More scale stuff....something that worked

[BoydAllen]

Having vented my frustration with my load cell electronic scale and explained my balance scale/ webcam setup in a previous thread, in a more relaxed mood, I was shopping around to see if there were any new electronic scales on the market.

I was on Old Will Knot's site pondering what the difference might be between the GemPro 250 that I have played with and the slightly less expensive GemPro 300 which I have not.

Reading over the list of items that are included with their scales, I was reminded that they include a thin, black foam anti vibration mat. Thinking about that for a moment, it occurred to me that they would not be bothering to do that for no reason, that in fact, including it might actually serve some worthwhile function.

Lacking one, and being an impatient sort, I looked around for a plausible substitute, and spotted a couple of unused 6" square paper napkins, that were just the size and combined thickness that I was looking for. I stacked them under the scale, and it seems to work noticeably better. Evidently imperceptible vibrations affect the scale. Since I had not seen anything about this in the scale threads that I had read, I thought that I would pass this little bit of information along to all of you.
Sometimes seemingly insignificant things can be more important than one would would imagine. If you try this, or have any related experience, please post here.

 

[retired]

i always used my pad with my 250..maybe that is why i did not have the issues others cried about.

 

[BoydAllen]

It has been a few minutes since I started this thread, close to a half hour, and the scale still reads 0.00!!! Normally, it would have drifted on a continuous basis to a significant total. Damn, I may have to give up my whining about this scale ;-)

 

[earlcurtis67]

I use an old compiter mouse pad and plug into a seperate and dedicated outlet.E

 

[foxguy]

This makes me wonder if the shelf / drawer liner would work?
It reads on there advertising "Cushions and protects most surfaces"

 

[gambleone]

I use the pad provided with my 250 and have no problem. I don't trickle on it though.

 

[Drolds72]

This makes me wonder if the shelf / drawer liner would work?
It reads on there advertising "Cushions and protects most surfaces"

I bet the liner in my toolbox drawer would be perfect. Scale needs it more than a set of visegrips

 

[T-shooter]

In my quest to find an acceptable scale, I had 2 different GemPro300's. They are ok if you use them with enough care. You can run them from batteries in case there is a problem with the home electric. One was more accurate pressing the TARE button each time, the other didn't seem to need it. Either scale would produce the same results 95+% of the time. I do remember every once in a while it would go +/- .04 grain but never over that. You can usually weigh within +/- .02 grain. It's very important to have a stable surface, no breezes, and the scale must be perfectly level. Also, sitting anything on the weighing platform must be done very gently or the readings will fluctuate. Here is a couple test I performed. I weighed different items alternating between weights in case the scale would try to remember a reading. The first test was 25 weighings each of 2 different items. The second was 75 weighings of each item.

I tried a side by side test of the Veritas-63 which is a $300 scale load cell scale. It was beyond horrible even on battery power. Here is a comparison of the Gem Pro and the Veritas. The GemPro is by far superior at half the cost.


And I tried a trickle test (adding 1 kernal of Varget at a time). The Veritas was so unreliable I couldn't get through the test with it.


These are the scales I've owned. The A&D FX series is by far the best after I figured it out and will read exactly the same time after time.

 

[BoydAllen]

Excellent post. Thanks for the information.

I remember reading recently that low batteries can cause poor performance when you are running on house current. This morning I was doing some more testing reweighing the same thing, and decided to see if it did any better on battery power. When I pulled the power adapter plug from the back of the scale the screen went blank. Evidently the batteries (6-AAA) were dead. I was about to replace them when I decided to leave them out and try with AC again. It worked better. So there you have it. If you are going to be working where you have AC it may be better just to take the batteries out of the scale. Has anyone else tested this way or had a similar experience?

 

[L W P]

I've never put any batteries in my Gem Pro 250, I just have it plugged into a surge protector and it's left on all of the time. And I have it setting on the foam provided with the unit. Works great for me.

 

[Liven The Dream]

Having vented my frustration with my load cell electronic scale and explained my balance scale/ webcam setup in a previous thread, in a more relaxed mood, I was shopping around to see if there were any new electronic scales on the market.

I was on Old Will Knot's site pondering what the difference might be between the GemPro 250 that I have played with and the slightly less expensive GemPro 300 which I have not.

