Does anyone else use a camera on their powder scale?

[SkyHawk]

I am loading up mouse farts for the wife and my old C&R pistols. The powder is being measured on the very low end of the scale, around 3.0 grains so any variance on the scale needle makes a difference.

I super glued a longer, sharpened plastic pointer onto the arm, and offset it with a small bit of copper in the tray holder where the factory calibrating shot goes.

So having the longer pointer was nice, but having to bend over to eyeball the thing level to get the reading every time while I trickled out a few more flakes of powder was starting to suck. So I made a small stand for my iPhone, so the camera lens is level with the indicator on the scale. Now I have a backlit, zoomed in view of the pointer and I don't have to hunch over to get a perfectly level view of it. I can sit up and see it from any angle while I add flakes. It made the powder weighing go much faster last night!

I just turn off the screen sleep timer in the phone and it will stay on until the battery dies. I tried it with an old Android phone that someone gave me, but the dang camera app times out after 2 minutes and goes back to the home screen, and there was no way to keep the device on unless external power was applied even if the camera app didn't time out. So Android users, YMMV.

[BigBronco]

Ah No. I set my scale up at eye level on a shelf. Not sure altering the geometry of a calibrated scale is a great idea. Have you rechecked the accuracy with a set of standards?

[RogerOrange]

Put a small mirror behind the needle to eliminate parallax reading errors.
Just like on an annalogue multimeter. With the mirror behind the needed you can confirm that you are viewing the needle dead on.

[SkyHawk]

Ah No. I set my scale up at eye level on a shelf. Not sure altering the geometry of a calibrated scale is a great idea. Have you rechecked the accuracy with a set of standards?

Yes accuracy is fine according to my test weights. The scale is zeroed using shot in the pan holder, nothing like nuclear physics, trapped particles or anything. The knife edge pivot point location has not changed on the arm which means it still measures the same as before. I added to the shot cup what was necessary (which was a very small flake of copper) so the scale indicates zero when the frame is level, just as it was before.

Adding a needle is a pretty standard mod for lab scales. Apparently a lot of reloaders do it too. I was also using my scale at eye level before, but I can go about 5x faster with it at table level and me working above it instead of below it. And adding a needle that overlaps the zero line, plus using a camera, eliminates Parallax completely.

I have seen some folks who permanently attach a camera, with a remote display to their scales. I didn't want to invest in anything like that, so the iPhone is what I tried and it works pretty well. I can zoom the picture much larger than shown in the pics above.

[Elgatodeacero]

Fun and clever, but not necessary. One or two tenths just isnt going to matter and your scale is not even that accurate.

Your OCD will fade.........

[McGuiver]

Does anyone else use a camera on their powder scale?

I am loading up mouse farts for the wife and my old C&R pistols. The powder is being measured on the very low end of the scale, around 3.0 grains so any variance on the scale needle makes a difference.

I super glued a longer, sharpened plastic pointer onto the arm, and offset it with a small bit of copper in the tray holder where the factory calibrating shot goes.

So having the longer pointer was nice, but having to bend over to eyeball the thing level to get the reading every time while I trickled out a few more flakes of powder was starting to suck. So I made a small stand for my iPhone, so the camera lens is level with the indicator on the scale. Now I have a backlit, zoomed in view of the pointer and I don't have to hunch over to get a perfectly level view of it. I can sit up and see it from any angle while I add flakes. It made the powder weighing go much faster last night!

I just turn off the screen sleep timer in the phone and it will stay on until the battery dies. I tried it with an old Android phone that someone gave me, but the dang camera app times out after 2 minutes and goes back to the home screen, and there was no way to keep the device on unless external power was applied even if the camera app didn't time out. So Android users, YMMV.

You could always try this site for turning your scale into an auto trickler...

http://www.omegapowdertrickler.com

By the way what kind of powder are you trying to measure? Trail Boss?






Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[CSACANNONEER]

Nice trick. I just use a Denver Instruments Electronic Balance (good to 0.001 grains) that is powered through a UPS and all other electronics, magnets, speakers, florescent lighting, etc. are removed from the area.

[mrbigsteel]

I've used a web cam hooked up to a laptop at times.