CHARGEMASTER LITE

[plonker]

Afternoon all, just bought a chargemaster lite, followed the instruction for warm up and calibration.
Set my charge of 26gr of n133 on my rcbs 10-10 scales and transfered it to the chargemaster and it shows 26.2, thats not the problem.
I then set chargemaster to 26.2 and transfered it to the rcbs and it was showing quite low so poured it back into the chargemaster pan and it now shows 25.9!!
Repeated this loads of times and it shows the correct weight but if i remove the pan then replace it it shows 25.9.
Any pointers/tips or is it just not working?

 

[Chris J]

I've had similar fun and games with my Chargemaster 1500 combo. Put a 100 gr bullet in the pan. It reads 100.00 Put that onto my Hornady scales and set them to zero. Then run 100 grains of powder into the pan. It beeps, reads 100.00. Put that onto my beam scales and...... it reads 99gr or similar. Do this several times. Each time the electronic dispenser wiil read 100.00 but the beam scales will be different each time. Ahh you say, then the problem is with your beam scales. No it isn't. Substitute the powder for any number of bullets, even putting several in at once and the scales read off in multiples of 100gr every time right across the range from 100 to 500.

The conclusion that I have come to is that the RCBS scales tell you what you want to see. I set it for 100gr, it will say it's 100gr - but the truth is, it's 100gr +/- some margin of error. But as long as it's within that margin, it chalks it up as being 100gr dead on. So I now use this incredibly expensive bit of kit to just drop the bulk of the powder and trickle the balance in on my beam scales. Some might say, heavens, are you really that fussy? 46.1 46.3 does it matter that much? Perhaps I'm just cross that £500 worth of equipment doesn't drop a perfect charge each and every time. Annoyingly, if it drops an out of spec charge, it doesn't give you any different warning beep to that of an in spec charge. So my dream of pressing dispense, hearing a beep and pouring the powder straight into the case kinda went out the window. Every single chage goes over my scales, yes. I just make sure that I set the charge to drop short each time. Some powders do seem to meter better but still not reliably enough to take it as read.

 

[sikadog]

Send it back and get your money back.

 

[Lateral]

I use an Ohaus lab scale, to confirm my Chargemaster Lite.

it certainly meters some powders better than others. Best, within +/- .04. Worst, up to +.2, with very course powder, and it’s clumped up.

 

[Chris J]

I did several of the modifications to the programming on mine. It was dreadfully slow. You can alter it's parameters and I did the old drinking straw trick so it trickles much better but I don't think you can adjust the +/- error margin at all.

 

[Lateral]

I did several of the modifications to the programming on mine. It was dreadfully slow. You can alter it's parameters and I did the old drinking straw trick so it trickles much better but I don't think you can adjust the +/- error margin at all.

Was this on the original Chargemaster ? I don't think you can adjust the parameters on the Lite ? May be worth playing with a straw, especially with some powders
|Z

 

[Chris J]

Not quite sure what an original Charge master might be. It's not that old. Ahh if you can't change the speeds and so on then that's that. Yes I found that a drinking straw from E.A.T was a perfect fit in the tube. The McD ones were the wrong size completely here in the UK that is.

 

[plonker]

Thanks for the replys.
I unplugged all the electronics around it left it for a while then started again.
It appears to be throwing consistent weight +/- tiny ammounts.
It can be a hair below bang on or a hair above all of which can be adjusted with a couple of kernels if i could be bothered.
It just goes to show how accurate rcbs 10-10 scales are that 2-3 kernels can alter the scales to bang on but still show the original chargemaster weight when returned to the unit.

 

[jimmy milnes]

I read something a while back about mobile phones and stuff being close to them affected them a bit, I leave mine at other side of the room and I've not seemed to have a problem but I've only had it a few weeks though to be honest

 

[Beretta shooter]

There was a chap on UKV that did in depth testing with the lite, long story short was to throw your desired weight 0.1GR short, remove pan, allow weight to settle, replace pan, trickle up to desired weight, remove pan once more, allow to settle and finally replace pan to check weight. Sounds like a bit of a faff but it’s pretty quick once you get into it. The chap checked the weights with an extremely expensive and accurate set of scales. He also said that mobile phone, radios and other electronic devices can interfere with the accuracy of the lite.

 

[Chris J]

Hmm that's an interesting idea. Not considered that. There's no doubt that the scales are accurate; it's when they're used with the automatic measure that they play daft. Taking the pan off and putting it back on again isn't a real hassle. The last few 1/10s than be slow but you can press cancel on the model I have so run close then hit cancel. As you have to trickle up anyway a touch more won't hurt. Yes it's still not what I'd figured it would be, but it's a neat idea. I shall report back.

 

[Chris J]

Well give that man a ceeeeeegaaaar. That works. Dropped several weights and checked them off on my beam scales. Yep they're good. And certainly no slower than doing the last trickle manually as I was before. Every final pan weighed the same when placed back on the scales for the second time, so I figure that step is really not necessary. Not waiting until the measure goes into its final slow phase actually saves time. As soon as the motor ramps down, hit cancel. Take the pan off, put it back down then touch the trickle button until the scale reads your desired weight. Pretty slick. Lifting the pan off puts the scales back into direct weigh mode.