Part Pitch

Because the BeanCounter infers the part count from the feed holes in the carrier tape, it needs to be told what the ratio of parts to feed holes is. This ratio is communicated in terms of the Part Pitch or the distance between the parts in millimeters.

Getting to the Part Pitch Setting

Pressing the "setup" button once will display the current pitch in the format "P[number]" e.g. "P04"

Pressing the "count/reset" button will increment the pitch until you reach 16mm, at which point it will reset to 1mm

Determining the Part Pitch

The spacing between the feed holes on a piece of carrier tape is 4mm. Most 0603 parts also have a pitch of 4mm which is why the BeanCounter ships in this configuration. It's easy to recognize parts with a 4mm pitch because there will be one part between every hole on the tape. For other pitches, a small ruler is printed on the back of the BeanCounter which you can use to measure from the beginning of one part to the next.