Information Inconsistent arrival times

A customer reached out to support about inconsistent arrival times on stacks using his ES-3000. After stepping through the set up, he sent the .dat files for us to look into. It was mentioned that the seismograph itself is not capable of randomly triggering early and that there was something external to the instrument causing this 100-200mS early trigger event to occur. Another puzzling factor was that it occurred randomly after a number of shots in auto-stack mode (10).

It took some investigating and convincing, but what was finally concluded that the sledgehammer in use had some "flex" in the handle that would cause a "pre-trigger" on the downswing. Once the hammer was replaced the pre-triggers ceased. 

Thanks again for the time on the phone today. I really appreciate the guidance and experience of your team. 

After the discussion with your team, this led me to do a few more tests on the equipment. This evening, I got 40 stacks with no inconsistency in arrival times. 

To close the loop on what I think was going on: I believe the hammer itself may have been the issue, husky hammers have a shock absorber and a sloped handle. Having the trigger strapped in a particular way on the hammer may have been the cause here. See image below: 

I used a new hammer (NOT HUSKY) and did not experience the inconsistent arrival times. I will continue to monitor the issue. I appreciate the support from your team! I've individually swapped out all other components (aside from the geode) - this is the only change that seems to have solved the issue.

In summary: My theory is either the shock absorber, or sloped handle caused the trigger to delay, resulting in early arrival times.