AutoTrickler V4

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Understood. But mine was overthrowing all the time. And it appears everyone who has commented has suggested some degree of overthrow. So I was suggesting that perhaps the device never underthrows to cant it up from the back with a set screw.
Actually I tilted mine forward a little to get the H4350 to come out the trickler tube. Took a few throws moving the feet and it was dialed
 
On your videos - when you say I gave it more tilt - are your referring to physical tilt or calibration settings? What’s the length and OD of the tube?
Tilt meaning physical cant with shims. But I also changed the speed of the tube.
No sure of the length or OD. I think you are correct about the scale the more I digest. Since the small trickler really has nothing to do with The overthrow. The main tube dumps too much usually. The feed back relay from the scale to trickler doesn’t seem like it’s occurring quick enough . However, as I watch the videos again the tube spin rate doesn’t change much despite my adjusting so perhaps it’s thst. I will retry as you suggested later this evening to see if the reset on my scale actually held or it went back to nominal default.
 
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Tilt meaning physical cant with shims. But I also changed the speed of the tube.
No sure of the length or OD. I think you are correct about the scale the more I digest. Since the small trickler really has nothing to do with The overthrow. The main tube dumps too much usually. The feed back relay from the scale to trickler doesn’t seem like it’s occurring quick enough . However, as I watch the videos again the tube spin rate doesn’t change much despite my adjusting so perhaps it’s thst. I will retry as you suggested later this evening to see if the reset on my scale actually held or it went back to nominal default.
Question was meant for JTHOR who is experimenting with the 3d printed tips. Regardless, very curious to see if your scale reset or if it just got deprogrammed maybe during a hard reset or something like that.
 
Physical Tilt :)
Cool - and are you using shims, tape, post its, or just the scale itself. Thinking that using the scale might be the easiest way. Maybe get the bubble level within the circle but towards the top of it which would mean a slight forward tilt. I think someone mentioned two post it notes which is about 8 thou so clearly it doesn't take too much. Are you going to be selling your straw soon? I had an MK Machining one for my chargemaster and it made a world of difference controlling clumps.
 
Cool - and are you using shims, tape, post its, or just the scale itself. Thinking that using the scale might be the easiest way. Maybe get the bubble level within the circle but towards the top of it which would mean a slight forward tilt. I think someone mentioned two post it notes which is about 8 thou so clearly it doesn't take too much. Are you going to be selling your straw soon? I had an MK Machining one for my chargemaster and it made a world of difference controlling clumps.
No shims or anything I have a beta unit and it used a set screw in the back to change the tilt.
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If Adam doesn't offer it, I'll sell it. I've shared everything with him and I just wanted to fix the issue honestly and I had a way of doing that with CAD and 3D printing. My only issue with selling is I have zero clue how to sell efficiently online and so on. I'm sure I could learn though. producing them is rather easy.
 
With regards to overthrows and general weird behaviour, I’ve found grams to be more reliable than grains, no idea there just a little awkward? Also my cup was randomly contacting the nozzle, I moved the stop back a few mm to prevent that and throws became much more consistent, running Varget and H1000 business card shim under rear, level scale solid bench and auto calibration
 
Question was meant for JTHOR who is experimenting with the 3d printed tips. Regardless, very curious to see if your scale reset or if it just got deprogrammed maybe during a hard reset or something like that.
@Sebrock. My scale has held its settings. And the last few loads have been very good with a handful of overthrows from clumping. But nothing like before. My kids were messing with my scale I came to find out. So probably not a scale problem. Not a trickler problem. Like most things in life a user problem.
 
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@Sebrock. My scale has held its settings. And the last few loads have been very good with a handful of overthrows from clumping. But nothing like before. My kids were messing with my scale I came to find out. So probably not a scale problem. Not a trickler problem. Like most things in life a user problem.

What are your settings at now? Did you tilt from the back? I have found it flows better if the small tube is .18 to .2 on flow. You can adjust speed from there. I see some stalling / clumping too, not horendus. I hope that tip will help fix the issue.
 
