'Plug and Play' battery pack for the Chargemaster 1500

[SteveOak]

I was looking for portable power for my Chargemaster 1500. I saw some threads here, thanks, they were very helpful.

Not everyone has soldering tools readily available so I looked for an off the shelf solution for so that you could buy commercially available parts, plug them in and it is good to go. No soldering or figuring things out. All of that is done.

I got a battery off Amazon.

TalentCell Rechargeable 12V 6000mAh/5V 12000mAh DC Output Lithium Ion Battery Pack For LED Strip And CCTV Camera, Portable Li-ion Battery Bank With Charger, Black (Multi-led indicator)

It looks like this;

The battery is small and light, has a power on/off switch, and has 5 LEDs to indicate level of charge so you know where you are at with power during both charging and use.

The battery has an on/off switch and a USB jack so that you can use it to charge your phone. The battery kit comes with a splitter cable so that you can be warming up the Chargemaster and charging the battery at the same time. This is what I do. When I am ready to start throwing powder, I unplug the charger and run on only the battery . This provides the cleanest power possible, no ferrite needed.

It has a circular power out jack that is the same as the jack on the Chargemaster 1500. The specification for that jack is “2.1mm x 5.5mm”.

Before I plugged anything in I checked the polarity of the Chargemaster, its charger, and the battery to ensure that they all matched. The center conductor on all three is the ‘hot’ or ‘+’, and the outer contact is ‘negative’ or ‘-‘. I have attached a diagram. Look for this on the battery and Chargemaster 1500 charger.

The battery is 12VDC output and the Chargemaster is 15VDC input. No problem there. The Chargemaster as with most DV devices is able to deal with it. The Chargemaster 1500 charger is spec’d for a 3,000 mA/3 Amp output but the Chargemaster doesn’t draw anywhere near that. I have had mine powered up for 24 hours and have thrown 60 charges and the battery still has 4 of the 5 LEDs lit.

The battery comes with a charger that has an LED which is red when it is charging the battery and green when the battery is charger.

All in all, it is pretty slick. Small, light, plenty of power to run the Chargemaster for days, no wire cutting or soldering. Plug and play power for your Chargemaster for under $40. There is a 3,000 mAh version of the battery for $10 less that would be plenty to run the Chargemaster all day. It has the USB jack and LEDs. For the same size and I went with the version with more power.

Here is a link to the battery I got; https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ME3ZH7C/?tag=accuratescom-20

Here is a link to the cable I got; https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DX6ZUBM/?tag=accuratescom-20

I am happy to answer any questions.

ETA 06022018; Sorry for all 'the cut and paste' duplication. It should be good now.

 

[jimmymac]

Nice job! I got almost twice that in to mine between the small deep cycle battery, charger and plug connectors.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

Yes, nice job. These have been around for a while but they weren't when I started making power supplies for the cm1500. Thanks for the link, as finding one with the correct output size/style has been the hardest part.

I will say that the cable linked is way over priced but still doesn't break the bank. Try a place called www.pimfg.com for the cable. They have a 3ft cable for $1.00

 

[Ron Blain]

For the curious at heart RCBS apparently sells these things with a variety of power supplies or simply put AC adapters and even simpler wall warts. Myself and another member compared them with him having two units and me just one,My supply is a 9 Volt 1,000 mA unit and he had a 12 volt with one scale and a 9 volt with his other. Using my power supply at 9 volts the scale powered up draws about 33.7 mA so let's be generous and say 35 mA. When dispensing powder (motor running) the total current draw is 190.0 mA, so if we bump that a little in the interest of nice easy to work with numbers we can say total current is never likely to exceed 0.2 Amp (200 mA). On the range I normally run mine on a 12 Volt 8.0 AH battery so we can figure in theory this thing could run about 40 hours continuous on a single battery charge and that includes motor running which is not the case.

When not in use I just leave the battery on a battery maintainer (about $18 on Amazon) and similar to the battery maintainer I leave on my motorcycle. The end result with the RCBS 1500 and likely all similar units is they will run a long, long time on a good 12 Volt battery source. The posted battery source is nice as it will come in lighter than my SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery. My battery and charger fit easily in a .30 Cal ammunition can.

Ron

 

[bichettereds]

I was looking for portable power for my Chargemaster 1500. I saw some threads here, thanks, they were very helpful.

Not everyone has soldering tools readily available so I looked for an off the shelf solution for that.

I got a battery off Amazon.

TalentCell Rechargeable 12V 6000mAh/5V 12000mAh DC Output Lithium Ion Battery Pack For LED Strip And CCTV Camera, Portable Li-ion Battery Bank With Charger, Black (Multi-led indicator)

It looks like this;

The battery is small and light, has a power on/off switch, and has 5 LEDs to indicate level of charge so you know where you are at with power during both charging and use.

It has an on/off switch and a USB jack so that you can use it to charge your phone.

It has a circular power out jack that is the same as the jack on the Chargemaster 1500. The specification for that jack is “2.1mm x 5.5mm”.

Before I plugged anything in I checked the polarity of the Chargemaster, its charger, and the battery to ensure that they all matched. The center conductor on all three is the ‘hot’ or ‘+’, and the outer contact is ‘negative’ or ‘-‘. I have attached a diagram. Look for this on the battery and Chargemaster 1500 charger.

The battery is 12VDC output and the Chargemaster is 15VDC input. No problem there. The Chargemaster as with most DV devices is able to deal with it. The Chargemaster 1500 charger is spec’d for a 3,000 mA/3 Amp output but the Chargemaster doesn’t draw anywhere near that. I have had mine powered up for 24 hours and have thrown 60 charges and the battery still has 4 of the 5 LEDs lit.

