Bought a new Pact BBK 2 electronic scale a few months ago. It works great + now but didn't at first. I was usuing on AC and it was real hard to get to zero. Then it would show error about every 3 loading. I flased back and forth between 1 or 2 grains for several minutes sometimes. I made sure it was level, room temp stable, calibrated it and it would work for a few times then off it would go. Then decided there must be something wrong with it for sure. But I decided to try to run in on the 9 volt battery and take it off AC. It worked perfect and has ever since! There was just enough fluxation in the AC current from appliances going on and off and the buzzing flouresent lights that it wouldn't stay still. Workd great now!

Great, but keep your eye on it, an RCBS I used
would wander a bit after about 20 minutes.
JL

quote:

Originally posted by JAL:
Great, but keep your eye on it, an RCBS I used
would wander a bit after about 20 minutes.
JL

I have a Lyman electronic scale that I originaly bought to weight match wood arrow shafts. Same type of scale used in reloading but with 1000gr capacity.

I have noticed the phenominon that Blob 1 spoke of, but never as bad as he has experienced., just on rare occasions.

Now I know what could be causeing this.

I always return the empty pan after dumping the charge and if it doesn't return to zero,(on rare occasions it won't) I check the previous charge.

Another thought/quiry.
I would have thought the mains adapter cut the
power down to 9v before it got to the scale, and therein giving a steady power stream.
Maybe the adapter its self is faulty??
JL

JAL, you should be right. Having said that I deliver about 600-800 lots to builders each year and I can say that having tested a fair amount of the power feeds on these lots, the power quality is poor. Fluctuations in frequency and voltage is typically in excess of 15% and I have seen it in excess of 25%-- more so in frequency-- indicating that the power is not 'clean'. I have actually seen the power company put in an additional/higher quality transformer occasionally, so....... A dc transformer should give you a reasonably decent stream of juice, but everything is subject to what goes in to some degree.

One other note, depending on how your electrician wired your home, you could have several more devices working off of one circuit than would be ideal. My outlets for my reloading room are all home run outlets (dedicated circuits) which helps a lot in and of itself.

I always check my scales a lot with various check weights--manufactured ones and odd weighted ones I have come up with from time to time

I carefully weighed out some bullets both on the e-sacale and balance beam scale and keep them for check wts in a small box on my bench. I think I have a 50 grainer, 55, 60, 70, 85 in there. I choose the one thats closest to my charge and check the balance beam and the e scale if they disagree.

Also on my pact scale it will wander until it's warmed up about 20 minutes---then it measures real accurately.

quote:

Originally posted by Fish30114:
...One other note, depending on how your electrician wired your home, you could have several more devices working off of one circuit than would be ideal. My outlets for my reloading room are all home run outlets (dedicated circuits) which helps a lot in and of itself.

I took the cheap way out the last place I lived. I found a reasonably stable circuit (in the kitchen unfortunately) and ran a 50 foot extension cord into my reloading room.

I like the 9 V battery solution a lot better, and I plan to try it. My scale doesn't have a battery compartment, so I'd need to make an adapter.

Some day.

H. C.

Great info! So far after about 300 rounds loaded the 9 volt battery has worked ok. I found that if I set the trickler down on the table with a little bump the error flases and I just turn it off and back on. Good info on going back to the last load and check it if replacing the pan causes an error to come up. Don't happen very much now and most of the time when I bump the scale. Have it cured for now anyway!

Most "wall wart" power supplies are unregulated. They may be designed for 9V, but if the power line voltage goes up or down 10%, so do they. Output voltage depends quite a bit on the amount of load. Also, the filtering isn't very good. They just strap a 'lytic cap across the output of the rectifier, and call it good.

Some of the more modern ones are better, and a few are regulated, so they give 9V, within reasonable limits of power line swings and load changes.

If the problem went away when you switched to battery, you need a better wall wart, and the manufacturer should supply it.

Send the scale back for repair. The symptoms you describe tell me the power supply in your scale that converts the A/C to D/C is at the very least unstable and probably not filtering correctly. Send it back for repair.

quote:

Originally posted by Cazador:
Send the scale back for repair. The symptoms you describe tell me the power supply in your scale that converts the A/C to D/C is at the very least unstable and probably not filtering correctly. Send it back for repair.

Cazador must be right. The only difference, I suspect, the whole product line, supplied with PACT's scale might be just very poor quality power adaptors.

I had the same problem. How did I fix it?
Replaced with the one which came with my LinkSys DSL Router. Same voltage, same plug. Same "Made in China" . The only difference is color - it's black, and Amperage - It's 1000Ma. The original PACT's is 300Ma.
NO MORE FLUCTUATION OF ZERO!

My 3 cents

oldflint

I have been thinking of switching to an electronic scale, but notice a lot of people complain about problems when using AC power.

Has anyone tried plugging the AC adapter for he scale into a Uninteruptable power supply like those used for a computer to solve this problem? If someone has tried this, did it solve the problem?

Mine is still working great on the battery!