Stroboscopic Tachometer app for iPhones - Great for finding RPM’s of your spindle

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Jennifer Edwards

Jennifer Edwards

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There is a nice free tachometer application available at the iPhone “AppStore” that uses the camera flash on your phone as the strobe.

It is accurate to within .001 percent. To find it just search the AppStore for "tachometer". There are two applications returned from the search, choose the first one it is labeled: "Strobe Tachometer (RPM Meter)"

It is pretty slick, just dial in the RPM you want, push the button, and your camera flash LED will flash at that exact rythm.

Point the strobe at the tool in your mill, or at the chuck in your lathe, and simply adjust the speed of your machine until the object freeses. At that point you have matched that RPM exactly.

I do not have a built in tachometer in either my lathe or mill. This app is s lifesaver for calculating Surface Speeds of your tooling in the case of a mill or material speed in Meters per second on your lathe.

If you use it with the link below you are almost guaranteed the best finish possible for any material.

Meters per second to RPM calculations:
https://www.peter.com.au/metalwork/turning-finish.html

The strobe app is free with some occasional annoying adverts, but for a couple quid you can purchase the full app.

Have fun!
Jenny
 
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Ideally put a bit of reflective tape on the chuck etc as you could find the strobe is freezing what you see at 1/3rd or 2/3rds the speed you are aiming for as the 3 jaws can be stopped in various positions.

In the 12 years I've had my mill I've only used a strobe on it once and that was to show it working at a particular speed in another thread, rest of the time it's just feel and sound that works fine for me.
 
Hi Jason,

You are quite correct, it is easy to lock on harmonics of a given speed even with a marked spindle. For example a spindle rotating at 400 rpm would appear to be “frozen” at 200 flashes per minute.

Since I posted this thread I have built two Arduino driven LCD displays and an application that decodes the signal from Sieg mills and lathes that displays the actual RPM’s for a cost of about £30 as opposed to the £150 Axminster charges.

You can find the code and build instructions in a thread I posted in the software forum.

Jenny
 
Hi Jennifer,
To avoid disappointment to others this app is only available on i10 phones. Mine is a i5 dinosaur!
Regards Borriss
 
borriss said:
Hi Jennifer,
To avoid disappointment to others this app is only available on i10 phones. Mine is a i5 dinosaur!
Regards Borriss
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info,

When I first obtained it I had an IPhone 7, since then they must have upgraded it to run under the new O/S. I know several of my apps no longer run on my new phone probably because the authors of the programs have not bothered to,

I now own an iPhone X and probably installed the update to the tach app as a matter of routine.

I appreciate your information it will keep others from become frustrated,

Jenny
 
Thanks for the suggestion, just downloaded the app today. Yes a little late but that is what happens when you are still working for a living.
 
Jennifer Edwards said:
Hi Jason,

You are quite correct, it is easy to lock on harmonics of a given speed even with a marked spindle. For example a spindle rotating at 400 rpm would appear to be “frozen” at 200 flashes per minute.

Since I posted this thread I have built two Arduino driven LCD displays and an application that decodes the signal from Sieg mills and lathes that displays the actual RPM’s for a cost of about £30 as opposed to the £150 Axminster charges.

You can find the code and build instructions in a thread I posted in the software forum.

Jenny
Click to expand...
Hi Jenny,

Point me in the direction of the softwear forum please, I'm lost and confused (very easily done these days!!)

Chris
 
Sorry Borriss,

When I first used it I had an iPhone 7, and since upgraded to a 10. I believe the author(s) followed suit and upgraded their software to run on Apple’s new version of IOS.

I had not noticed the change , thank you for reporting it.

Jenny
 
Jenny

I don't know about why it works but I just down loaded the app when you first put it up and it worked. I plug my phone into my computer once a week or so and if there is an update I let it do it. After reading this earlier today, thinking maybe the program has changed I went and tried it on my mill, it works fine.
 
Thanks again Dan,

That must be the difference, up to date operating system. I always keep my technology up to date with software patches automatically. it could bethat the folks who are experiencing issues running it are on earlier versions of the O/S.

I would like to know what version of IOS that Borriss is using. right now my iPhone is operating on IOS 12.3.1
 
Hi Jenny.
My phone runs on 10.3.3. I have not updated it either. Maybe that is the problem! Some interesting comments from the others though. Also I was told it was a 5S but it could be a 5C! How can you tell? You may have gathered I am not a phone geek!! Cheers Borriss.
PS Still good info from you.
 
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