This is just nice,
Eshooter sent this Smoky BT tracer unit for testing and it couldn’t come at a better time because my previous tracer, that was a birthday gift from Lisa, died and I was looking for a replacement and what an upgrade it is if we look at the features.
Important that in this video I will go over the features but not a full test video because for that I need a lot more hours with this thing to see how it holds up. I already have a few things to focus on while doing these tests.
A little backstory, I met the company at IWA and I knew that they were coming with their electronic targets but not that they would bring their new tracer unit. I saw it there, thought it was interesting but didn’t think much about it. A few months later they reached out to ask if I wanted to test it and give some feedback, so here we are today.
In their line of tracers this is the top product with a lot of features cramped into this device. They also have the Flare Mono with just one color, Flare M with multi-color flare, Flare M BT multi-color with Bluetooth connection, Flare Cube Mono with smoke, one color flare, the Flare Cube BT with multi-color flare and Bluetooth connection and then the Flare Smoky, with every feature mentioned before and added smoke element.
The Flare Smoky BT is what I will be talking about today
In the box
The package contains,
- Flare Smoky BT Tracer Unit.
- Adapter(M14-CCW to M11+CW).
- Type C Charging Cable.
- Allen Wrench.
- Rubber Ring, Rubber Stopper.
- Essential oil 20ml – Original flavor.
- User Manual.
I also got an extra bottle of oil with special flavor.
Models
I will go over the features and give a bit more info about them, starting from the bottom to the top. This table also shows a good comparison between the tracers, this makes it a lot easier to choose the correct tracer for you.
Low Battery
Low Battery Warning, speaks for itself. It is good to have. The battery lasts about 6 hours of on time or 3 months on standby mode. Be sure to keep it all charged. It did notice that you will be able to replace the batteries when opening the device.
3 mode option
3 mode option, you can choose between flare, tracer or both. This is a weird specification because there are a lot more options on the BT versions. For the Smoky BT there are 8 mode options. Flash, tracer with flash, tracer, tracer ratio, flash and smoke, tracer flash and smoke, tracer and smoke and tracer ratio and smoke. The Tracer Ratio is an interesting one that I will be testing for sure. This doesn’t light every BB but some of them.
You can change the mode in the app or pushing the M button on the tracer and see the light change for a different mode. The C button is to change the flash color in one of the pre determined colors.
Shake, Wake-up
Wake up by shaking, don’t look into the barrel when picking up your rifle. It’s the normal thing to do. But picking it up after not using it for a while will give you a blinding light to tell you the tracer is on.
Dust & Waterproof
Dust proof and waterproof, I trust their claims but let’s see about that on a game like Berget and Bellum where there is a lot of sand and water.
Compatibility
Stronger compatibility, The tracer has a standard 14mm CCW thread but also a pistol adapter that will fit most pistols that can run a tracer, so an 11mm CW.
Applications
Wide range of applications, that is a weird feature. It is a tracer and it tracer bbs with different modes but what can you use it else for? Finding your friends in the dark by shooting at them or using the smoke generator to make fancy product videos?
Response
Fast response, Flare and Tracer, yes. I don’t have a 50rps rifle and if I had I wouldn’t be able to tell if it flashes every time but it registered the shots I did on my rifle that has about 17-18 rps. The smoke does have a small delay which makes sense because it needs to heat up and get the smoke out. But once it goes, it goes.
Standby time
Ultra long standby time, we talked about that, for about 3 months. It goes in standby after 5 minutes and you shake it to wake it up. You can disable this feature in the app.
Type of BB
Red, Green tracer and gel ball, you can also use it with white bbs and have a drag effect. Still, green tracers work the best for the longer shots. It’s a lot more visible.
Size
Mini and lightweight, I must say that they do have a point that it is lightweight for what they cramped into the tracer unit. It is not mini. The Flare M is mini, this is a good size. The cube is something in between. They should update the table a little bit in my opinion. The tracer weighs 105gr in comparison, the mini tracer weighs 40gr. I would not advise putting it on a pistol because it will interfere with the pistol handling. The split pistol designs where the tracer connects to the frame should not have a lot of effect from it. Now you can of course do it if you want it. It looks awesome. For example on my ICS Cornataurus.
One thing I need to note about the build, I don’t know how long this front plastic will last in CQB but we will find out.
Now we come to the special features for the more advanced tracers
Bright RGB LED
High brightness RGB LED, oh it is bright and it does have a lot of colors. You can go crazy with colors and even change colors after shots automatically for disco games. I’m looking forward to test this in various conditions and making sure I have my gopro with me to show you. The smoke effect does multiply the LED because it captures the light in the smoke, making it glow all around the muzzle.
Variable Dimming
Continuously variable dimming, I don’t really understand what they mean with that. Is it the way to dim the light through the app, because you can do that or is it the fluctuation of the flare to create a more flame effect cause I notice that that also happens. To be explained later.
Chrono
Chronograph, now this is an interesting feature. While connected to the app, I need to test if it saves information in the tracer itself, you can get information off each shot and see how constant your rifle is shooting. You can also add a warning on it, which can be very useful for gas rifles that tend to shoot hotter when the temperature goes up. I can even use it as a test device as a game organiser to give to a player if there is a discussion about joules. I will be playing around with this for sure.
Drag light
Drag light, I think that’s the thing that happens when you use white bbs instead of tracers and the bb creates a sort of drag out of the rifle. You can choose the color to your liking or even go full rainbow.
OTA Upgrade
Free OTA upgrade, so free app updates, I think so.
Real Time display
App Real time Display, very interesting for the chrono. I don’t know why you otherwise would keep this on. About the app, I will quickly go over the different screens after the features. Which is after this last feature.
Smoke
Smoke, well it’s not that hard to understand this one, smoke is coming out of the unit and it creates not only a cool smoke effect it also lights up the RGB flash to create a very cool effect all around you shooting.
Personal toughts
Now all those features are awesome to use to just make everything around you more immersive. Will it give away your position more, oh for sure, but will it be a lot more fun playing around like this, ooooh yes it will and that’s what it’s all about. Imagine seeing all the light flashes when defending a position in the dark, tracers flying towards you and flashes everywhere. If you like me and you like that, this unit is for you.
The App
Let’s quickly go over the app,
There are your settings for the colors of the flash, turn on the smoke and tracer. You can check the status of the fuel tank and choose little or more smoke.
Then there is the full range of settings to use the chronograph from setting your weight to fancy graphs to see the consistency of your rifle. A very interesting tool.
Overal
Now that was a lot of information coming from this small unit, like I said, a lot of stuff is possible with this unit and I’m surprised how much they managed to get in here. I will be using this unit in upcoming big and small games and will make another video where I go into the details of using this for a while. I like those videos because they really show the pros and cons. This video here is to go over the features because I didn’t have the chance to stress test it.
You can find more information about the Smoky tracer on the Eshooter website, where you can also find their other products besides tracers. https://eshooter-world.com/