The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Henry,

Certain incandescent lamp bulbs have a bit more
flicker than other ones have. I too have viewed
strobe disks using incandescent light. I have
noted at various times that it sort of does
barely kind of work a little bit under certain
circumstances. Other times, it won't work at
all.

Fluorescent light such as from a desk lamp
or a regular 4-foot tube works very well!

The reason that these gas-tube lamps work
so well with the strobe disks is because they
go completely dark 120 times each second.
(The neon lamp does, anyway). I am not so
sure if the fluorescent tubes go 100% dark
because the phosphors on the inside surface of the tube (the stuff that makes it glow white)
may have a little hang time where it glows
after the current is at zero. If that is the
case, it flickers, not going completely dark,
but much more pronounced than an incandescent
filament will.

Try them all, incandescent, fluorescent
(not compact fluorescent), and neon so you
can see all three kinds working.

Chuck

I was wondering if digital speed meters work. Has anyone used them? Here is a demo from youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z3X6rbw3Vw

Yes, they work beautifully. Best ~$25 I ever spent!

Sean

OrthoSean wrote:Yes, they work beautifully. Best ~$25 I ever spent!

Sean

Ditto!

Clay

FloridaClay wrote:

OrthoSean wrote:Yes, they work beautifully. Best ~$25 I ever spent!

Sean

Ditto!

Clay

Thanks, guys. Did you buy them online? $25 is a lot cheaper than the $60+ on ebay.

You can find them cheaper than $25 on the 'net! Go to amazon and enter "digital counter" or "digital counter LED" in the search window. This will come up: http://www.amazon.com/CyberTech-Digital ... al+counter . Cost is $14.49. There are several listings for this product, and as near as I can tell they are all exactly the same instrument, at widely varying prices. I have one, and it works great.

Amazon is where I got mine.

Clay

This one is $12.24 including shipping on ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251265528577?ss ... 1423.l2649

I bought the Photo tachometer from Amazon, it works well.
It needs a reflective spot to work. It comes with reflective tape. I stuck a piece of the tape to a junk record, it's pretty much just point and read.

Or just tuck a strip under a record without peeling off the adhesive back. Remember to test the speed while you have the record playing. The weight of a reproducer will slow the turntable just a bit, so this way will get you a more accurate adjustment / readout.

Sean