Reading over the list of items that are included with their scales, I was reminded that they include a thin, black foam anti vibration mat. Thinking about that for a moment, it occurred to me that they would not be bothering to do that for no reason, that in fact, including it might actually serve some worthwhile function.

Lacking one, and being an impatient sort, I looked around for a plausible substitute, and spotted a couple of unused 6" square paper napkins, that were just the size and combined thickness that I was looking for. I stacked them under the scale, and it seems to work noticeably better. Evidently imperceptible vibrations affect the scale. Since I had not seen anything about this in the scale threads that I had read, I thought that I would pass this little bit of information along to all of you.
Sometimes seemingly insignificant things can be more important than one would would imagine. If you try this, or have any related experience, please post here.

Check out A&D EJ 123 at Old Will I up grade to one from Gem Pro and am very Happy ??

 

[BoydAllen]

Just now, I went in the laundry room, grabbed a generic drier sheet, and wiped down the whole scale. It helped.

Another thing, if you are going to tare your scale whether with something on it or not, it is probably a good idea to take the time for the indicator to come on that tells you that the scale is at a final number. Even though you have all zeros no the screen, if you do not wait, you may see an offset from your previous weighings, when doing multiple weights of a single thing.

I have discovered that plastic things on my desk must be holding static charges and that proximity to them can affect the scale. The largest one is my monitor. When I use the scale at the edge of my desk and then slide it over near my monitor, there is a significant difference in the reading, even though the scale is level, and has been tared in both locations. My wireless mouse and keyboard seem to have an effect as well.

Clamping a powder measure to the same desk, and using it, as I am weighing charges there may not be the smartest thing either.

 

[T-shooter]

With the all the electronic scales, I tried drier sheets, anti-static spray, anti-static pad with a wrist strap all grounded to Earth and a few prayers. No florescent bulbs, no cell phones, and tried different house circuits. Nothing worked. I finally went for the FX scale. I also had fits with it and at one point thought about sending it back. What cured it was putting 2 of the ferrite line filters from OldWillKnott Scales on the power cord installed as per their instructions and a TrippLite 1200 line conditioner. I had some cheap ferrite line filters that did nothing. I noticed an immediate improvement with these. I also had a 2 outlet TrippLite box and I run both together now. It probably adds a bit more line filtering. The scale is extremely stable now as long as it is 100% level. I haven't recalibrated it in months. When weighing I spot check every few weighings with a test weight close to the powder charge.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

A cell phone nearby will play with a scale too especially as it fetches emails or refreshes locations

 

[sdean]

Why do ya'll put yourselves through all this? All this time and effort you could have bought a FX120 and been over with it.

 

[SteveOak]

In my day job I work with micro-volt levels of electromagnetic interference and other physical electronic environmental effects, improper input power, temperature extremes, humidity, ESD, etc. to determine if critical electronic equipment on commercial airplanes are adversely affected.

It is pretty much a tie whether load cells are best at detecting changes in temperature, the presence of electromagnetic/electrostatic fields or changes in force.

 

[boltman13]

Now that I have Adam's system with the FX-120i I am getting all the accuracy and consistency I can use. Using the Gempro250 with pad and ferrite line filter and surge protector I was getting acceptable results but it was sooo time consuming trickeling up. I still use the Gempro to weight sort bullets and for that it is ideal.

 

[RetiredArmy]

I use my gempro 250 with the pad it came with. No batteries! I also do not turn it off. Always let it "settle" before next weigh. With the dandy trickler it works well.
Thanks Bill

 

[K22]

Get an Ohaus 10-10 if you can find one and a set of analytical weights. Mine was purchased in 1970 and is still with + or - a .1 grain throughout the range I used it for i.e. 5.5 grains to 44 grains. I check the calibration every 12 months.

The only maintenance I perform is carefully cleaning the knife edges and anvils once a year. I keep the scale covered and the beam off the anvils when not in use.

 

[foxguy]

The only maintenance I perform is carefully cleaning the knife edges and anvils once a year. I keep the scale covered and the beam off the anvils when not in use.[/QUOTE]

If I can ask how are you cleaning your knife edges & v blocks, I too keep mine in storage mode most of the time. But, I like it for checking / verifying my digital at times.

TIA