New ChargeMaster Combo

[cgtreml]

Just got my new ChargeMaster Combo complete with 1500 scale. Been reloading with a balance beam and Redding powder measure for about 35 years. Anyone with tricks and tips. It would sure help me with the learning curve. Thanks

[cheese1566]

Keep it clean and empty the unit everytime when done.

Keep the instructions handy to refresh yourself on controls and the calibration process. (easy as pie, but I have to look each time I use it.)

[Mike Kerr]

Please keep us informed regarding your impressions and results after a few loading sessions.

regards,

:-)

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

Please keep us informed regarding your impressions and results after a few loading sessions.

regards,

:-)

Ditto for me, I'm trying to save for one of these machines and appreciate any feedback you have to offer as you get used to it

[OuchHot!]

I was forced to make the conversion to the chargemaster from the typical beam scale, trickler and powder measure. In spite of working daily with electronic balances, I found my fuddy duddyness made it hard to trust the chargemaster. I set it on a nearby bench where it would not be subject to the press cycling vibes. Initially, I let it warm up 15min before use and calibrated every ten throws. I think that the warm up is useful but found calibration to be very constant. It takes about 17-22s to throw a magnum load of long stick powders. I could shorten that by using a measure to throw a short charge and letting the machine "top up" but the lag is useful for seating the bullet and setting the next case on the ram. It really has been (5yrs now) a very useful machine. It has been very consistent. I now calibrate every 20-30min.

[Love Life]

I enjoy the chargemaster. While it is dispensing the next charge I am busy seating and crimping.

It is kind of slow at times though compared to the usual powder measure, trickler, beam scale.

[Quigley284]

I have one and like it alot. Calibrate before using. It doesn't like having a fan in the area. Needs a little warm up time. I use it for every thing including weighing boolits. I even run black powder through it. If you can afford it, get one. Mike

[Missoulaz28]

The McDonald's straw upgrade is very helpful.

Get a straw for McDonald's (the fat ones from any fas tfood should work) and cut a short piece to place in the dispensing tube covering the cut in threads. Will help it throw more accurate charges, especially stick powders.

[cheese1566]

I am curious about warm up times...

I know the Lyman needs a warm up time, but the RCBS instructions never mention it. I have had mine for over a 1 1/2 years. I plug it in, fill, calibrate, and throw accurate loads.

[midnight]

After you drain the hopper when done loading, remember to close the valve. Don't ask how I know. When I got my first one I followed all the directions and set it up. It would not calibrate. I called RCBS and we went through the calibration over the phone and it still would not calibrate. They said ship it back and they would send me a new one. I did and they did and the new one has worked perfectly since day one. It sure is great for 190gr to 230gr loads in the 50BMG. How else do you throw that big a charge accurately and quickly?

Bob

[wallenba]

It's great to use with your beam scale when you get real 'anal' about powder weight charges. Just set the weight a little shy of the target weight. Then after setting the tare with your beam scale pan, dispense and put on beam scale and trickle to final weight.

Oh yeah...Midnight is right about remembering to close the drain valve. Don't ask me how I know either.

[OuchHot!]

My chargemaster shows a small drift (maybe .2gr) in the first 5-10min after turn on. This may not be a problem anymore as mine was one of the first sold. It is solid as a rock after that so I just turn it on a little before I need it.

[bpratl]

I use to have slight erratic drops until I plugged it into a UPS because my reloading room had too many fluorescence lamps which were causing a electrical interference. My only problem is using it for pistol reloads, as it is too slow because it never gets to high speed and starts off on trickle when loading 3.5 to 6 grain loads. 20 to 50 grain reloads are much faster.
I only wish it had a slow load setting. It can be reprogrammed but I have given up in trying to find a happy combination for pistol loads. It is very accurate and very repeatable for rifle loads.

[noylj]

If you have a specific load you like, you can program the unit to dispense it more quickly.
The following is a compilation of information I found:

Programming the RCBS ChargeMaster

Improve your RCBS Charegemaster scale
A while ago the friend of mine phoned me regarding his RCBS Chargemaster combo scale. Up to then I have not taken much notice of my own scale, but he informed me that his scale was charging extremely slow. I timed mine and found that mine was running a lot faster then his. This set me on a journey to find out why there was a difference. The outcome however was that his scale was defective, but it gave us insightful information about the working of these scales.

After doing some research on the internet I was able to determine that these little green scales are fully re-programmable. I sent an e-mail to RCBS on which I received no reply, and eventually telephoned them. They were very helpful and gave me their instructions on how to change the programming on this scale.

