Fencing.Net - Your Guide to Fencing & Fencing Equipment

flyingfencer · 10-19-2004, 06:10 PM

Anyone have any experience with the Eigertek Scoring Machines?

This looks like it would be a good club practice machine.

Thanks in advance.

noodle · 10-19-2004, 06:14 PM

they are.
we've had ours as long as i've been around. they're still in good shape.

esskreemr · 10-19-2004, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyingfencer

Anyone have any experience with the Eigertek Scoring Machines?

This looks like it would be a good club practice machine.

Thanks in advance.

They're lightweight, portable, run on a 9 volt battery, and are inexpensive. Our club has had 2 for about 3 years. No complaints yet.

Tomas N · 10-19-2004, 06:28 PM

We've had ours for two years. Super machine. No problems whatsoever.

Tomas

neevel · 10-19-2004, 07:13 PM

Just about the perfect club box. Affordable, durable, free upgrades, excellent support, portable, battery-operable. The Blue Sky is also nice, but my experiences with the Eigertek would bias me towards staying with it. If you're doing a permanent mounting, the Favero might be worth considering due to it's larger display-- bulkier than the Eigertek, though, and upgrades aren't free (though not overly pricey).

-Dave

MyraTrue · 10-19-2004, 07:28 PM

Our club owns 5 or 6 different types of boxes. We LIKE the Eigertek boxes we've got. The Eclipse boxes have really served us well- like people said, they're affordable, easy to upgrade, adjustable sound (hey, when you're using three in one room, its a handy thing)...

the one thing the Eclipse boxes have that I haven't found in any other box is an automatic shutoff for the white-light buzz. I hate it when people get off a box set to foil, and it just keeps going off. The Eigertek boxes will still show the light, but SHUT UP after a short time period. A serious stress saver.

DHCJr · 10-19-2004, 07:31 PM

For a club and Eigertech or Blue Sky. Each has their advantages and both offer free upgrades. As has been mentioned is the cost and the batteries, which are both excellent. The negative outside the club for competitions is the lights. Blue Sky is more expensive and larger, but not the price of the European boxes.

CvilleFencer · 10-19-2004, 09:44 PM

I only have two gripes with the eigertech boxes. They are not very loud and there is no way to turn up the volume (change the sound yes, but not make it louder). I also find the little lights a bit hard to see. Okay three gripes. They seem just so very fragile and they do not balance well on their own.

I prefer the Favero boxes. Larger, better lights, adjustable volume, stable, very durable and about the same price.

JEC · 10-19-2004, 11:27 PM

Agree with CvilleFencer. I like Favero better than the Eclipse. The Blue Sky box looks a nice (trucker lights!) compromise, but do not know how good is their customer service. The Eclipse and Blue Sky are in California, whereas Favero are made in Italy (with excellent customer service) but there are many vendors in the US.

The Armourer · 10-20-2004, 07:49 AM

We have just replaced all our ageing LP kit with brand new Favero boxes and spools - 7 pistes plus spares. Good value and all our members are pleased - no complaints!

darius · 10-20-2004, 11:38 AM

I disagree...the Favero is ok, but if you're fencing without a ref, at the end of the piste, you can't see the lights because they're recessed in the machine.

The Eigertek is much better there, despite the fact that the lights are smaller. The annoyance factor of the "beep" shutoff is good, and the 9v support is sweet.

I love the curvy lights on the new SG boxes, and our last club purchase was a pair of SG-11s, but the self-upgradeability issue has made Eigertek our #1 choice.

darius

JEC · 10-20-2004, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darius

I disagree...the Favero is ok, but if you're fencing without a ref, at the end of the piste, you can't see the lights because they're recessed in the machine.

The Eigertek is much better there, despite the fact that the lights are smaller.

You must have the eyes of an eagle to see them from the end of the strip.

