CHUB T3 ALARM - A REVIEW.

Having had a night of ups and downs thanks to a "touch 'n go" Optonic recently, I decided to look into the possibility of replacing my ancient alarms with something a little more modern.

Now I’m no tackle tart, so my needs were that it should be a sensibly priced alarm that won’t let me down if it got wet. That was it really.

I was initially tempted by the Fox MX+ range of alarms, but then I discovered the CHUB T3 and T5 models via my local tackle shop.

At first, I wasn’t overly impressed with their looks. However, I watched a couple of videos online and decided that they were worth a little more investigation.

My first result was winning a brand new T3 on "that auction site" for the grand sum of ten pounds. I awaited its arrival eagerly.

The postman arrived and I tore into the packaging like a man possessed. First impression was just how small the T3 is! It’s tiny! (In comparison to my house brick-like Optonics anyway)

T3 ALARM AND CLAMSHELL CASE

The T3 also comes with an optional plastic clamshell case. This allows you to keep the alarms on a bar, bankstick or pod and affords them some protection. They’re neat little mouldings and work fine. There is no "proper" hinge on the case however (just part of the plastic moulding acting as a hinge), so I’m not sure how long the halves will remain attached to one another. Time will tell I guess.

The alarm looks good. Better in the flesh than it did online in my opinion. It has twin red LED’s, an isotope slot, a speaker grille and company logos on the front face.

LED'S ARE BRIGHT! PICTURE DOES NOT DO THEM JUSTICE...

Anti slip rubber pads are fitted in the rod slot.

SLIGHTLY OUT OF FOCUS RUBBER PADS

A quality brass 3/8" UNF male thread pokes out of the bottom of the alarm. This has an o-ring on it to cope with alignment issues on bars and pods etc.

The alarm is approximately 106mm tall by 50mm wide by 33mm deep. It weighs 93g with batteries fitted.

The T3 is powered by 2 x LR1 batteries.

The battery door is clipped into place and then held securely by a recessed screw. There is a rubber seal on the door to keep the weather out.

3 buttons take care of all control on the T3. POWER on the left hand side of the casing and +/- on the right hand side. Simplicity!

POWER AND CONTROL BUTTONS. SIMPLE STUFF!

Power up the T3 and you are welcomed with bright red LED’s and a little 3 note ascending beep to let you know that the little beasty is ready for action.

Volume is controlled by pressing the plus or minus buttons. The range is from 1 (minimum) to 8 (maximum) When you have selected your desired volume, then LED’s then flash the relevant number of times to display the volume level. Maximum and minimum volume levels are indicated by double beeps.

To adjust tone, you simply hold down the + button until the alarm beeps and the LED’s glow. Then just press + or – to adjust the tone. The double beep indicates the lowest and highest tone available. Tone setting is at a pre determined volume, so if you’ve set volume to MAX then it is still at a sensible volume level whilst setting your tone requirements. Once you are happy with your tone, press the power button briefly and the LED’s will go out and you’re ready to rock!

The unit will remember volume and tone settings until the batteries expire.

To switch the alarm off, simply hold the power button until a 3 note descending tone is heard.

Sensitivity is fixed on the T3 model. The alarm’s tone is the same whether the take is a run or a drop back.

The sensing mechanism is called "e-motion" and is quoted as being durable and sensitive. It also offers great battery life. The roller wheel inside the alarm is friction free.

Once a take has been indicated, the LED’s latch on for 20 seconds.

Coating the circuitry of the alarm enhances durability. The casing halves are also fused together. Don’t expect to be pulling these alarms apart. They’re sealed for life!

A 2.5mm socket is another great addition to the alarm. This will allow the user to connect the T3 up to remote systems if required. I believe Chub are working on a remote system for the T3 and T5 range. This is due for release sometime in 2012.

3/8" UNF THREAD & 2.5MM SOCKET

The alarm is capable of subtle volumes, but can really belt out the run if required. I was pleasantly surprised just how loud the little alarms were given their size. On the lowest tone of the 8 options and the lowest volume setting, the speaker is pretty much redundant. You still have LED indication though.

