Electronic Specialties 328 EZ Tach Plus

stars

I looked high and low for a product that would detect spark and translate it into an RPM reading. This thing works. I've had zero issues with it picking up a signal, always using the clip lead. The unit is rubberized and feels solid. Came with a battery.You can select engine type, but I will say that you must apply some common sense logic to the readings. Some single cylinder engines fire twice per cycle and you need to manually divide the reading to get the actual RPM. This device can't know how the ignition system functions for every motor, but it is it good at picking up and counting the plug firing. Start by testing idle, since you will roughly know what that should be and then get the reading correlated to that by trying different engine settings on the menu.The reading is stable if the RPM is stable. It probably takes a 1/2 second to register, so if you think you are going to rev an engine and have it catch the peak RPM, then you are asking too much. It is meant to read RPM while the motor is being held at a steady RPM.

I operate a small engine repair shop. One of the things I have to do when tuning engines, is adjust low engine idle, and wide open throttle, on mowers and stuff. My old tach meter broke, so I had to buy this one. This is a very nice meter for the price. It has enough durability for use in a small engine shop, without having the crazy price tag you find on Fluke automotive meters. This tach meter uses an inductive pickup method for measuring RPM. You can either attach the alligator clip to directly to the sparkplug wire, or the negative sound of the engine coil. This meter also has wireless functionality, where you can just put the meter close to the sparkplug, and it will pickup the reading.This meter can read 2-cycle engines between 1 to 4 cylinders. It can also read 2-cycle engines that either fire on every revolution, or twice per revolution. It can also read 4-cycle engines between 1 to 6 cylinders. And it can read 4-cycle engines that fire once every other revolution, or once per revolution. It is very easy to set the meter for the type of engine your going to be reading from. Plus this meter comes with backlight incase your using the meter in the dark, and it oddly comes with a flashlight as well, but its pretty wimpy, so don't expect much from that.The reason I am giving this meter 4-stars, is due to accuracy issues. This meters largest problem, is not being able to give reading's within 200-MS or less. It gives reading in 750-MS. Well, 750-MS might as well be a full second, because thats what its going to feel like, while its providing readings to you. If your engine's idle is running rough, the readings will dance around all over the place. In some ways that would be considered accurate, but because it doesn't update fast enough, it comes off feeling inaccurate. Also, when revving the engine, its very slow to respond, so if your looking for an instant reading, look somewhere else, like an analog tach gauge.If you slowly increase throttle instead of reving it, the display will update fast enough to keep up, and will give you a good solid reading. Would I feel this to be accurate enough for a small engine shop? Well, considering thats what its designed for, the answer is yes. This meter however, is not accurate enough for an automotive shop. But if you operate a automotive shop, your clearly going to have the money to afford an expensive Fluke meter, so I would just go with that if your an auto tech. See video's on Youtube of this meter functioning, to help you to make a final decision. 4 out of 5 stars!

I needed a tach to accurately set the idle on my 3 cylinder Yamaha. This tool is much more accurate than the tach on the motorcycle. The rpm varies very little. It does take a second or two when you change the idle but is accurate once it settles. The only wish I have for this is a place for a wire to hang it so that I can use both hands to adjust the motor. I like the tool a lot. Shipping is fast. The price is right.

I have a '68 ford truck with a 360 V8. Let me explain to you my logic in getting this item:1. I wanted something with a remote pickup (cable) so that I can leave this on the fender or next to the windshield while it's connected---leaves me two free hands to make adjustments.2. I didn't trust the optical ones. Putting a reflective pickup on the crank pulley means you'll be replacing it every time you want to look at your engine speed. Plus, you have to aim it, and again, there we are at an issue of not having two free hands.This thing arrived, and, to my surprise, the pickup is nothing like that on a timing light (which has a coil around a magnet or piece of iron). It's just a wire with a clip! I couldn't understand it, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt---after all the voltage going to the spark plugs is pretty high so maybe you don't need much of a pickup....So here are the conclusions:1. The cable doesn't pick up squat. It's telling me my engine is idling at 96 RPM. I wish!2. If you disconnect the cable and put the unit up to the sparkplug wires, the closer you get the higher the RPM. And how do I know it's not picking up pulses from a bunch of different sparkplug wires? I guess they expect you to pull them out of the separators and tape this thing to one wire? Ridiculous.3. The thing defaults to two-stroke single-cylinder. I have to click 90 times to get to four-stroke 8 cylinder every time.4. The manual pretty much admits it's the luck of the draw if this thing works with modern engines, because of multi-spark, ignitions with coils on the plugs, etc. But it didn't even work with a basic V8 with traditional points distributor.5. The flashlight is a joke. If you have night vision goggles and you like to tune your engines in dark caves, you may be able to see it. Also, the button is really dumb; it seems to take several tries to get the light to come on.6. The self-off timer does not have a long enough delay. So basically you have to remember to get the engine running and then turn this thing on. If you putz around with the engine too much this thing will already be off by the time you get it going, and then you have to sit there and click 90 times to get four-stroke 8 cylinder again.If this thing had been $30, I would have been "OK" with it being crap. But it's not cheap.Personally I don't want to hook up my oscilloscope to the car so I'll rip this thing open and try to get it to work---maybe it just needs a new pickup.EDIT 2011-07-15I opened the unit to see what's going on inside. As it turns out, the external wire connector *is not connected to anything in the circuit*. There's a jumper missing. So the wire does nothing.I did verify that indeed it shows correct RPM if it is hooked up to a very clear signal. The problem is getting a good signal from your engine. Others apparently can, I sure can't.EDIT 2011-07-17I soldered a jumper between the two contacts on the circuit board to actually connect the external cable to the rest of the circuit. Now the unit works fine; I see my truck idling at some 700 RPM. Still gets 1 star since I bought it specifically for the external cable and this functionality was disabled from the factory.One more thing worth mentioning is that if the unit gets no signal, the display stays "stuck" at the last number. So let's say you're mucking around adjusting idle and it's showing 683, 690, 664, and then you don't notice that you unclipped the cable or for some other reason the pickup signal got weak. The display will stay stuck at 664. You'll start turning your idle and wonder why it's not doing anything. Finally you yank on the throttle to rev up the engine and notice the display is not changing. Hopefully you would have read this so this won't happen; otherwise, you can imagine you have to start the adjustment all over again.You can "avoid" this by hitting reset on the device. Unfortunately this resets everything, so if you have a four-stroke V8 you have to proceed to get that setting again.