The TAG 520 shuts itself down in stages if the battery level drops too far. The printer is the first to shut down. Nice feature if you are outside doing "handtiming" and then come back in to print. Better have a power supply for the unit though. We could not find a way to get it to print without replacing the batteries and of course loosing all the data. The power supply is of course different from every other device you may have lurking in your timing building and you will never find the plug at Radio Shack.


Originally posted 16 Dec 2001 by Fred Patton

Well, if you have power where you are timing then I give someone the power supply at no cost. I ask the question and listen for a response. The printer shuts down first to maintain time keeping. I have run the unit on batteries for 12 hours straight with no problems with printing or time keeping. It is designed to be a portable
timer. We don't keep that a secret to our customers. Thank you for your comments.


Originally posted 18 Dec 2001 by Mark Landau
mark@reliableracing.com

I had a long and fruitful conversation with the staff of TAG-Heuer today. They were nice enough call me and spend time explaining the philosophy of the TAG 520. It appears that we were too quick in our assessment of the 520s capability. For that we apologize to TAG and to any customers who might have been concerned. Although we do not have the 520 in hand to test it personally anymore, we have been assured by the engineers in Switzerland that the 520 employes a "reserve"
battery that keeps all of times in memory regardless of how the device shuts down.

The TAG 520 manual posted on the RRS website does a good job of explaining how to change the paper roll. We would ask that a detailed explanation of what to do when you come in from the cold with dying batteries be added with the same degree of clarity.


Originally posted 20 Dec 2001 by Fred Patton