RCBS Chargemaster / Hornady Auto Charge Pro / Frankfort Arsenal intellidroper

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I thought I had recalled the other being 9v and 5v operating voltage for the board would make sense.

Been awhile since I had one open and at the time I was just looking for loadcell information so I could pull the data sheet. My photos are not good enough to read the print, but if that’s a 7805 on the right by the barrel power jack, I would think, your thought, would be correct but I honestly have no idea what all changed on them.

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I have the chargemaster lite and I used to have the Hornady. I sold the Hornady due to its slowness/drift and bought the chargemaster lite. It is slow as well and does drift a little over loadings. Since I just reload pistol now, I went back to the standard hornady powder drop. I then use the chargemaster lite to confirm the weight.

At the end of the day my beef with the electric drops is not drift, it is speed. The manual powder drop is accurate (enough) and much faster.
 
If your unit is drifting zero, tighten the 2 screws that hold the support beam for the tray, the 2 screws on top of the green plastic beam. They have a lacquer on them, at least mine did. I discovered this when I took mine apart a couple of years ago to clean up a bad powder spill. Once I snug it back down my unit no longer drifts once warmed up.
 
I think our consensus was the voltage was whoever could provide a thousand wall warts at a low price. :) Thanks, now I don't have to open mine up again. :)

Ron
 
I have the Hornady. With the straw trick and once I have it adjusted for my powder/charge, it works well and I'm happy with it.
 
I also use the CM Lite and have for the last 2 years. I make sure I let it warm up for at least 1 hour before use and that seems to keep it from drifting. I also only use it for rifle rounds.

For my AR10 precision rifle it drops +/- .5 grain or so which works fine in that rifle. For my other precision rifles I use it to drop 1 grain short and then use my very accurate Ohaus 10-10 scale and a tickler to get it within +/- .1 grain or so.

I would recommend the CM lite but as others have said it is a little slower than some others but I have had very good service from mine.
 
How are you guys measuring drift over time and what variation are you seeing?
 
Drift in the reading changing over time with a known weight/tare that's not zero. I have a check weight I use to verify the scale calibration prior to use. I use it on both my GemPro 250 and CM1500. If one is off, the zero is done again and checked. If still off they get calibrated using calibration weights till they read the same. With the auto zero feature in the CM you can not do this at or around zero. I use a common charge weight in the 30gr range. Then just plot over time, and checking zero at the same time. On the CM it will start throwing charges heavy normally if a drift accours. When I detect this I will do a manual zero. Then check again. The reason I started re-zeroing every 10 throws. If in dought I put my check weight on to check. Normally I have found it it's not reading as it should the zero has shifted.

Since I had my CM apart cleaning it due to powder spill, I discovered those to screws holding the tray holder on played a big factor in the load cell. They have to be torqued to a value the will not allow yield during use. If light torque is used, zero drift is high. But once the torque is high enough it pretty much stopped all major drift in mine. Since I've had mine apart the calibration seams to be holding very well now. I've only had to calibrate a couple of time in the last couple of years.

I've learned over the years to always keep the pan/tray on the scale when waiting for the next charge. The hysteresis in the load sell will drift if not at a the normal state. This allows confirmation of Zero, just before you add the weight.

I've noticed the GP is more sensitive to zero shift if you do not keep the pan on. Keeping the pan on it's very stable.

In the old days most strain gauge load cells you stayed away from the bottom and top 10% of the scale for stability. With today's advanced electronics this can be controlled. Weather it can be controlled on the cheaper scales, depends on the mfg.
 
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