Epee Hitmate

I bought the Epee Hitmate about 6 weeks ago from Fencing.net. I no longer fence regularly in any club and usually fence my wife in the local community rec centre racquetball court. We have been using the Favero mini-boxes which are fine to detect hits but hopeless at distinguishing doubles from singles or indeed who hit first.

The Hitmate comes in a small box containing two color-coded transmitters and the scoring box, all with batteries already installed. The use is caveman-simple - just hook up, turn on and go. The system functioned faultlessly out of the box. The transmitters fit in the pocket and more importantly stay there during the bout. Personally I think it is much nicer to fence unattached to a length of cable.

The wireless reaches diagonally across the racquetball court with ease (the largest distance tested). The buzzers are loud enough for us old folks to hear (and many outside the court!) The lights are bright and stay on long enough to see who got the touch.

The box detects doubles and singles but I cannot testify to the accuracy of the timings - they felt right but I have no means to confirm this.

Initially there was no problem with detecting bell guard hits. After a fourth or fifth use we noticed that the testing became somewhat inconsistent. It seemed to be more so with one particular weapon. I did all the tests described in the manual (well written and helpful, BTW). The tests to insulated surface and to grounded surface were fine. Activation by bare skin and bell guard, however, was inconsistent. I changed the batteries, swapped the body cords, body cord positions, boxes and weapons around and still could not get a handle on the problem. I then measured the resistances of the 3rd pin to the bell (all 0.4 Ohms or less), pins 1 and 2 to the bell (all greater than 20 MOhms) and between pins 1 and 2 with the contacts closed. The three weapons showed resistance around one Ohm but the iffy epee showed minimum resistance of 2 Ohms going up from there, sometimes as high as 25 Ohms depending how hard one pressed on the point and in what position. This epee needs re-wiring with a new point and I hope this will cure the fault.

Incidentally, I have not experienced the 2-second lock out that is described in the manual and by some on the forum.

Even with the bell guard problems the system is a vast improvement on the previous arrangements let alone dry fencing, all at the cost of less than half of the cheapest corded electrical system. The ability to detect the priority of touches and distinguish doubles from singles reliably alone makes it worth while. The facility to use the system almost anywhere opens the way to all sorts of possibilities. The whole package is so small that it can be carried anywhere for impromptu fencing practices unlike having to drag a big box and two full reels around. For small clubs, just starting out, this should be ideal on cost alone.

I think the creators of this system should be congratulated on a first class product. It should also be noted that the warranty extends for a full year.

All in all, it is money well spent and I would recommend the Epee Hitmate to anyone.