treedog

I was wondering how accurrate my new glow bee was the other day, and stumbled upon 1 way thats must be clearly pretty good. 60 Cycle house current has to be really a standard at 60 cycles per second. So i did the math first /60*60=3600. I pointed the glow bee at a light bulb in a lamp and guess what? exactly 3600, no less no more. Cool beans!!!

Gremlin Castle

My Feedback: (14)

And in some other parts of the world it would have read 3000 rpm.

JohnW

My Feedback: (6)

That works, and a is a valid enough test for our application. Just keep in mind that lights actually flicker at twice the service frequency, i.e. 120 flashes per second in the states, not 60. To read the 3600RPM, the meter must be set at two blades. 2400 for 3 blades, and 1800 for 4 blades... and 7200 for one blade .

tIANci

In my part the meter read 3,000 RPM.

TLH101

My Feedback: (90)

That has been the standard test method for as long as there have been optical tachs.

redfox435cat

that's what the instructions say to do on every tach I've ever gotten

fredscz

My Feedback: (47)

The glowbee and hobbico tachs I had were very good at reading the lights but were not worth a darn at reading engine rpm. My TNC has never failed me even under less than ideal circumstances. K.O.W.
Fred

treedog

The tach i used took a second or two to settle down but it finally settled down on a rock steady 3600 RPM on the 2 blade setting. Some times if its windy out i'm wondering if some tachs might be picking up spurrious readings from other sources. Some blades come with white lines near the tips, can that affect the readings?

Josey Wales

My Feedback: (61)

I agree..Im going to be getting a TNC

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

I just put one on order at Don's Hobby Shop (donshobbyshop.com) at $89.99 + $7.95 shipping. Save a little over buying it at Fromeco directly Fromeco. I also have the Glowbee and the Hobbico tach... not worth a darn in my opinion. Not very stable readings. Any tach will read 3600 instantly when pointed at a fluorescent light.

Bob