round in sun, rain, snow and ice due. They are a one piece injection molded part, made from UV proof material, completely unaffected by water, and have a tough low-profile design.
The sensor cables supplied with SOLO are long enough to allow for use on target frames up 6’x6′ in size.
If you wish to mount the sensors on a larger target frame, up to 6’x10′, you may use longer cables. SOLO uses standard ethernet cables to attach its sensors.
This depends on two things – your bullet, and your wifi.
BULLETS: Your bullet must be supersonic at the target in order for SOLO to work. SOLO‘s sensors detect the shock wave produced by a supersonic bullet.
- if your bullet arrives slower than 1150fps / 350m/s SOLO can not detect the bullet
- if your bullet arrives slower than 1200fps / 365m/s SOLO will function but with reduced measurement accuracy.
- bullet speeds of at least 1300fps or 400m/s are recommended for better measurement accuracy
WIFI: The factory-supplied antennas will allow operation of SOLO to 1000 yards. Wifi signal conditions can vary at different ranges and you may be able to get more performance, for example at one of our test locations at we have achieved 1800 yards. If longer range is needed and the factory-supplied antennas do not provide reliable operation at the distance you are shooting, a higher gain panel antenna may be used at the firing line and/or target line end. In keeping with SMT’s design philosophy of using industry standard commercially available parts where possible, the antennas in our system are wifi standard 2.4GHz, the connectors used are RP-SMA and the cabling is 50 ohm coax.
No. SOLO is not a “chamber target” and has no special target face membrane or other consumable wear parts. SOLO doesn’t actually even need a target face at all, you could have the target face completely cut out of the target frame with no degradation in shot measurement accuracy (though for the shooter, the sight picture might be a bit tough!)
The purpose of the target face is to give the shooter a good sight picture, so all you have to do is keep it in good enough condition for that purpose. Paste on target repair centers as needed to maintain a sight picture that makes your shooters happy. You probably have to reface less frequently than when manually marking targets.
Iron sight shooters can happily shoot on pretty shot-up target faces and still have an excellent sight picture, F-Class shooters or anybody using a high magnification scope generally need target faces to be kept in good enough repair so that they can see the various scoring lines and use them as hold-off or aiming reference points.
“Waterproof” is an often used marketing term, conveniently without a precise technical definition.
What most people would understand truly “waterproof” to mean might be described by a recognized technical specification such as “IP67” (protection against immersion to 1m depth). These protection levels are certainly achievable but only at great expense, neither affordable or justifiable for a $1000 system.
SOLO is designed to achieve IP53 protection level (in shooting terms – driving rain in strong wind), which is appropriate for most rifle range applications.