This has made a tremendous difference in my reloading experience with this scale. The scale is fully adjustable and there are many settings and that you can change. To enter the program mode pres EDIT MEM and ENTER at the same time. After making an adjustment pres ENTER to go to the next option. After the last setting the scale will reset and countdown. If you passed a setting you have to start from the beginning, there is no back button.

This is the list of settings that you can make to your scale, for some of the functions I do not have detailed instructions as to what they do, and would recommend that you do not change them:

HSB_A1 (15.68) Grains under target weight to go from full to high speed for low weight
HSB_B1 (3.42) Grains under target weight to go from high to slow speed low weight
BSP_C1 (1.08) Grains under target weight to go from slow to final trickle speed low weight

MSP_A2 (39.20) Grains under target weight to go from full to high speed for medium weight
MSP_B2 (8.55) Grains under target weight to go from high to slow speed medium weight
MSP_C2 (2.25) Grains under target weight to go from slow to final trickle speed medium weight

SSP_A3 (196.00) Grains under target weight to go from full to high speed for heavy weight

SSP_B3 (42.75) Grains under target weight to go from high to slow speed heavy weight
SSP_C3 (11.32) Grains under target weight to go from slow to final trickle speed heavy weight

SEL (065) ???
F_A (050) Grains for a Heavy Charge
M_A (035) Grains for a Medium charge
S_A (006) Grains for a slow charge
W_F (200) Rotation for Full speed
W_M (100) Rotation for Medium speed
W_S (036) Rotation for slowest speed

S_F (012) Scale sensitivity timeout time in m/s fast speed
S_M (024) Scale sensitivity timeout time in m/s medium speed
S_S (128) Scale sensitivity timeout time in m/s slow speed.

FR1 (040) ?
FS1 (016) ?
FR2 (080) ?
SR1 (032) ?
SS1 (008) ?
SR2 (040) ?
DEC (000) ?
AT (000) ?

I have to advise you to only make changes to your scale if you are confident to do so, and remember that there is not a “return to default” setting in the scale. If all else fails return your scale to the default settings listed above in brackets.

I am now able to throw 56 grains of S365 in less than 18 seconds (average of 15 charges), and with very few overthrows.

Another problem I experienced with the scale was that there were continued overthrows. The RCBS employee advised me to take a McDonnell's straw (because it is thicker than a normal straw), cut off about a half inch piece and put it into the tube where the powder exits. This caused the last part of an extruded powder to clutter less, and reduced the amount of overthrows dramatically.

I hope you have more joy a with your scale now.
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I found your post very helpful. Thank you! I was able to re-program the "HSP_" parameters on my unit and greatly reduce the time it takes to dispense a charge, without reducing the accuracy.

I have spoken with Don Legg at RCBS (who is the main technical contact person at RCBS for the Chargemaster product) and he was not aware of the function of the "HSP" parameters. This product is actually made by Excell Precision in China for RCBS, and Don has not been able to get a full definition of the programmable parameters from Excell.

He informed me, though, that the "W_" parameters control the initial speed of the trickler. They are properly interpreted as having an implied decimal point. That is, the "200" means 20.0 grains and the "100" means 10.0 grains. Above 20.0 grains the charge will start at the highest speed, between 10.0 and 20.0 grains the charge will start at the medium speed.

I tried changing the "MSP_" and "SSP_" parameters, but did not obtain results that I could interpret. I'm not sure why the unit would ever want to downshift if it was 196.00 grains below the target weight!

Don said that the "S_" parameters control the dwell time for measurements at the different speeds and that a setting of "64" corresponds to 2 seconds (each unit being 1/32 second). When I increased these parameters I did notice a longer lag time in detecting the scale reading and adjusting the trickler speed. I assume that this will allow the scale measurement a longer time to settle when running at the slower speeds.

A large setting for "S_F" causes serious over-charging, as the unit doesn't seem to be able to properly detect the downshift point. I assume the time delay also involves some type of time averaging, so the unit has to run past the desired shift point quite a ways before the average reaches the required value.

I also noticed that the "HSP_", "MSP_" and "SSP_" parameters are scaled versions of each other and appear as parallel linear lines if plotted on a log-linear scale. I'm not sure what this means, but I doubt that it is a coincidence.

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The settings I use are optimized for my load, which is 24.5 grains of Reloader-15. This is for the .223 Remington chambering. My goal was to reduce the amount of time that the Chargemaster spent on the lower speed settings. I haven't had any success trying to adjust the actual rotation speed of the trickler tube. I tried to maximize the time the unit spends at the fastest trickle speed without also causing over-charges.

