Reloading scales and or powder dispenser

[ssgrock3]

The continued discussion is educational. Thank you, bi havevritherbusef a progressive drop, it a manual drop with a Lee press to check every ten rounds or so, most of the time my goal is minute of 10 ring man, but with loading larger drops for the 5.56, I wanted something better. I am looking forward to the Hornady auto. Amazon had a good price at $199

 

[Larry Morgan]

I have an idea on how to convert a beam scale into an automatic measure but I don't have the extra cash flow to prototype it quite yet and by the time I do it would likely be easier to just pick up an electronic one. The way I figure it is to attach the scale to a small board so it can be moved, attach a very thin plate to the beam itself that has a small hole drilled in it and in some way set up some light sensors and emitters so that they can be blocked by the plate and give the board the ability to control the powder flow. Two stepper motors attached to two trickle tubes, one fast and one slow will dispense until a certain stop point with a pause point right before that. You would manually set the weight and then have a button that would start the cycle. You would still be able to visually see if the beam is at the correct point but it would greatly speed up the ability to dispense and likely be adaptable to any platform.

The question is do I want to take the time and effort into making this work or do I just buy an automatic and be done with it.

There have been various takes on an auto trickler. This one is very similar to what you are mentioning http://www.omegapowdertrickler.com/

I built my own auto trickler too. Honestly, I didn't care much if it was cost effective, it gave me something to play with and work on! The biggest problem with using a simple break beam scheme is that the scale is very under-damped. Modern ones aren't bad, but it varies. So the scale will overshoot as it oscillates, which may break the beam at the wrong time. If it does this repeatably, then it might not be an issue. Or you could implement some delays to wait out the oscillation or trickle very very slow.

Honestly, the worst problem I have are air currents. Mine needs an enclosure really bad. Otherwise I have to be perfectly still while it works if I want the best accuracy. Which sort of defeats the purpose for now, since I want it to be throwing while I seat and do other things.

 

[NightShade]

Yeah I know it would need to be in a very still room or just make a plexiglass cover that shields the majority of it while leaving an easy opening to grab the powder tray off the scale. I figured on programming in a delay once it breaks a certain beam but just like you it's the fun of doing it and making things work.

I figured a raspberry Pi board or an arduino would work ok to do this with a simple one button start and tone when finished. It will NEVER be a complete substitute for the human eye but if I can make it work it would be a great way to speed up the process a little bit.

And I love to do things myself anyway, part of the reason why I often build rather than buy as well as end up helping so many others get things done. Right now I have enough computer equipment in my place to run a small office along with the pfSense router and FreeNAS server.

Instead of carving a pumpkin for Halloween I got a plastic one and put an arduino in it with some LED's and a couple car horns with a big red arcade button for a nose.