Sorry I don't have the original e-mail anymore, but this attempts to address the question of what Directives apply to a tachometer for marine and automotive applications.
There are 4 Directives I can think of that MAY apply. While it may be a grey area whether you MUST comply with a certain directive or not, often the customer will tell you in no uncertain terms. I don't know whether you were talking about a piece of original equipment or an aftermarket item, and that may bear on the question as well. Are you being told by anyone that you must have the CE Mark on the product? 1. The Low Voltage Directive - depending on the voltages present in the product, you may have to meet this directive, which deals with product safety; 2. The EMC Directive, although it is somewhat open to interpretation as to whether automotive applications are covered (the EMCD excludes motor vehicles, but I don't know about components, complete equipment for use in cars, or aftermarket products) 3. There is something that I think is called the Motor Vehicle Directive, at any rate it's number is 72/245/EEC. There is an amendment for it (draft still?) covering EMC. 4. The Recreational Craft Directive - covers boats. I don't know if it covers electrical equipment for use on boats, and I don't know how the original equipment / aftermarket equipment issue shakes out on this one either. The difficult step could be to find applicable standards once you determine what Directives apply. For example, we have products that are subject to EN60950, which includes a note in its Scope section saying that "additional requirements" may be necessary for equipment used in motor vehicles or boats (among other things). We have asked agencies 2 or 3 times now to try to tell us what these "additional requirements" are (i.e. give us standard numbers) and we can't get a good answer. The answer typically is somewhere between "just use the base standard" and "it is your responsibility to determine all applicable standards". Not very helpful. Does anyone out there have any experience with this "additional requirements" business? We ended up just using EN60950 on its own but stipulating pollution degree 3 instead of the more usual 2. Regards, Jim Eichner 1Statpower Technologies Corporation jeich...@statpower.com The opinions expressed are those of my invisible friend