Here is a link to the battery I got;

Here is a link to the cable I got;

I am happy to answer any questions.

I was looking for portable power for my Chargemaster 1500. I saw some threads here, thanks, they were very helpful.


Not everyone has soldering tools readily available so I looked for an off the shelf solution for that.


I got a battery off Amazon.

TalentCell Rechargeable 12V 6000mAh/5V 12000mAh DC Output Lithium Ion Battery Pack For LED Strip And CCTV Camera, Portable Li-ion Battery Bank With Charger, Black (Multi-led indicator)

The battery is small and light and has 5 LEDs to indicate level of charge so you know where you are at with power during both charging and use.

It has an on/off switch and a USB jack so that you can use it to charge your phone.

It has a circular power out jack that is the same as the jack on the Chargemaster 1500. The specification for that jack is “2.1mm x 5.5mm”.

Before I plugged anything in I checked the polarity of the Chargemaster, it’s charger, and the battery to ensure that they all matched. The center conductor on al three is the ‘hot’ or ‘+’, and the outer contact is ‘negative’ or ‘-‘. I have attached a diagram. Look for this on the battery and Chargemaster 1500 charger.

The battery is 12VDC output and the Chargemaster is 9VDC input. No problem there. The Chargemaster, as with most DV devices, is able to deal with it. The Chargemaster 1500 charger is spec’d for a 3,000 mA/3 Amp output but the Chargemaster doesn’t draw anywhere near that. I have had mine powered up for 24 hours and have thrown 60 charges and the battery still has 4 of the 5 LEDs lit.

The battery comes with a charger that has an LED which is red when it is charging the battery and green when the battery is charger.

All in all, it is pretty slick. Small, light, plenty of power to run the Chargemaster for days, no wire cutting or soldering. Plug and play power for your Chargemaster for under $40. There is a 3,000 mAh version of the battery for $10 less that would be plenty to run the Chargemaster all day. It has the USB jack and LEDs. For the same size and I went with the version with more power.

Here is a link to the battery I got; https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ME3ZH7C/?tag=accuratescom-20

Here is a link to the cable I got; https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DX6ZUBM/?tag=accuratescom-20

I am happy to answer any questions.

This looks great. Still the best option for using the CM1500 at a match? Is this dummy proof? Meaning.. is there any way I can fry my scale with this?

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

This looks great. Still the best option for using the CM1500 at a match? Is this dummy proof? Meaning.. is there any way I can fry my scale with this?

You should for certain, test the polarity before hooking anything to it.

 

[SteveOak]

This looks great. Still the best option for using the CM1500 at a match? Is this dummy proof? Meaning.. is there any way I can fry my scale with this?

If you buy the parts I specified you will be good. That is why I posted specific part numbers and links.

 

[JimSC]

that's a deal. A naked 3s 6000 mAh lipo costs more than that

 

[Ron Blain]

At $34 you can't beat that. Think I'll quit dragging the 30 caliber ammo can with a battery inside and just get one of those. With motor running my RCBS draws about 190 mA, Give or take a little so even if I call it 200 mA that comes in at about 30 hours of continuous motor running operation which is not going to happen. That price includes a wall wart charger. Next time my wife does her Amazon thing I see one of those happening.

Ron

 

[SteveOak]

Yes, and it also draws a lot less when not dispensing powder. It is posted in another thread but I don't remember exactly, something like 30 to 50 mA.

I have a splitter cable so that I can charge the battery and warm up the Chargemaster at the same time. Then I unplug the charger and dispense powder using only the battery. I do this at home to provide clean power to the scale.

 

[jepp2]

Before I plugged anything in I checked the polarity of the Chargemaster,

Dumb question. For the polarity check, did you just check for continuity (low resistance) between the frame and the outer contact?

 

[SteveOak]

Dumb question. For the polarity check, did you just check for continuity (low resistance) between the frame and the outer contact?

Continuity is different than polarity.

The polarity check I did was to ensure that the center conductor of the connectors and outer conductor were the correct polarity for the cables and Chargemaster.

 

[Ron Blain]

Yes, and it also draws a lot less when not dispensing powder. It is posted in another thread but I don't remember exactly, something like 30 to 50 mA.

Yeah, when not dispensing powder the scale alone draws about a maximum of 35 mA. When dispensing with motor fast dispensing (constantly running) the total load was about 190 mA so I called it at 200 mA.

Ron

 

[ClassCat]

I shoot every weekend, both Saturday and Sunday for about 5 hours each day and load with a 1500. I use a 12V Motorcycle battery.That thing needs a charge about every 1-2 months. Positive and Negative must be identified.
This set up lasts me 10 days on a National shoot without a re-charge. Cost, about $50

 

[Ron Blain]

Yep, that's about it but I stuffed mine in a 30 Cal ammo can.

Ron

 

[jepp2]

The polarity check I did was to ensure that the center conductor of the connectors and outer conductor were the correct polarity for the cables and Chargemaster.

So how exactly do you perform that check?

Never mind, I just watched a YouTube video on how to check. Thanks!

 

[SteveOak]

The polarity of the charger that came with my Chargemaster has the output polarity printed on the label. By inference you know the input polarity of the Chargemaster.

The polarity of the round 12VDC input/output connector on the battery is shown on the label of the battery.

BTW, the splitter cable came with the battery.

 

[jimmymac]

This battery conversion is awesome. Mike Ezell gave me the good info. A parts search on the interwebs will yield what you need.

Poliarity on mine. Double check yours before you make the cables.

 

[jimmymac]

Battery

 

[jimmymac]

Polarity on RCBS AC to DC power adapter so you can verify positive and negative here too before making cables. Sorry about the rotated picture