MicroSet 3 can produce paper tape strips like traditional Vibrograph or Tickoprint watch timing machines, using a low cost label printer. Using a special data cable, you can plug the printer directly into MicroSet 3 and generate conventional paper tape graphs of watch rates. You do not need a personal computer to print these charts, but if you have one, the label printer comes with software for either Macintosh or Windows, and it can be used to print address labels, job tickets, etc. The printer can be loaded with self adhesive label stock or continuous rolls of thermal paper. The tape width is an ample 2.2 inches.

The label printer MicroSet was designed to use is the Dymo EL60. Dymo has discontinued this printer, but they can still be bought new and used on Ebay. Click here to see current listings on eBay. You also need a special data cable from us to connect the printer to MicroSet.

Reading the rate and beat error
On traditional paper tape printers you had to use a rotating scale to read the rate by matching the slope of the line. MicroSet 3 is able to print the rate to an accuracy of one second per day right on the tape. These values can be seen at the top edge of the tape shown below. They're printed after the completion of every 100 beats (after each inch of tape travel). For example, during the first 100 beats of this tape, the watch was four seconds per day fast. Following the rate value, the tape says "1.0 Err". This is the beat error of this watch: 1.0 milliseconds. During the second interval of 100 beats for this watch, you can see that the rate was two seconds per day fast with a beat error of 0.8 milliseconds. The tape is scaled like the output from an original Vibrograph timer, with a slope of one inch in three inches being equal to a minute per day of error. This allows you to understand the MicroSet tape easily if you are already familiar with a Vibrograph tape.

Zooming in on the beat
This watch has a pretty small beat error. Since the resolution of the tape is about one millisecond, it's difficult to see what's going on with the individual beats. MicroSet 3 can "zoom in" on the details of the tick. In the tape below, the readings begin at normal scale. After the first two inches of tape I pressed the PLUS button on MicroSet to zoom in on the tick. This prints a vertical line on the tape and doubles the resolution of the display. Now you can begin to see separation in the beat. Pressing the PLUS button again prints another vertical line and doubles the resolution again. A third press of the PLUS button prints yet another vertical line and doubles the resolution a final time, for an eight fold magnification of the beat. Now you can easily see irregularities in the beat error, and the tape shows it to be just 0.9 milliseconds. The apparent slope increases due to the magnification, but we don't need to judge the rate from the slope anymore -- it's printed at the top edge of the tape. Note that the vertical lines that cross the tape are only printed if you "zoom" the resolution up or down. A normal tape run at one scale is not divided up like the tape shown below.

Viewing the rate as horizontal
This watch looks like it's running at a very good rate, with an error of just a couple seconds per day. In fact, this watch is not running nearly that well. It's actually slow by many seconds per day. If this watch were plotted correctly, it would produce a rather steep ramp with the trace running off the paper at a diagonal. This makes it difficult to examine irregularities in the tick because they are distorted by the slope of the line. Traditional paper tape timers must print the slope because they have a limited number of rates they can accommodate. But MicroSet 3 can be configured for any arbitrary rate. In the tape shown below, I simply told MicroSet that the correct rate for the watch was the rate it was running at. This is why the error shown is so small and why the trace is horizontal. It allows us to view the beat of the watch in detail without it running off the tape. It also allows us to clearly see how stable the rate is, because any variance from the horizontal is instability in the rate. If the tape were configured to show true rate, the more subtle fluctuations of beat would not be so visible. To see the actual rate of the watch, simply run another tape with the rate set correctly. MicroSet 3 can be set to display paper tapes of rate for any timepiece in it's range, from Atmos clocks with a beat time of 30 seconds to fast watches that beat at 36,000 BPH.