Warranty is 2 years. The alarm has to be registered with Chub for this to be valid. The alarm’s serial number is found in the battery compartment.

The T3 is the budget alarm in the range. It does not have all the bells and whistles of the T5, but for an angler who doesn’t want to spend big bucks on their kit or for youngsters, they look to be an ideal investment. They can currently be purchased for around £19.99 complete with clamshell case. That’s got to be a bargain hasn’t it?

The only limitations I can really see with the T3 are…

No sensitivity adjustment. – If you need that, then look at the T5.

No warning of low battery level – Again, the T5 has this feature.

If you’re looking to bore your fishing partner/wife/children/dog with gadgets and gizmos, then the T3 may not be for you. However, if you want to get fishing with well thought out and well made gear on a budget, then it looks like the T3 could be worth a look.

www.chubfishing.com

　

　

　

　

All Quiet On The Felthorpe Front... 6th August 2012

It's most odd....

Arrive at lake early and you're pretty much assured of a catch.

Then nothing....

This is exactly what happened on Monday

I had a screaming run on my new Chub T3 alarms (so cheap, yet perfectly adequate for what I do)

A little Common came to say hello

Went well considering how tiny he/she was....

I then waited and waited from 7am until 6pm without a sniff. The guy opposite me had nothing either.

I should've moved, but sat it out on my new, re-elasticated and repaired bedchair and my Stone Roses book.

I can't understand this lake sometimes..... But I guess that's the joy of fishing eh???

Here's some views from my fave swim on Mirror Lake. My "fave spots" shown in red...

Simple Kit. No Bobbins. Avons and Okuma 40's.

Method feeders and my little maggot/corn hair rig setup

I think i'll do a little review of the T3 alarm soon. Watch this space peeps!



Optonicus Poorlius....



I can clearly remember the sheer excitement at receiving my first Optonic bite alarm in the mid to late 80's. My dad bought it for me for my birthday and I was over the moon to have finally joined "the big boys" with my new addition.... I wanted 2, but they were pretty pricey (£40-50 in the mid 80's as a guess?) I had to wait a while until I was lucky enough to get another one...

AN OPTONIC COMPACT - HIGH TONE

Note LED position... Odd! No adjustment. Switch on and fish!

AN OPTONIC SPECIAL COMPACT - HIGH TONE

Single LED and a volume option... Getting there....

AN OPTONIC SUPER COMPACT

Ding Dong! Run LED, Latching LED, Tone & Volume controls. Yipee!

The model I got was the SUPER COMPACT. There were also the options of SPECIAL COMPACTS (volume control and one LED) and COMPACTS , which didn't have anything in the way of adjustability of tone and/or volume and only one LED in an odd position.... (See above pics) I think you just had to purchase high or low tone and that was your lot.... Anyhoo, I digress.

I have happily used these alarms for the past 25 years. They have never let me down until recently (more on that later)

The Optonic alarm surfaced in the early 1980's and was made by Efgeeco (Frank Goddard & Co.). This alarm soon became the "must have" and thousands of units were sold. It really was a breath of fresh air compared to the old, unreliable alarms that anglers had suffered up until their arrival.

The Optonic works on the principal of the line resting against a V section plastic roller, which is housed within the alarm body. A shaft is attached to this wheel which has a vane arrangement pushed onto it. As the line is moved by a running fish, the plastic vanes rotate between an infrared light source and sensor within the casing. As the vanes pass through, a piezo buzzer is sounded and a pair of LED's are activated - one showing the run as it happens in red and the other, which is a latching LED which lights green. (Super Compact only) There were two vanes supplied with the original alarm. A 2 blade vane and a 4 blade vane which improved sensitivity. Other options became available as time went on.