FYI the schedule seems to be holding - I was March 18th and according to Adam I was shipping today or tomorrow. Also spoke about the clumping issue. Pretty confident that playing with the small tube speed and potentially using the scale to give a slight tilt if necessary should get it working great. An overthrow here or there won’t kill me either. Although like the chargemaster, it will be nice when someone makes a tip commercially available. @jthor you should see if MK Machining (who makes the chargemaster straw) will make them for you.
 
What are your settings at now? Did you tilt from the back? I have found it flows better if the small tube is .18 to .2 on flow. You can adjust speed from there. I see some stalling / clumping too, not horendus. I hope that tip will help fix the issue
Clumping is not bad. My flow is 0.2
Setting of 7 , 1.9 and 8.
I am starting off by priming the small tube running it for a bit to get steady amount of powder. And if I see clumping I will pause and do it again. But at this point if it overthrows it’s usually no more than 1-2 kernels of h1000. Did you get that tip?
 
FYI the schedule seems to be holding - I was March 18th and according to Adam I was shipping today or tomorrow. Also spoke about the clumping issue. Pretty confident that playing with the small tube speed and potentially using the scale to give a slight tilt if necessary should get it working great. An overthrow here or there won’t kill me either. Although like the chargemaster, it will be nice when someone makes a tip commercially available. @jthor you should see if MK Machining (who makes the chargemaster straw) will make them for you.
I’m still waiting — march 14 before noon order date — reached out to adam and was told I’m in the next batch to ship, that was about 2 weeks ago

hopefully soon
 
@Sebrock. My scale has held its settings. And the last few loads have been very good with a handful of overthrows from clumping. But nothing like before. My kids were messing with my scale I came to find out. So probably not a scale problem. Not a trickler problem. Like most things in life a user problem.
Took balls to admit that, buddy. Good for you. And I'm glad it's performing better for you now.
 
FYI the schedule seems to be holding - I was March 18th and according to Adam I was shipping today or tomorrow. Also spoke about the clumping issue. Pretty confident that playing with the small tube speed and potentially using the scale to give a slight tilt if necessary should get it working great. An overthrow here or there won’t kill me either. Although like the chargemaster, it will be nice when someone makes a tip commercially available. @jthor you should see if MK Machining (who makes the chargemaster straw) will make them for you.
Thanks for that update. I’m a March 17 order. I had already paid, so as per Adam there’s no notification for shipping.
 
He provides tracking. Check junk /spam folder. Some folks had the notice go there.
I just heard back from Adam - trying to get shipment out today. My guess its that he ships in big batches so they are trying to get a bunch out the door. So if its not today - clearly it sounds like its imminent. My order was (directly through Adam and not CE) on March 19th which puts me in the March 17-March 28 slot slated for January.
 
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I just heard back from Adam - trying to get shipment out today. My guess its that he ships in big batches so they are trying to get a bunch out the door. So if its not today - clearly it sounds like its imminent. My order was (directly through Adam and not CE) on March 19th which puts me in the March 17-March 28 slot slated for January.
Y’all are impatient lol. My reservation was march 12th at 2:15pm. Still haven’t received the v4.

I had emailed Adam end of December and finally got a response Jan 3rd. This is what he said.

Happy new year. I am checking and this order did not ship but I marked in my spreadsheet where I track reservations that it had on Dec 22. I'm not sure how but I made a mistake. I have spreadsheets keeping track of reservation priority and payment status and I'm color coding things to indicate what's what and somehow it was marked incorrectly so it didn't go on Dec 22.


Still waiting
 
I just heard back from Adam - trying to get shipment out today. My guess its that he ships in big batches so they are trying to get a bunch out the door. So if its not today - clearly it sounds like its imminent. My order was (directly through Adam and not CE) on March 19th which puts me in the March 17-March 28 slot slated for January.
You ordered same day as me so I guess that means mine should be coming up soon as well.

