Tiny-Tach tachometer blackout and reset

I was at sea enjoying great weather with my Selva Madeira when I noticed that Tiny-Tach tachometer stopped operating, there was nothing on the screen and pressing the button did not help.

I have been using Tiny-Tach to monitor Selva Madeira RPMs, I have been very satisfied with it,
I bought some cheap tachometers from China but was not able to even install those due to too short wires. The only thing I was a little skeptical with Tiny-Tach is that it has an internal battery which cannot be charged or replaced. I have read that the battery should last several years and my Tiny-Tach was less than a year old. Outside the season I have kept Tiny-Tach indoors to avoid freezing temperatures.

I contacted Tiny-Tach UK because that's where I got the Tiny-Tach with an extended sensor cable. The customer service from Tiny-Tach UK has always been great and now I got instructions how to reset the Tiny-Tach:

First lift a corner of the front sticker and peel it back.

To the right of the select button there is soft 'potting'.

Using a straightened metal paperclip or something similar probe the soft potting.

The object is to short the battery and reset the display. It may take a few attempts to reset.

It should go through a set up display and revert to zeros.

I followed these instructions and after a couple of reset attempts the device started to show zero hours. They even mailed me a new sticker to put on the display! 👌

The root cause of the problem remains still a mystery, it was extremely warm day so maybe the device overheated, this is just my speculation. The Tiny-Tach representative said this can be caused by too much red sensor wire or if the white wire has a poor or non-existent ground to engine block.

Resetting TinyTac using pincers.

Ready to install new cover sticker.

Good as new!