The alarm ran on a 9V PP3 battery, which was accessed by splitting the alarm in half. This was achieved by removing the 2 small nuts and bolts at the top of the alarm and the large plastic nut and bolt which attached it to the bankstick or pod. The battery was attached via a clip. The spare vane was also housed inside the casing (see my pics later on)

The front of the Super Compact housed a volume control, a tone control and 2 LED's as mentioned previously. It appears that the super compacts had a clip on fascia. Something I only discovered when stripping mine for surgery recently. Maybe this is a mod to allow the manufacturers to use a standard body for all options of alarm? An after thought maybe? Who knows..?

The power switch was on the bottom face along with a 2.5mm jack to allow the alarms to be fitted to sounder boxes... something I’ve never tried to do. I may look into this at a later date.

Audible signalling is provided by a 31mm diameter Piezo element. This is a difficult spare to find. More on that later.

One complaint with the alarms was that they weren't loud enough (they seem pretty loud to me - maybe alcohol fuelled fishing sessions made them harder to hear?). This is something which companies such as DELKIM seized upon. They made various modifications to alarms including fitting much larger GPO speakers to the units for more oomph. This eventually landed DELKIM in court and the modifying of original units was halted.

Battery changing is a bit of a pain on the compact units. There is no warning of low battery level either.

The alarms sat upon a fork type threaded adaptor made of plastic. The nut at the bottom of the alarm was tightened to pinch the alarm onto the fork. A fierce run could shift the alarms on their fork and even knock them off completely if the nut wasn't sufficiently tightened. Again, modified parts became available to combat the Optonic's "niggles" as time went on. One of these mods was "ears". They were basically plastic extensions, which fitted to the top of the alarm to prevent the rod from being moved out of the vee of the alarm by high winds or a screaming sidewards run.

　

As they say, a picture says a thousand words, so I’ve popped some pictures of my super compact on here for all to see. I hope it may be of use to anyone out there who still owns one of these great little alarms and would like to revive it for old time's sake... If not, send it to me and I’ll happily give it a loving home.

MY POORLY OPTONIC.

After 25 years of faithful service, my first super compact gave up the ghost whilst fishing overnight at Felthorpe Lakes.

All of the circuitry and adjustability was still fine, but the alarm had a very low audible output. No amount of cleaning or spraying with electrical cleaner improved matters, so it was time to strip her down for surgery.

The unit is pretty simple to strip out. Firstly remove the nuts and bolts from the top and bottom of the unit as per a battery change.

This allows you to split the alarm in half and access all of the magical parts that scare you half to death in the middle of a night session.

The vane/wheel assembly just lifts out.

The battery unclips.

The main power switch is held in with 2 small screws on the outside of the casing.

The main circuit board is held in place with 2 small screws, one top and one bottom.

The potentiometers and the LED's are butted up against a spongy material inside the alarm. I assume this is for waterproofing. Gentle persuasion will get this board shifting.

BUT

Don't forget that the piezo wires are connected to the circuit board. If you wish to take it out completely, then you will need to unsolder the red and black piezo wires from their posts on the circuit board. The piezo wires are much thinner than the battery wires. If you unscrew the power switch from the body, then you do not need to unsolder the battery wires.

The entire circuit board, switch and battery clip will then lift out of the alarm body.

If you wish to access the piezo, then this can be done by unclipping the panel from the front of the alarm (see pic of panel below)

The piezo elements are quite hard to find here in the UK. They are 31mm diameter and appear to be just a circle of metal with 2 wires soldered on. I won’t go into geeky, scientific stuff to try to explain how they work, but suffice to say that mine had given up the ghost. I managed to confirm that it was the piezo by mounting the suspect board into the other good alarm I had and soldering the good piezo’s wires onto it. It worked like a charm, so the board of the suspect alarm is totally fine.

I managed to find a supplier of 31mm piezos via a well-known auction site. The seller is based in the USA, but around £6 sees 5 of the little blighters winging their way to me ready for some soldering fun.

I will update this blog as and when they arrive.

Cheers for reading. Hope it wasn't too dull.

Jon

　

　

　MY BOXED SUPER COMPACT

　

　THE BUSINESS SIDE OF THINGS.

