I need a good rotor tach.

[Falcon]

Could someone tell me where I can buy a good rotor tach?

[Texas Armadillo]

Try Air Command.

www.aircommand.com

js

[Vance]

I have had very good experance with westach. Thank You, Vance

[gyrodude]

Hands down try Rotor Flight Dynamics tachs that Earnie sells. Accurate to within 1/4 rpm. If the sending unit goes bad all you have to do is go to NAPA.

[Chuck Roberg]

Date: September 30, 1999 08:27 AM
Author: Mike Schulman (rotors@uswest.net)
Subject: $15 (or less) Rotor Tach

I've had several people ask me about this so I decided to post it. This rotor tach is cheap, dependable and accurate. There are several places that you can get this tach. I got mine at Wal-Mart but you can also get it at Target, K-Mart and a lot of bicycle shops. It is the 5 function Cyclocomputer made by ACE Model # 810-230. It is sold under various brands but it is always identified by the Model #. It is powered by a small battery (with auto on-off) The directions are very simple and easy to set. It comes with about 6' of cable and you will need to splice in a longer section - I have lengthened my cable to 10 ' and it still works. You mount the magnet to the prerotator ring or to the rotor head, and then you mount the pickup where the magnet will pass within 1/4" of it. Read the instruction for setting the cyclometer and set it for metric "L" with the number 1667. (If you prefer to use two magnets, space them 180 deg apart and set it with the number 833). Mount the digital readout where it is convenient --and there you have it!! The read out will show a decimal point right before the last digit-just disregard it. The unit is accurate to within five (5) RPM. (BTW this is not my idea Tom Sled told me about it!!)

Mike


As a footnote. One of our club members tried this on a window fan first before using it on his gyro. He said it was within 5 rpm.

[gyroplanes]

The best rotortach I could find is an industrial unit that looks real nice, is very accurate and has a good looking, stainless steel, lipstick sized transducer that counts the ring gear teeth on the prerotator. Long life battery, always on.
It was expensive, but not too bad. If I remember correctly it was between $100 - $150 USD.
I used to stock them when I owned SnoBird. I might have one or two left.

[Falcon]

Tom,

I would be interested in purchasing one from you if you can find it. Let me know where to send the check and the price with shipping. I am in Utah. Thanks to everyone for all of the replies.

Gary

[skyguynca]

Ok, just a little update Looking around and trying to find the one listed above was impossible (the bicycle computer) so I bought 4 different ones. Only one of them would allow me to enter the wheel measurement of 1667 as instructed. That was the F-18 Smart Cycle Computer, I got it on ebay for $9.95 and $4 shipping so basically $15 total. I tested it this morning and it works great!!! I was spinning my head so that every second the magnet passed and it read 6.2 km/h and by the instructions posted above just ignore the decimal and read as RPM so 62 rpm.You can see the unit is bigger than a quarter, the number is about the size of a dime. The time is below it until it picks up movement on the magnet then the timer starts, so I have a basic flight timer also when I spin up my blades the timer starts........works great thanks so very much Chuck Roberg for posting the info!!!!!!!!!!!!

[EI-GYRO]

One caution about the Cycle-tach.
I have seen one revert to the default setting of 2155 by itself.
This will cause an over read of about 20 percent.
Not a problem if you recognise it.

Cheers

Fergus Kavanagh

[skyguynca]

I know, I did alot of research on them. That was one reason for ordering this one. If it resets it goes to a blank screen and you need to reprogram it, which is pretty easy but atleast if the blank screen pops up you will know.

[RICK MARTIN]

I also use a bicycle computer. You have to get one that displays "cadence" which is usually accomplished by a secondary pick up and magnet that would mount on the pedal arm and count rpms. Mine works great. It's called a Cateye.