Ultrak 499 Printer

Ultrak 499 systems - I have 3 of the stopwatches, a printer and download cable. Also a combined printer/ timer that looks like a Seiko. It uses a different download cable. Obviously, I keep going back and buying more of them. But there are a few issues:Stopwatch has no lock out for the stop button. Get some Sculpy Clay and make one and hot glue it on. Printer sometimes skips 2 fast clicks. ALL times ARE stored electronically though. Download interface has scary warnings and when I left mine plugged in all the time, I got blown all the way back to a DOS error message about every 3 days and had to cold start. Just don't leave it plugged in all the time and you should be fine. Had to drill back out to change battery. So just remember to do this before taking it to a battery shop because they probably won't be able to get it off either. One of my watches loses (gains?) a couple of seconds an hour.These watches and printers are a great value. Format for times is odd but you can pass it thru a smart Excel formula and fix it. One of the best things about the printer is that, unlike a Seiko, you can turn the hard copy print on and off any time and it starts printing.You can also plug in while timing and watch times download to a computer screen.

I use it to print out times for cross country races.Worked fine for 4 years, but now won't turn on.It was used only during cross country season, and then only for a half-dozen races per year.Not a lot of use for it to fail. For $250 I expect more.