T 'OTHER SIDE.

CASING SPLIT. YOU CAN SEE THE VANE ASSEMBLY AND SPARE VANE.

A BARE FRONT HALF. HOLES FOR POTS, LED'S AND PIEZO. BATTERY HELD BY FOAM.

A FRONT FACE WITH THE "PANEL" POPPED OFF. IT SEEMS THE TWO HALVES ARE IDENTICAL WHEN MOULDED, BUT ARE THEN MODDED TO SUIT.

THE PANEL THAT'S CLIPPED ONTO THE SUPER COMPACT



THE CIRCUIT BOARD SHOWING LED'S AND TONE/VOLUME CONTROL POTS.

MORE OF THE CIRCUIT BOARD. SENSING COMPONENTS ON LEFT HAND SIDE

THE BOARD..... AGAIN.

HERE'S THE INFRARED LIGHT SOURCE AND THE RECEIVER. NEAT EH?

VERY EXCITING TO A KID IN THE 1980'S I CAN ASSURE YOU

BACKSIDE OF BOARD.

I BUZZED ALL COMPONENTS OUT WITH A FLUKE MULTIMETER.

EVERYTHING ON BOARD WAS FINE AFTER A QUARTER OF A CENTURY!

THE OFFENDING DEVICE. A 31MM DIAMETER PIEZO ELEMENT.

CHEAP, BUT HARD TO FIND IN THIS SIZE IN THE UK.


AND NOW FOR THE UPDATE!

I received the 5 off piezo discs and duly soldered the original (hair-like) wires onto it.

Positive is the smaller, inner ring on the piezo. Negative is the outer ring.

I soldered it to the main board and BINGO we're off. Simple as that! Loud too! Even louder once mounted back inside the case.

I cobbled the unit back together and tested before popping the two halves of the case together. All good....

Once screwed together and admired, I went for the good old final test....

nothing.....

nada....

rien.....

nowt....

Open the case and test it....... Fine!

Close case up again. Zilch.

Turns out that the infrared emitter and receiver were kaput. No! I thought they were fine! That'll explain the highly annoying false indications on my last night fishing trip..... Hmmm.

I did some research on the net and phoned a nice chap in Essex who gave me some clues and offered to do the job if I struggled.

I was buggered if I was giving up now.

I zipped to Maplin on my trusty lambretta and purchased the following...

CH10L (Transmitter)

£0.99

CH11M (Receiver)

£0.99

The ginger, lanky geek in the shop was top-class geeky & brilliant. I wondered if he'd ever kissed a girl... I felt confident he hadn't.

As a note, the infrared transmitter has some red marks on it's legs. Otherwise they look pretty similar, apart from having opposite legs (i.e anode and cathode are in opposite positions when laid side by side)

The two little "pips" on the components must face each other and be reasonably in line.

I de-soldered the old components carefully and then soldered the new ones into place. The legs of the old components are bent under the board to secure them a bit better. Make sure these are straightened out before trying to yank them out with your other half's eyebrow tweezers.

Soldering went quite well. I bent the tags of the legs under the board like the old components too. The sensors were around 10mm apart.

I switched her on..... nothing. Then I remembered it needing to be in the dark. Covered the sensors with my hand and BOOM! We're off. Nice loud alarm.

To say i'm happy is an understatement. There was no way I was giving up on these alarms. I hold them dearly to my heart as they meant SO much to me when I was a tiny teeny.

I've recently discovered i'm off to France for "Le Carpe Session" with three great friends in October..... The Optonics will be coming with me for sure.

I've enjoyed this little project. It's a good feeling when you fix something for a few quid isn't it?



THE OLD SENSORS - 25 YEARS OF SERVICE!



THE NEW SENSORS IN PLACE

QUITE A GAP, BUT WORKS PERFECTLY!



ALL BACK TOGETHER AND READY FOR SEALING UP







　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

Felthorpe 13/14 July

I awoke on 13th with a strange feeling.... I told my long-suffering other half that I knew that Foxy was going to "catch well this weekend...."

