I know that this was recently mentioned in another thread, and the yellow Favero microbreak tester is supposedly hugely sensitive, but I was wondering how much, and how sensitive a typical scoring machine is in comparison when talking about crossed lines.
I'm asking this question because every now and then the red light will come on, indicating a short with the C line, however, when I test with my multimeter I have no spike whatsoever on a x1 scale or a x10 scale and a movement of maybe half a millimeter at a x1k ohm scale.
Now, I'm assuming that this isn't anywhere near enough to be a problem, although it has me curious as to what the trip point is for most machines.
Sensitivity requirements for machines appear in Appendix B to the Material Rules. Requirements vary for each weapon but so far as the machine is concerned anything over 500 ohms is essentially an open circuit.
When people say that the Favero tester is more sensitive than a scoring machine I believe what they mean is that it will detect much shorter breaks than will cause a machine to light up. I'm not certain how long a break has to be in order to trigger a yellow light on the tester but it is less than the minimum required to cause a white light in saber (1 millisecond) and at least an order of magnitude less than the minimum required to register a touch in foil (13 milliseconds).
However, I have also occasionally noticed a dim glow in the red LED when using a Favero tester to test épées. I'm not certain if a little bit of current is bleeding through somewhere (perhaps even through my body) or if light is bleeding into the epoxy shell of the red LED from another source (perhaps the green LED). When this happens I generally check things with a meter and only start to worry if the meter indicates there may actually be a problem.
I don't know what the actual sensitivity is, but it's much more sensitive than a machine.
An analog meter, having a physical pointer, is subject to physical inertia, and cannot respond at the speeds we are talking about (single milliseconds), so you can't expect to see the kind of intermittents we are talking about.
The red/green LEDs indeed do show some intensity variations, a feature I very much appreciate. When I test a foil, I twist the tip while I look at the red LED. If the intensity changes, I clean the point.
Another great feature is that the box made of metal and is grounded. This means you can unplug a fencer on the strip, and use the case of the tester to find a bad spot on a lame.
The Favero tester is a wonderful product. I won't leave home (to go to a tournament) without it.
I have also occasionally noticed a dim glow in the red LED when using a Favero tester to test épées.
I'm not sure if the one I have is a Favero, but it's one of the ones with the metal case and the little yellow micro-break lights.
I noticed that same dim glow some time back, and discovered that it happened when I was touching both the case of the tester and the blade of the epee. Try putting it down where you can read it without touching it, and see what happens.
There are two Favero testers, just FYI. There are the yellow ones that are longish and sort of flat, which also function as a hit recorder. Then the metal cube ones. Both basically do the same and have the same sensitivity as far as I can tell, but I prefer the metal one for armoring. Both for the grounding reasons mentioned above, because the hit recorder function on the plastic one is just one more setting/thing that can go wrong and because the case is more durable on the metal on when thrown in amount a bunch of tools.
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Just another lost soul saved by the (hit) First Church of EPEE!
Yep, that's what mine looks like. So I assume it's a Favero unless someone else makes one just like it.
In any case, just try testing an epee without touching the tester, and I bet you'll get rid of that glow in the red light.
It was my thread referred to in the initial post, so I thought an update might provide some useful input here.
Despite all 3 foils uniformly showing intermittents on the Favero tester (metal case), after a week's worth of practices, they have all performed flawlessly on a variety of scoring machines (SG & Favero).
I reckon this says something about the sensitivity of the testers.
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