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daboone
08-03-2016, 07:52 AM
I'm retired. I love gadgets and gizmos.

My most recent purchase was the SA Development's Press Monitor III. I knew before I bought this electronic gizmo that it was a tool that would tell me a lot about the process, statistic, and add a layer of awareness to the progressive reloading.

So what does it do? This electronic box reminds me what action is next and has LED messages, alerts and beeps. These alerts warn me when any operation is out of sequence. It catches mistakes such as short stroking, forgetting to rotate the shell plate, not priming or any other out of sequence error. These issues can be avoided by just paying attention of course but serve as a nice reminders when interrupted to answer the phone, the door, bathroom call of duty, etc. Can safety oversight be faulted?

The other aspect that initially caught my attention was the statistics. The statistics includes Round Counter, Press Time for each session, Rounds Per Hour (Current and Total), Remaining Rounds before a session is completed/time required to complete those rounds you set prior to the session, and the powder measure and primer tube status for refilling. There are three long term statistics maintained in the memory of this device: Total Rounds, Total Press Time, and Total Rounds Per Hour. All three of these statistics are saved over ALL reloading sessions or can be reset, your choice.

That's the stuff I like about having this electronic oversight gadget.

Here are the CONS (?):
1- I've never soldered a wire or dabbled in color coded wiring and switches. It may be my age, but putting the right wire on the correct part of the switch then mounting the switches on the press was daunting for me. It took me about 3-4 hours to understand mentally how to go about doing this and another 2 hours to complete the process. Its not that the directions weren't clear or precise I was just intimidated by a process I've never done. Allen, the inventor, was very prompt and helpful in getting me past my self inflicted issues.

2- After getting my Press Monitor III setup and functioning it was able to walk me through it's process and tell you what to do next. This however slowed me down tremendously. I was behaving like a complete reloading newbe. I was waiting for the monitor to tell me what to do next instead of just completing the process in a normal cadence. Once I stopped waiting to be told what to do and just did it, it became the oversight tool I knew it to be.

3- So these "cons" were really my issues and not the product's.

I'm very happy with all it features, bells and whistles. When my grandsons come over they know exactly when to stop reloading because a buzzer sounds, a light flashes and the error message appears. I love hearing them read the prompts as they reload the ammo they will be shooting.

dragon813gt
08-03-2016, 08:39 AM
For those that don't know what it is: http://www.pressmonitordevice.com/pm.htm

rancher1913
08-03-2016, 09:01 AM
to each his own, I prefer the KISS method, but then again I am not doing production runs.

kayala
08-03-2016, 09:36 AM
As rancher1913 said - to each his own. For me the value added is next to zilch and $150 will buy me a 5K of primers or an 8# powder.

daboone
08-03-2016, 09:38 AM
I agree it's not necessary for operating the 550B correctly. I thought I made that clear. It is just an oversight safety gadget with a lot of statistic information and reminder prompts. It is a toy? Yes but a useful, helpful and interesting toy as well as a screw up monitor. As I mentioned my grandsons do quite a bit of reloading for their dads. For that safety monitoring alone it was worth it for me.

OS OK
08-03-2016, 09:54 AM
I get it about the bells and whistles thing, I'm a retired Electrical Contractor who primarily specialized in motor control and power distribution in the industrial arena. Some of my customers corrugated box plants were automated to the hilt with the finest and most expensive and up to date equipment available. It was a pleasure to wire them together and watch them run, especially the fully automated areas.
On the other hand I had small family owned factories that ran all old technology that depended entirely on the operators to feed it, sequence it and keep it running and producing all day and they were more labor intensive. Yet, they still held a place in the industry with their short runs that the large factories couldn't be bothered with.
So...you can see that I do get it about the bells and whistles...but, it leaves me with this question for you regarding the art of handloading.

If you teach your sons to operate this press following the instructions provided by the monitoring automation, do you think that they could go to another press, say...a turret or even a bare bones LnL and have the skill to set it up, tune it and operate it efficiently without a digital readout making all the decisions for them and telling them what to do in each instance?
I really wonder if the human condition should respond more to the computer between our ears...or the one of many that we find all around us in the world today?

