My personal experience with this unit is that the IR emitter seems to have a longer ranger than the Tamiya one as I was told that the emitter used has a better focus thanthat of a tamiya one. But there is a down side to this, so far what I experienced is sort of a disadvantage to users of original tamiya BU, as those using IBUs then to have a better 45 deg range than the original. That means that lets say at a fixed distance, lets say 5meters, the TBU ir may not be able to hit a target at 45deg while the IBU's ir can.

Thus what happens is that at teh same range you got no defense while the other (IBU) has. I know someone from impact is sure going to rebuke my statement but that was what happened for the lat few battles we had with a tank equipped with a IBU. I have told the owner of the tank that there is a disadvantage to the rest of the club members and hopes that there will be some changes to this, else war gaming will not be much fun in future.

Oh and I forgot this, IBU ir has more range than the TBU's ir emitter. So if youbattle in excess of 30meters, those with IBUs are at a great advantage. Aside from that, its a cheaper form of the BU that is used with a tamiya MFU, most likely impact started production of these units becoz at one point, there was a orld shortage of TBUs.