CvilleFencer · 10-21-2004, 12:40 AM

I can barely tell the green from the white if I am refing! Of course I am colorblind and I can't tell the white from green on the Favero box either, but at least it has two seperate light blocks for each end of the strip, so that makes it much easier! Also the lights on the Favero are made up of about 25 LEDS per light block so you can go with over half of them burned out before you have to really replace the lights!

oiuyt · 10-21-2004, 09:34 AM

Given that LEDs can have lifetimes of something rediculous like 10,000 hours of use, burning out hopefully isn't a problem. One of their large benefots when compared to incandescent bulbs (lower cost and power consumption being others).

While I was at UMass we bought an Eigertek. I'd heard good things about them and convinced the club to try it out. Our concerns were that with the machine so small that it might be hard to see the lights or that the machine might be too fragile. Neither of these proved to be an issue at all, and last year when UMass was buying another machine they (we at the time) again went with Eigertek. The LEDs are BRIGHT. I've never had a problem with being able to see them or with telling which LED(s) were lit.

The easy upgradability of the chips is a nice feature as well (I upgraded the older of the two Eigerteks, a process that took MAYBE 2 minutes and was extremely easy).

-B :)

R. Exnicios · 10-21-2004, 12:53 PM

Okay here are my complaints with the various machines:

Eigertek: Lights are too small. Looks like a toy. Great for practice but not a tournament box, very difficult for the Ref to see the lights.

Favero: Off target light should be WHITE! Case is plastic. We have one with a chunk taken out of the front – still works but a metal case would be better

St. George:
SG 12 (w/ the light bulbs). no longer in production.
SG 11 . Off target should be WHITE, the on target and off target leds are in the same position, confusing for the ref and spectators. No volume control. Overall too small for a competition box
SG 12 world cup. Same light (led) problems as the SG 11
SG 21. Same light (led) problems as the SG 11

Blue Sky: Haven’t been able to get one – have tried to order them several times with no success.

So what machines do we use?

We have SG12 s and Faveros. The SG 12s are the work horses, we use the Favero only for tournaments.

Our division has all sorts including Eigertek, SG12, SG21 Favero 01, Favero 05 and even Uhlmann and Allstar. They all have there good and bad points.

Cheers

R

Mergs · 10-21-2004, 01:58 PM

I echo Cville's comments about the newer machines using yellow instead of white for off-target lights. The difference in colors is just where those of us with red-green deficiency have a problem differentiating between the two. Notice that the Favero Full Arm 05 has five white LEDs, about a 1/4 of the other color LEDs. That's because white LEDs are about 5x the cost of colored LEDs.

oso97 · 10-21-2004, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R. Exnicios

Okay here are my complaints with the various machines:

*clip*

St. George:
SG 11 . Off target should be WHITE, the on target and off target leds are in the same position, confusing for the ref and spectators. No volume control. Overall too small for a competition box

*clip*

Most of that I'd have to agree with Richard, but we've been using the SG11's around here for awhile. I've refereed competitively on them several times, and never had a problem recognizing the off target designation. I haven't heard any other referees complaining either.

Its different, yes, but worse? I don't agree.

Volume though, that's a more serious concern.

Regards

bikeman · 10-22-2004, 08:29 AM

Which vendor carries the Blue Sky box?

JEC · 10-22-2004, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bikeman

Which vendor carries the Blue Sky box?

http://www.blueskylabs.com/fencing.php

They are in California. Some of the clubs and armorers from there have posted excellent comments about it.

oiuyt · 10-22-2004, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oso97

Most of that I'd have to agree with Richard, but we've been using the SG11's around here for awhile. I've refereed competitively on them several times, and never had a problem recognizing the off target designation. I haven't heard any other referees complaining either.

I've definitely seen problems with referees mistaking the yellow ("white") LEDs and the green LEDs in the same position for each other. Sometimes where they've believed the correction of the spectators/fencers, others where they haven't, and yet more where they just sort of looked a bit like a fish out of water trying to figure out whether or not to believe what other people are telling them.

Haven't seen that problem on the red side.

Problem isn't common, but it does happen.

-B :)