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Thread: Electronic scale going haywire??

  1. #21
    Boolit Buddy Rapidrob's Avatar
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    With the age of the unit, I would remove the batteries or wall wart and open up the chassis and pull and reseat all of the plugs. Many of the older electronics have silver plated pins that can develop slight corrosion causing strange things to happen.
    If you have electronic cleaner ( not brake cleaner ) I'd give the plugs and pins a good blast of cleaner as well.

  2. #22
    Boolit Master Dark Helmet's Avatar
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    jiggle the wires on the 9v battery connector (leave the battery outside the scale to try while you have it on), after a while they break up-replace the pigtail-might be your problem.

  3. #23
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    DDriller, your story is hilarious, and so true for the many clever ways to make a new problem where there was none previously.

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rapidrob View Post
    With the age of the unit, I would remove the batteries or wall wart and open up the chassis and pull and reseat all of the plugs. Many of the older electronics have silver plated pins that can develop slight corrosion causing strange things to happen.
    If you have electronic cleaner ( not brake cleaner ) I'd give the plugs and pins a good blast of cleaner as well.
    Get a bottle of De-oxit D100 solution and go to town. You may want to consider just replacing the scale, as you will likely come out ahead.

  5. #25
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    Strain gages don’t last forever ….
    Got one digital going on 5 years, still good, but bought a second one just in case
    Regards
    John

  6. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Patrick L View Post
    Hi guys. Let me start by saying I suspect I already know the answer, but I'm hopeful maybe I'm overlooking something.

    So I have a Midway Electronic scale that has got to be at least 20 years old. I really don't use it for general reloading, I stick with my trusty balance scale for that. But what I do use it for is weight sorting the few bullets that I bother to weight sort, namely my match boolits for NRA Highpower. I only need about 400-500 for the season. So basically right around this time of year I fire it up, and use it for 5 or 6 sessions, and put it away. I like it for this purpose because it is fast and easy, and accurate enough. I just tare it at "0" with no pan , then I just set a boolit on the platform, and BAM that's it. Like I said, it's been going like a champ for 20+ years doing this.

    Anyhow, all of a sudden it just seems to go haywire. Readings flash all over the place, both with a weight on the platform and without. I re zero, it's good for a few minutes, then it goes nuts again. I already put a fresh battery in, just to rule that out.

    Has the unit just lived out it's life? That's what I suspect. Or is there something else I should be aware of?

    Thanks in advance.
    Time to toss it. I had a lyman 1200 dps3 finally just give out. same place ont he bench for years.. no difference in lamps.. fans.. vents.. etc.. and all of a sudden.. its load sensor was jittery. I don't need pipe bombs that I put a cheek weld on.. it got tossed and I got a nice rcbs chargemaster lite now..

  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Soundguy View Post
    Time to toss it. I had a lyman 1200 dps3 finally just give out. same place ont he bench for years.. no difference in lamps.. fans.. vents.. etc.. and all of a sudden.. its load sensor was jittery.
    I agree. I spent most of my working life repairing and calibrating very expensive electronic test equipment to 2nd level National Bureau of Standards accuracy for NASA so I know a bit about that kind of stuff; toss it.

    There's ONE small and very cheep (Harbor Freight) digital scale on my bench. It's handy enough to keep but it's ONLY used for weighting and sorting cast boolits and brass cases. It has not and never will be used for my powder charges. My 65 year old - and still "dead-on" - magnetic damped balance beam scale handles my gunpowers. (I could tell you what brand/model it is but that hardly matters, any other reloading scale of its general type would do you just as well.)

    Our reloading branded digital scales really are cheap electronic devices. If/when one fails, toss it and buy another because they really aren't worth the costs of repairing them. Some rare individual examples hold up for a long time but most don't and it's pure luck, not the retail cost or any hyped brand, that makes the difference.

    Heat is the prime destroyer of electronic components. Even without total destruction, it doesn't take a lot of heat to cause some cheap components already sitting on the ragged edge of not working to wander, shift or stop as they heat; that's why some user problems come and go when power is turned on and off.

    I doubt that any "throw-away" scales (like the Chinese things sold to us reloaders) is going to be bothered by any low powered Radio Frequency Interference devices but strong local magnetic interference is a whole different issue! Meaning that big old flourescent light fixtures with magnetic ballasts - or big electric motors, etc. - can cause nearby digital scale problems. But normal LED light fixtures, cell phones and small electric appliances rarely do.

    Let's go Brandon!

  8. #28
    Boolit Master
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    I neglected to mention the caps and resistors starting to go bad. If you had to ask you probably don't know how to check. Carry it to a electronics tech and see what his bench time is worth. No need to hurt yourself from a heavy charge of powder or electricity. Turning your scale into a smoke generator doesn't help either.

  9. #29
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    I worked in a chemistry lab off and on for my professional career. Consequently, there were always multiple electronic scales of various sensitivities.We had a professional scale firm service them twice a year even when there were no issues to note. Still, some just died. I'd recommend to buy a new scale and consider yourself fortunate that you got 20 years out of yours.

