Hand held tach suggestions

[200lc1]

Any suggestions on a portable tachometer for non electronic diesel engines. First job I need it for is to set up throttle on my old ex200. Saw an interesting one online that has an inductive pickup that uses an injection line for a few hundred bucks.
Cheers

 

[kenh]

If you have a clear view of the crank pulley there are laser types, using a "stick on"reflector,
They work well for setting idles, etc.
Prices around $50 and up.

 

[200lc1]

Definitely like the $50 and up part, for a once in a while tool. I'll look into them. Was kind of hoping for something I could set up and see from the cab, but that may not be reasonable. Would have to access crank pulley through access plates underneath.
Thanks

 

[DIYDAVE]

http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-photo-sensor-tachometer-66632.html

You can also find them on amazon, woodworker catalogs, etc etc, etc...

 

[John C.]

Stay away from the ones with the clamp on an injection pipe transducer. I've had a couple and they only work for the low pressure lines. Once the injection pressure go up into the 3,000 PSI range they get all confused and give all kinds of bad readings. The stroboscopes that you manually adjust and work like a timing light I have found to the best.

 

[200lc1]

Thanks for the heads up on the injection transducers, didn't know movement of fluid could create a magnetic pulse. I guess it must create a static charge. Looks like an optical or laser tach will be the simplest and cheapest.
Thanks again for the input

 

[wrwtexan]

If the crank snout is accessible, what about a hand held tachometer? I found one on ebay that will go well above engine RPM. There are also apps available for a smartphone which using the camera, pick up on a shiny spot such as a piece of aluminum tape.

 

[200lc1]

Too funny, they have an app for that. I found a strobe tach app to try, you basically adjust the frequency of the led flash. Have to try it tomorrow, not holding my breath, my smartphone is on the dumber side (like it's owner), be interesting to try anyways. Found a bunch of acoustic tach apps, which measure the frequency through the microphone. Might try one if the strobe gives me something realistic.
Times sure have changed.

 

[wrwtexan]

2001c1; the app I had just 'watched' the rotating shaft with no frequency adjustment necessary. I have changed phones since, don't remember the name, and haven't needed it again but all I had to do was stick something shiny to the shaft and hold the camera near. I used it to check powershift changes on a David Brown at the wheel which turned too slow to pick up with a high speed tach. Worked very well for the application.

 

[200lc1]

Couldn't find an app like yours at google play, but I did try an acoustic and strobe one. The acoustic seemed pretty stable, even sitting in the cab, just set it as a 6 cylinder 4 cycle engine. The strobe one wasn't so good, I painted over the timing marks on the crank pulley, couldn't get the frequency right enough to freeze the image (pretty sure phone wasn't up to it), but between the two apps I think I was comfortably within 50 rpm of each other. I corrected the rigging on my ex's throttle linkage, and wanted to verify the settings, worked well enough. Good tip, got me through.

 

[crewchief888]

Stay away from the ones with the clamp on an injection pipe transducer. I've had a couple and they only work for the low pressure lines. Once the injection pressure go up into the 3,000 PSI range they get all confused and give all kinds of bad readings. The stroboscopes that you manually adjust and work like a timing light I have found to the best.

my inductive pickup tach has worked fine for every mechanical fuel system ive used it on....
it was the recommended/factory tool at the deere dealer i worked at.
i believe it was called a tech-tach....as i remember it wasnt cheap, $400 (or so) back in the mid 90's

:drinkup

 

[ol'stonebreaker]

For those who can't get to the crank pulley easily get the diameter of the crank pulley and the diameter of an accessory pulley, figure the speed ratio and use the phototach on the accessory pulley.
Mike

 

[John C.]

I have had two tech-tacts and they worked fine on low pressure Deere and old Cats. They never worked consistently on the Isuzu or Komatsu engines and even had problems with Listers and Deutz mills. The one I have left only gets used for old spark ignition engines.

 

[wrwtexan]

Found the app tach I had; 'RPM meter' by Yesh Verma in Google play store; free.

 

[200lc1]

I saw that one, didn't think I had a prox sensor in my phone, tried it, guess it does. Not sure when I'll get to try it on my ex, tired of fixing, time to burn fuel for a while. If I have time I'll try it on one of my easier to access pieces, which have tachs to compare. Maybe my 410 eh?
Thanks