Engineer-Joe posted:WOW! That was thorough. Thanks.
If you felt like it for fun, could you try a tach tape printed with a normal printer?
I only ask as I'm thinking the laser provides better quality and is easier for the reader? Myabe my tapes aren't producing sufficient results so that I can't go that thin of stripes?
I was going to test that as well, actually, just to see if there was a difference in response between the laser and inkjet printed stripes. Then I discovered my inkjet printer bit the dust a while back. 
I did notice in looking at the responses above, there is a slight difference in the ratio of on/off times with the tapes vs. the stock stripes. For instance, with the stock stripes at speed 10, the on time is about 1.4ms. With my 0.050" tape, it's more like 1.2 or 1.3ms. The total period is the same, though, at 3m. It's hard to say at what point that would start to have an impact on the processor. It's probably just triggering on the rising signal, which would make it fairly insensitive to the width of the black vs white.
Just judging by eye, the stock stripes don't really look particularly precise. I wouldn't be surprised if the printed stripes are more uniform.