  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by 36g View Post
    I worked in a chemistry lab .... We had a professional scale firm service them twice a year even when there were no issues to note.
    Roger that. Routine checks, repairs and recalibrations by qualified technicians using known accuracy test weights are the ONLY way to insure reasonable digital scale accuracy for more than a few months. Even pharmacy and grocery store meat scales must receive routine checks by qualified people but NO reloader digi-scale gets that kind of scrutiny.

    I've never understood why so many people say digi-scales are "faster". Yeah, sure, digitals always have something in the display but most seem to need 2-3 seconds to reliably stabilize and every mag-damped balance scale I've ever used settles that fast.

    A BIG factor about powder scales - at least to me - is that few, if any, (cheep) consumer grade digital scales can accurately follow precisely trickled up charges in realtime. The irritating time lag in digital stuff is called "hysteresis" and I hate it!

  11. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by 1hole View Post
    Roger that. Routine checks, repairs and recalibrations by qualified technicians using known accuracy test weights are the ONLY way to insure reasonable digital scale accuracy for more than a few months. Even pharmacy and grocery store meat scales must receive routine checks by qualified people but NO reloader digi-scale gets that kind of scrutiny.

    I've never understood why so many people say digi-scales are "faster". Yeah, sure, digitals always have something in the display but most seem to need 2-3 seconds to reliably stabilize and every mag-damped balance scale I've ever used settles that fast.

    A BIG factor about powder scales - at least to me - is that few, if any, (cheep) consumer grade digital scales can accurately follow precisely trickled up charges in realtime. The irritating time lag in digital stuff is called "hysteresis" and I hate it!
    Another thing that I've noticed with electronic scales and gunpowder - I don't use a trickler as I've used a spoon or spatula (chemistry term) for trickling chemicals/powder - it's a professional technique. When trickling powder there can be a build up of static electricity that will influence the indicated weight, particularly if using a plastic spoon. The weight indicated will change if you pull the "trickler" away from the powder charge being weighed. Just something to be aware of.

  12. #32
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    I suppose this will be as helpful a place as any to throw a story out there from my perspective. I've been into reloading and casting for about 15-20 years now. When I first began, in my early twenties, I fell into the trap that mechanizing and using electronic scales were the 21st centuries solution to an old problem, and that the electronics will speed up my reloading process. I purchased a midway battery powered scale, and once the Hornady auto-charge came out, purchased one. A few years ago, my Hornady scale was broken either in transit, storage or while I was overseas. I sent Hornady an email and they wanted me to send it in for evaluation. Rather than go that route I figured I would take it back to the basics, and I purchased a magnetically-dampened beam scale and a Redding 3BR w/both inserts.

    Hindsight is always 20/20 and now in my late 30's I can recognize that the volumetric powder dispenser is significantly faster than the Hornady computer controlled one ever was, even on its best day. Additionally, the scale is much less sensitive and has a much higher degree of accuracy than the cheap chinese digital scale included both in the Hornady unit and the non-branded midway cheapie.

    1hole above is spot on in his assessment, the electronic scales should be relegated to weighing/sorting brass and boolits.

    Hopefully my story will help others to avoid falling into the trap, that purchasing expensive electronics is not worth the expense. Looking back, if I had purchased good quality traditional equipment from the get go, I would be money ahead. Plus the cast iron equipment will last several lifetimes.
    Last edited by zarrinvz24; 11-30-2021 at 10:36 AM.

  13. #33
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    Welp, I don't have an answer but, last week my nearly 30 year old Pact electronic scale refused to calibrate. Same situation, nothing has changed since we built almost 20 years ago. Oddly, it still weighs bullets within a few tenths of my ancient Lyman beam scale. I haven't used it for more than weighing bullets or checking against my beam scale for almost 20 years and I always checked powder charges with my Lyman, I don't trust it.

    Another thing, I trickle a lot of powder charges. When I drop granules I want something to happen. The electronic scale took F O R E V E R!!!!!
    "In general, the art of government is to take as much money as possible from one class of citizens and give it to another class of citizens" Voltaire'

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  14. #34
    Boolit Master slim1836's Avatar
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    I think it's sunspots or solar winds or something along those lines.

    I have two electronic scales that just recently show to be off by just a tad with the 50 and 100 check weights that came with them. Most of my loads are middle of the chart loads that a tenth or so don't affect, maybe slightly on groups, but that's about it. If I need precision, I'll use another of my scales, either electronic or beam.

    It's gotta be sun spots, can't be Trumps fault, or even Bush's fault. Might be Bidens though.

    Slim
    JUST GOTTA LOVE THIS JOINT.

  15. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by slim1836 View Post
    It's gotta be sun spots, can't be Trumps fault, or even Bush's fault. Might be Bidens though.
    God help us if Sleepy Joe, Pelousy and Schumer decide they should make the sun all better. Everything they touch turns brown and all that's brown is not peanut butter.

    Let's go Brandon!

  16. #36
    Boolit Mold bandanaman's Avatar
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    I had a similar problem with an I Scale .I don't know if yours works the same way but I found there wasn't enough clearance between the pressure plate and case. I shimmed the case a bit higher and enlarged the hole where the base goes through the case. "base "being the part you place the powder tray on .Some contact must have come into play whether dust ,lint or maybe the case sagged a bit, but it works well enough now even for a low level scale.

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BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
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LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check