Greg Johnson from Beaver Creek has had several TAG-Heuer HL2-31 failures due to the interior of the lenses clouding and obscuring the transmit and receive diodes. This problem occurs in all types of cells where the angle of the sun is low and enters the cell elements. Imagine the action of a magnifying glass and an ant. The TAG cells have sealed elements that do not allow the smoke to dissipate. Regretable TAG cells cannot be repaired here and must be sent back to Switzerland. You should try to arrange the use of your cells so that sun does not enter them directly. Try rerouting your cables so the tx/rx unit is facing east and not west. You might want to construct a sun shield out of plastic or an old Coors can. Experience on the World Cup led TAG engineers to supply the timing teams with snap on plastic shields to circumvent this and the snow buildup problem.
As an aside. All ALGE cells have easily repairable components and are fixed right here in our shop. All ALGE cells made after 1991 have a built in extendable sun shield.
Originally posted 2 Nov 2000 by Fred Patton
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