favero Full-arm-01 scoring machine

[oiuyt]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience with the Favero Full-arm-01 scoring box?



My club might be interested in buying a machine and I wanted to know if anyone had any experience with these. Is the table adapter worth getting or call you just prop up the wall version against something and save the $60+? Any comments about the brand either good or bad would be appreciated.

Thanks.

-B

[DamedEscrime]

I used one of those at Amoske Fencing Center in Gofston, NH. Talk to Bob and Sue Tipton up there. They are in the club listings.

[neevel]

The wall version is intended for permanent, in-club installation. It has wire-terminals for the cords instead of three-pin plugs, so you can't take it to a tournament and use ordinary floor-cords to connect reels to it-- you need the table adapter for that. If you get one, the table mount is clearly worth it.
It's a faily bulky, albeit flat, box (a bit bigger than a computer keyboard), and the plastic body seems a bit thin. Nice, large display, though.

Eric Schlaepfer has put out a firmware upgrade for the Eigertek which fixes the issues people were seeing with sabre (such as not registering hits when someone's BC short is broken). Although the larger display of the Favero is nice, I think I'd still rate the Eigertek a the better choice, especially if you're going to be hauling it to a lot of tournaments. It's much less bulky than the Favero, and the case seems a bit more durable. It's also about $60 cheaper than the Favero+table adapter, and you can get support and free upgrades through American.

The Amico RS-05 is really small (portable CD-player sized), but not readily upgradable (the firmware is soldered in), not as well assembled, and doesn't have much in the way of support in the U.S. I've got one for my club-- it was nice when introduced, but the Eigertek and Favero are better choices in that price range now.

I've not had any experience with the new Triplette $325 club box, but the higher-end Triplette box has a not-so-hot reputation among the USFA armorers, especially over sabre performance (ask Joe Byrnes about it if you ever want to kill 10 minutes of time...)

If you can go up in price a bit, you might see if BG has any SG-12s available coming back from USFA-lease use-- Amanda told me that they had a few when I asked her at nationals. You'd save some money compared to the price of a new SG-12 that way.

-Dave

[damianip]

We have an Eigertek and a Favero. Until the Eigertek came along, we couldn't say enough good things about the Favero. We still say them, but we have more good things to say about the Eigertek.

The only major complaint I've heard about the Eigertek (except fot the recently addressed sabre issues) is that the LEDs are hard to see. I don't agree, but you may. Actually, I find them to be more visible than the Favero and just as visible (if not more) as the SG-12.

BTW you really need the table stand if you're not going to mount the Favero on the wall.


Paolo

[oiuyt]

It's also about $60 cheaper than the Favero+table adapter

Favero has it listed on their website for 275 Euro (approx $250) for the table version. Granted the adaptor is extra and there's shipping from Italy, but that should still work out to be considerably less than the $350 for the Eigertek.

I'd been worried about the Eigertek possibly being a bit small (yeah, obviously an advantage when you need to be moving it around, but I didn't know about visibility, etc.). I've never actually seen one in use, whereas I've run across the full-arms. Sounds like that's not such a big issue with the eigerteks as I'd worried about.

Certainly things like the fact that it stays in country to get fixed, etc. are nice.

I really appreciate the info regarding the table vs. wall versions, that was exactly the type of thing that I needed to know about. With regards to moving up a price point and looking at the SG12 (even the USFA ones from BG) I'm already going to have to see if I can't get the club to be able to find any money at all, anything above the cheapest possible makes it that much harder.

Thanks though, I appreciate the comments. If anyone else has anything more to add, or really anything about any of the cheap scoring machines I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

-B

[sallearmourer]

I personally like the SG 12 because of the lights. But I am getting ready to buy one of the Eigertek to use at demo because it can run a day on a volt battery. Its does have go support in the state for the Eigertek vs the Favero But personally the only thing I dont like on the Eigertek is the lights but like I said its a personal thing. The machine is a great little box and well built.

Tim loomis
Ye Olde Armourer

[MikeHarm]

You can get extension lights for the Eigertech though right? I read something about that on the web page and was thinking of getting it when I buy one next month. From what I was hearing at the PBT web site they said they were going to offer one of the ARM's that would run on 9V batteries too but I haven't heard much about that varient.

Mike

[Zelda]

We have 2 at our club and the state association has 2. At our club they get used twice a week for 4 hours at a time continually. We have had them about 9 months now and they are still working well. The lights are easy to see, there are 2 different buzzer sounds (really good if the president is having a deaf day), different reset timings and I think 3? Different sabres programmes. We dont treat them gently, after training they get unplugged and put under the stage with the strip and all the other gear.
As for the state association ones, they are newer, but same thing, sturdy, reliable etc etc. My only complaint about them ((as the person who sets them up) the adaptor used to convert the Italian plug to Austrailian makes the double adaptor a bit unstable so it has to be put on the floor, not on the table.

[darius]

I know nothing about extension lights for the Eigertek -- is this true? If so, that would be very very cool...

darius

[damianip]

Originally posted by darius:
<STRONG>I know nothing about extension lights for the Eigertek -- is this true? If so, that would be very very cool...

darius</STRONG>

According to the web site, (http://www.eigertek.com):

"Extension Lights
The pinout for the Eclipse extension light connector is available on request."

So, I guess the best approach is to ask...

Paolo

[HilandDoug]

Our club bought the SG-12 from BG last season at a nice discount, with reels and cords. It has been moved and dropped a lot, and still performs like a champ. It's also pretty easy to carry around, since it comes with a nice carrying case. I've let some folks from our club use it for their club during the summer, and they've been carrying it around. Still works like a champ.

[Purple Fencer]

One of these boxes was being used in San Diego at their Jr tourney this weekend. The audio signal is an irritating high-pitched screech, but that's somewhat necessarry. I could easily see the display from three strips away, but the off target lights were a yellow shade instead of white.

Looked like it worked pretty good, tho.

[Zelda]

Purple, there are actually 2 different beep sounds. One which is that annoying screech and one which is a lower "tone". The lower tone is easier on the ears!

[epeemike81]

Originally posted by Zelda:
<STRONG>Purple, there are actually 2 different beep sounds. One which is that annoying screech and one which is a lower "tone". The lower tone is easier on the ears!</STRONG>

But at a large competition, the lower tone is TOO quiet. the lack of more audio settings is the only problem I have found witht this machine.

-m

[Zelda]

Mike, we havent had a problem with ours at any competition, though what we define as large and you define as large are probably 2 totally different things!

[neevel]

Zelda--

Large:
http://home.columbus.rr.com/salliear...tos/cFWing.JPG



-Dave

[Zelda]

ok, so who got the clone machine working? That is flipping HUGE . Considering Nationals in Oz last year had a sum total of about 32? women foilists and everyone was exhausted after the 52 odd male epeeists finshed....I'm in major shock.