Scale functions and tree ends

A class of totally disconnected groups consisting of partial direct products on an index set is examined. For such a group, the scale function is found, and for automorphisms arising from permutations of the index set, the tidy subgroups are characterised. When applied to the case where the index set is a finitely generated free group and the permutation is translation by an element* of the group, the scale depends on the cyclically reduced form of x and the tidy subgroup on the element which conjugates x to its cyclically reduced form.