TCA Club FIE Scoring Machine

The TCA “FIE homologated” machine came out in the mid-90's.  It enjoyed a brief surge in popularity however has long since fallen from favor.

Unlike most newer machines, the TCA machine still uses incandescent bulbs (actually marker lights for highway trucks).  This makes for lights that are readily visible over a large range of angles however those incandescent bulbs suck up a lot of current.  The power supply for TCA machines is rated at about 3 Amps, compared to 500 milliamps for most other machines.

 One of the biggest problems with the TCA FIE machine was it's power supply.  The power connector used a four-pin DIN plug, making it all too easy to short the pins together when plugging it into the machine.  If the power supply is already plugged in to an outlet then the result is a blown fuse and a dead-power supply.

The controls are another source of problem.  The TCA machine uses a single switch to select between six different settings (foil 1, foil 2, epee 1, epee 2, saber 1 and saber 2).  Three bi-color (red/green) LED’s indicate which of six modes the machine is set for.  Originally this was done to allow a choice between manual and automatic reset in each of the three weapons however since then it has been changed to cover a multitude of variations, including no-off-target foil, wireless epee, and old vs new timings.  Unfortunately none of these are labeled as to which settings are which so it is entirely possible to inadvertently start fencing with an improper setting.  Add to that the fact that whenever the machine temporarily looses power it defaults back to one of the foil settings (exactly which one appears to depend on when the programing was last updated).

One of the advantages of TCA machines is that they can be reprogrammed to accomodate rule changes.  Unfortunately this generally requires sending the machine back to Trippletee for reprogramming. 

TCA machines have a rather poor reputation with both fencer and armorers. Supposedly the earlier “sweat” problems have also been addressed however it may be that any improvements now are too-little and too-late.  Most fencers I know lost faith in TCA machines a long time ago.  As such I feel that I can not recommend it to anyone.

A few years ago Tripplette came out with a less expensive "club" version of their FIE machine. Essentially it's the FIE machine without the plastic clamshell case, however it does have a slightly better power connector and uses six individual LED's to indicate settings rather than the three bi-color LED's.  Unfortunately all of these setting still lack any sort of labeling.  Even worse, the club machines seem to suffer from an even worse reputation than the FIE model (at this point it's difficult to tell if it is justified or if it is simply guilt through association).