The settings I chose, based upon trial and error, are as follows:

HSP_A1 = 5.50
HSP_B1 = 2.25
HSP_C1 = 0.40

I also put a thin metal tube within the trickler tube to slightly reduce the diameter and to cover the threads on the trickler tube.

With these settings the Chargemaster drops the first 20.0 grains in about 5 seconds. It downs shifts quickly through the medium speed and then slow speed, and then finally downshifts to the "bump" trickle mode. Two or three "bumps" are all that is typically needed.

The entire charge is dispensed in about 10 to 15 seconds. Waiting for the scale to stabilize, show the count number, and then show the final weight extends the total time to 15 to 20 seconds. This is just about perfect timing, since the new charge is usually ready by the time I have seated the bullet on the previous load.





A McDonald's straw alone is useless... roll a piece of paper around a 3/16" rod and insert it. I haven't gotten around to machining a permanent one yet. The tube restricts the flow of the powder so that you don't get a big clump of powder putting it over your weight. I've found that different diameter holes work better for different powders.

I only adjusted these software parameters:

HSP_A1 to 8.00
HSP_B1 to 3.00
HSP_C1 to 1.00

Its slower, but it doesn't overflow at all. You can see a single kernel or two put it on the desired weight each time. I get SD's in the singles without having to trickle up.

Other useful tips:

-When you remove the pan to dump it, always check that the readout is -(pan weight).

-Watch for static buildup between the housing and the plastic platform. It causes errors.

-Auto mode is not your friend if you're going for accuracy. It doesn't give the scale enough time to settle on zero.

Kris,

Gonna have to disagree with you slightly, based on my experience.

The McD's straw isn't there for constriction, its to provide a smooth surface that the powder kernels can't 'climb' like they do on the 'threads' on the inside of the dispenser tube - which leads to them coming out in a clump.

I have mine *sped up* (don't recall the exact settings right off hand) and I very rarely get any over-thrown charges. Quick enough to remove a few kernels w/ a plastic spoon, put the pan back on the scale to verify, and carry on.

I have weighed a fair number (few thousand) of charges from the Chargemaster to a milligram scale (Acculab VIC-123), almost all of which have been in 'auto' mode - and I can count on one hand, with fingers left over, how many times the charge dispensed by the Chargemaster was not within +/- 0.1gr of the indicated value.

Some of this may simply be due to variations between your unit and mine. Dunno.

This is what I did.

Works out much better with certain powders (not ball powders for sure)

You can adjust the length and fine tune if you are going to run a lot of one powder.

It's not perfect, but majorly improved my powder throws!

1 out of 15 may be over, before it was more like 1 out of 7.



Mute That Annoying Beep
Some ChargeMaster users complain about the loud beep at the end of each cycle. There’s a simple way to silence the beep — and you don’t have to cut any wires or permanently disable the speaker. To mute the beep, simply hold down the Zero button until “beep off” displays. Repeat to restore the beep function.

Activating the Auto-Dispense Mode
You can set the ChargeMaster to automatically dispense your pre-programmed charge as soon as you put the pan back on the scale. Simply press and hold the “Enter” button. The code “Auto” should then appear on the display. At this point, push “Disp” to dispense the first charge. When you replace the pan, the unit will automatically dispense the same charge. For some people this is an added convenience. You can always go back to the default manual dispense method by changing the dispense mode using the “Enter” button again.

Use a McDonald’s Straw to Reduce Over-Throws
Jaco Brink provided another useful tip to avoid “over-throws” (excess charge weight): “The RCBS employee advised me to take a McDonnell’s straw (because it is thicker than a normal straw), cut off about a half inch piece and put it into the tube where the powder exits. This caused the last part of an extruded powder to cluster less, and reduced the amount of overthrows dramatically.”

Instructional Video
The video below shows how to set up and calibrate a Chargemaster 1500. Be sure to level the unit carefully, both left to right and front to back. Starting at the 1:44 mark in the video you can see the unit dispense a 50-grain charge in 30 seconds. The slow, final trickle stage takes about half of the total time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwGrlzrVAC8

How to Shorten Dispensing Times
The last tip is for advanced users only. You can alter the programming settings to speed up powder dispensing dramatically. One user reported that, by re-programming his machine, his cut his dispensing time for a 30-grain load from 22 to 13 seconds “with no overthrows”. WARNING: once you change the parameters, there is no “restore” command to set everything back to the defaults. So proceed carefully. The speed enhancement procedure is described on the pages linked below:

Basic ChargeMaster Speed Enhancement | Advanced ChargeMaster Programming Tips

[OuchHot!]

Whoa! Thank you very much! I got to go play programmer now!

[troyboy]

I bought one then sold it due to the situation at the time. I have just purchased another and would do so again. It works great.