I am looking for a tach and have seen the 3 at Tower. The Tower, The GloBee IntelliTach, and the Hobbico. Anyone using one of these? I do not want to spend more that $30 USD. I am in no need of one that is accurate to 1-3 RPM's, just need one to give me a good reading and be constant.

I saw this quote about the GloBee: "Because of its sensitivity, this does not know whether it is looking at a propeller or an incandescent or fluorescent light, which typically strobes at 60 cycles per second or 3600 cycles per minute. When set for 2-blades it will read 360 or 3600, 3-blades: 240 or 2400 and 4-blades: 180 or 1800. This is a quick way to test the calibration. In direct sunlight this will read zero when turned ON."

Do all these units have a way to calibrate from a know source?

I am leaning towards the GloBee, let me know please.


Thanks,
Fred

Fred, I have the Intellitach and its predecessor plus a several year old ACE TachMaster II, my Intellitach reads the same as a friends TNC. When I take a reading I usually read with the Intellitach and the ACE. Occasionally there is about a 40 rpm difference which in my book is nothing.

Please tell me where I can buy one of those good tachs. I have been using a Hobbico and am not satisfied. Not consistent enough and seems to vary too much while using it in different lighting conditions, etc. Thanx.....Rich

If I can butt into this list with a Tach question as well.....

I had my eye on a TNC Tachometer. I was given the URL address of www.bktsi.com but that page keeps coming up as not found.

Can someone let me know if the TNC is still available? I'd like to see about getting one after all the good things that I've heard about it.

Thanks,

Bob

Any info on the Intellitach? very interested

The glowbee is a price of junk.
Stay away from it.

What I have seen the helicopter guys use is a tach that has a spinning drum with a hole in it. When you get the drum spinning at the right speed and look through the little view finder, the rotor blades will stop moving. I wish they will make something like that for airplanes.

I have had the globee Intellitach for about 2 years. I really love it and i am very happy with it.
What i like about it is that you can tilt the LCD display and also you can save your readings in memory for future reference.
For those interested, you can look at it at http://www.bestrc.com/globee/glbp0111.html

No offense Bidule, but Geistware is correct, if your Gloobee is working great and gives you accurate numbers then you have a winner. I have tried the Gloobee, the one from Horizon Hobby and anther from MPI and a punch of us at my club have tried other cheap tachs and all are around $35 to $50 and all are pure junk. When you have to sit there for 30 seconds or more to get some kind of a consistent reading then comes two other guys with TNC tachs and a third with a Futaba 9Z radio and the 3 of them can measure your engine speed within 100 rpm of each other and it only takes them less then 5 seconds to get a reading, then you begin to wonder. To top it off, you readings are a couple 100 to a couple of thousand RPM from the guys with the good tachs you quickly realize that you have junk in your hand.

Yes they do cost 3 times or more then the junk ones mentioned above, but would you rather trust your $200+ 4 stroke or even your $600 50cc engines to a $35 tach or spend some extra and get one that you know is accurate? I spent most of my Sunday at the Toledo show talking to all the engine manufactures like DA, YS, ZDZ, 3W and some of the best pilots that were at the show and all said the same thing, try to find a TNC (out of production) or equivalent. They all have them and which they can get more.

Sorry to have rambled on… Hosam

P.s., I forgot that a Gloobee and the Intellitach were one in the same...

I use mine every week...and i get my readings within few seconds....
However, i never compared my readings with another tachmeter. I tried it on a incandescent light in my home and i get bang on 3600 so i assume my readings are corrects. I have never seen a TNC tach here in Canada, can you show me a picture i would like to see it. Maybe Intellitach's here in Canada are built in a different manufacture ? I don't know...but another guy bought it in our club and he is very happy with it too. If i knew there was a better tachmeter when i bought it, trust me i would have bought it cause i always buy the best field equipement available. I lost a plane due to a battery failure so now i take care of my stuff.

Thanks for the comments.

If I can butt into this list with a Tach question as well.....

I had my eye on a TNC Tachometer. I was given the URL address of www.bktsi.com but that page keeps coming up as not found.

Does anyone know if the TNC is still available, and if so, where???

Or, what do you recommend for a reliable tach. I have an Intellitach, and it's a good general-purpose tach, but I want something more precise and accurate. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Bob

they are coming out with it again... when? It’s any one's guess... A few of us have been contact with the original designer as well as the folks who have the rights to it now... and they keep telling us, we don’t know if we will be remanufacturing it or not...

Bidule, I do not have any pictures of the TNC tach but it is a silver case about 1"x3"x7" in size with a good size LCD display and TNC written on the fron of the case... all tachs will read 3600 when held up to florescent light, even the cheap ones I mentioned in my previous reply. I had a punch of electric engineers look into the cheap tachs I had and the explanation of the problem is the optic eye on tachs such as Gloobee are very cheap, therefore the pick up is slow and that is why the numbers fluctuate all over the place. The better tachs have a much expensive and faster optic eye that will read more accurate.

Since the TNC is no longer being manufactured and I am not holding my breath to see if any one will remanufacture it, the search goes on for a tach that is as good or better then the TNC…

Horsam, thanks for the explanation....

I've been in the market for a new TNC tach for year, but it always seems like I there 5 minutes after closing time...

If the TNC never sees the light of day, do you have any experience with an equivalent tach that folks should look into? I've only found the cheap ones and would like to upgrade.

Thanks,

Bob

Sorry Bob, but I am finding out that there isn't any thing out there that even comes close... the answer I keep getting is to look for some one with experiance to build one... it seems that the TNC was the BEST out there for RC planes...

Anyone got any information they wish to share with us on a TNC tach or an equivalent?