Don't take me wrong, I'm not knocking your gizmo...I just resent computers replacing our minds to the extent that they have in our lives.

When my oldest son came to me one evening declaring that his teacher in math class said that they could bring a calculator to school and use it in class...and that he wanted me to take him to the drug store to buy one, I said sure, no problem but just that there is this one caveat...As soon as you can demonstrate to me that you have memorized the multiplication tables up to and including 12 X 12, I'll buy any calculator you want.
He had a fit...but he complied, a few years later he said something on the order that he was glad that he did learn them.
I hope we as humans continue to exercise our grey matter, develop our skills and stop relying so intensely on gizmos.

daboone
08-03-2016, 10:08 AM
4 of my 5 grandsons (one is just to young) learned to reload on my Turret and CO-AX under watchful eyes. I don't think it is a teaching tool but simply a monitoring and informational tool. As a grandpa I'm glad to know my grandson understand the operations require of handloading as well as the meaning of the prompts, alerts and warnings of the Press Monitor III. I love working and teaching with my grandsons now I don't have to hover as closely as I did.

Rockzilla
08-03-2016, 10:08 AM
I get it about the bells and whistles thing, I'm a retired Electrical Contractor who primarily specialized in motor control and power distribution in the industrial arena. Some of my customers corrugated box plants were automated to the hilt with the finest and most expensive and up to date equipment available. It was a pleasure to wire them together and watch them run, especially the fully automated areas.
On the other hand I had small family owned factories that ran all old technology that depended entirely on the operators to feed it, sequence it and keep it running and producing all day and they were more labor intensive. Yet, they still held a place in the industry with their short runs that the large factories couldn't be bothered with.
So...you can see that I do get it about the bells and whistles...but, it leaves me with this question for you regarding the art of handloading.

If you teach your sons to operate this press following the instructions provided by the monitoring automation, do you think that they could go to another press, say...a turret or even a bare bones LnL and have the skill to set it up, tune it and operate it efficiently without a digital readout making all the decisions for them and telling them what to do in each instance?
I really wonder if the human condition should respond more to the computer between our ears...or the one of many that we find all around us in the world today?

Don't take me wrong, I'm not knocking your gizmo...I just resent computers replacing our minds to the extent that they have in our lives.

When my oldest son came to me one evening declaring that his teacher in math class said that they could bring a calculator to school and use it in class...and that he wanted me to take him to the drug store to buy one, I said sure, no problem but just that there is this one caveat...As soon as you can demonstrate to me that you have memorized the multiplication tables up to and including 12 X 12, I'll buy any calculator you want.
He had a fit...but he complied, a few years later he said something on the order that he was glad that he did learn them.
I hope we as humans continue to exercise our grey matter, develop our skills and stop relying so intensely on gizmos.

Pretty much says it... above
I don't knock the gizmo's, bells and whistles either. Just got to keep the ole gray matter working. If it works for you I'm happy, just sometimes don't like to depend on automated stuff 100%

-Rock

6622729
08-03-2016, 03:07 PM
Now there is a gizmo I can do without. I'm glad you like gizmos and clearly are excited about this one and I hope you have fun and I appreciate you bringing it to our attention. It's just not for me.

dverna
08-03-2016, 03:53 PM
I can see it being useful for many "casual" reloaders. If it prevents an overcharge or squib, it adds value to some.

seagiant
08-03-2016, 04:13 PM
Hi,
I'll pass!

daboone
08-03-2016, 05:47 PM
I can see it being useful for many "casual" reloaders. If it prevents an overcharge or squib, it adds value to some.

Casual reloader I am not. I been actively reloading for more than 50 years. My dad taught back in 1958 and I'm now 70. The overcharge/squip features is for me secondary to the statistic offered. On the other hand I appreciate that oversight being there for my grandsons and it certainly doesn't interfere but is just ever present. What can that hurt? It also tracks primer and powder useage with reminder to check both.

Fishman
08-06-2016, 08:16 AM
Thank you for the thoughtful review. I've seen this before but had not had the opportunity to hear from someone who bought one. I think your reasoning for getting it is very sound.

Walter Laich
08-06-2016, 08:27 PM
Glad you like it. This makes you happy and happy is not always in great supply nor are smiles the default setting of our faces.