I headed over to foxy towers for around 16.30 and awaited the arrival of the podgemobile....

We were down at mirror lake and wetting our baits by 6pm ish.

Foxy Kicked off with a pretty little 7lb mirror

Foxy is taller than this I assure you......

Pretty little fish. Lovely scale pattern.

Around 10.30pm, my prediction came true. Chris was away from his rods and a steady bleeping caught my attention.... I wandered over and struck into something that didn't really feel too smart if i'm honest.

I called for foxy and he came rumbling down the bank with mucho gusto. I handed the rod to him and he was away on one of the most exciting battles of his life (so far)

After a 15 minuteish scrap a 19lb 1oz Common graced the net.... Much backslapping and handshaking all round....

After a scrap with the camera, we got a few shots and then weighed up and carefully  returned the beast to fight another day.... We've since been told by Charlotte that the fish is known as "scar", due to some old scale damage on the right hand side near the tail...

So... Foxy goes from a PB of 14 odd pounds to 19! Well done boyo! He was a total pro and played the fish perfectly.

I had a gorgeous Mirror in the early hours. Nothing like a screaming optonic to wake you up! I've not got a photo of it...yet. I'll have to ask foxy to mail it to me.... This trip has restored my faith in night fishing.... It was also my first fish on the Okuma 55's and old Silstar Traverse X Rods (old, but I love 'em!)

Stop Press!!! Foxy has sent me the picture of my Mirror. Look at the size of those fins! Mahoosive!
Lovely scale pattern too.

This Little Blighter Went Like ATrain!

An poorly optonic had me up in the early hours. It was signalling a run when there was nothing of the sort.... It was heaving it down though, so I guess it was water ingress. The alarm has since died, but more on that in another blog soon! (Optonic Repair Special!)

 We had a great weekend. Found a pretty tidy 635 BMW in the woods, got covered in slug slime, perfected the Half Nelson DDT rig and ate carbonised bacon..... a textbook lad's weekend for sure!

Bring on the next trip.......



Felthorpe 7/8 July

Fished Mirror Lake with El Foxio....

Plenty of carp to be seen in the sunshine (whilst it lasted) I think I even spotted (and filmed) the gohsty I caught a while back.

Fed a slug with method mix and cute ducklings with maggots.

Again, plenty of baits, rigs etc etc, but nowt.

Lovely Indian Saturday night. Perfick!

Slept well on a borrowed bedchair.

Awoke to rain... lots of rain.

Left around 11.00am tired, but I thoroughly enjoyed the fox's company.

Decided to buy another Vespa.....

Until the next time fishy friends.....

23rd June 2012 - Cobbleacre

Went to Cobbleacre with Dr Fox.

We fished Mario's lake.

Fished 07.00-19.00 without a single run.

A multitude of baits were tried

Nothing.... Nada.....Nowt.

Lovely looking lake, but we need a result. Foxy has now fished over 90 hours at Mario's without a run.....

Next time..... next time....

Shropham 10.06.12

I took my mrs for a nice romantic stroll around a lake in Shropham yesterday.

Wymondham & District Angling Club have the rights to the water and it's £50/year.

There was a match on. We took a meander round. It really was a cracking looking water.

I've scaled it via google maps at approx 900ft long by 370 ft wide at it's widest point.

I met the chap i'd spoken to on the phone and he made us feel very welcome.

We spotted 3 halfway decent commons basking in the sunshine. My guess was 6,8, & 12 ish pounds.

According to another chap I knew who was fishing the match, the carp go to 27lb ish, but there are "only a handful of carp in here"........... Hmmm......

Tench to 8lb and bream to 5-6lbs. Pike too!

I'm tempted, but I can't help but think that the match guys weren't that "busy" whilst we were there.....

I'm getting "hard water" vibes.....

It's on my doorstep though (well, from work anyway) and it really did look most appealing. That doesn't catch fish though does it????

The hunt for a ticket water continues....... bum holes....