I don’t know if it was stated before but does anyone have a total height for the unit and scale?
 
Y’all are impatient lol. My reservation was march 12th at 2:15pm. Still haven’t received the v4.

I had emailed Adam end of December and finally got a response Jan 3rd. This is what he said.

Happy new year. I am checking and this order did not ship but I marked in my spreadsheet where I track reservations that it had on Dec 22. I'm not sure how but I made a mistake. I have spreadsheets keeping track of reservation priority and payment status and I'm color coding things to indicate what's what and somehow it was marked incorrectly so it didn't go on Dec 22.


Still waiting
Im a precision reloader - I thought impatience and ADD was par for the course. lol

But case in point, this is why I constantly check - I always feel like my stuff will get lost in the shuffle.
 
You ordered same day as me so I guess that means mine should be coming up soon as well.

I don’t know if it was stated before but does anyone have a total height for the unit and scale?

16.5 Inches
 

16.5 Inches
Thank you for that, just got my shipping notification as well.
 
I was a beta tester as well, messing with the setting helped me as well but I did discover what I think is an issue for people in dry climates.



I originally tested the V4 in Prescott AZ where it was really dry. I have had static charge problems there before I had all kind of problems with the scale drifting until I changed to a metal cup. I have seen kernels of powder jump from the tweezers to the side of the tray, consulted with someone way smarter than me on static charge…which confirmed my suspicion that static charge can absolutely cause these sorts of problems.



I then tested the V4 here in New Hampshire with a humidity level a bit higher and the V4 worked a lot better for me. I am hopefully that Area 419 or someone else will make parts of the V4 out of conducting materials to minimize the effects of static charge. I do know you can get a conducting PLA for 3D printers though it is not as conducting as aluminum.



To be fair I have not had a chance to really work on this with Adam yet (I hv been too busy)…there are anti-static matts and other static mitigation technics I have wanted to try but no time yet.



Jthor, can you print that tip out of conducting PLA? I have a CNC lathe I cut solids on….I am not huge G-code expert so it might be a bit of an issue for me to get that done in a timely manner. Of course, after the set-up work, I could crank out hundreds of the tips in brass easily. Perhaps a discussion with you and Adam at some point.
 
I would think we would get tracking info no? I still haven’t heard anything. Gives me an excuse to bother adam tomorrow to see what’s up or if it shipped already.

I was just going off his info on the website. I wasn’t sure if he’d be notifying with tracking or not, and I wasn’t going to bother him. That said, I received an email today that the UPS label has been created. So it’s headed my way.
 
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I was just going off his info on the website. I wasn’t sure if he’d be notifying with tracking or not, and I wasn’t going to bother him. That said, I received an email today that the UPS label has been created. So it’s headed my way.
I did as well. I think they batch shipments. I think a ton of stuff is going out today.
 
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One hell of a range of preorder dates on this shipment -- Guess It explains why they went dark for a couple weeks
3/14 preorder for me -- received tracking yesterday, should be here Tuesday
 
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The posted schedule on Adams site was revised as well. It's showing orders up to march 28th shipped and the April orders pushing back into February. I have an April 2nd order.

  • Reserved by March 28, ship January (shipped)
  • Reserved by April 22, ship early February
 
I was a beta tester as well, messing with the setting helped me as well but I did discover what I think is an issue for people in dry climates.



I originally tested the V4 in Prescott AZ where it was really dry. I have had static charge problems there before I had all kind of problems with the scale drifting until I changed to a metal cup. I have seen kernels of powder jump from the tweezers to the side of the tray, consulted with someone way smarter than me on static charge…which confirmed my suspicion that static charge can absolutely cause these sorts of problems.



I then tested the V4 here in New Hampshire with a humidity level a bit higher and the V4 worked a lot better for me. I am hopefully that Area 419 or someone else will make parts of the V4 out of conducting materials to minimize the effects of static charge. I do know you can get a conducting PLA for 3D printers though it is not as conducting as aluminum.



To be fair I have not had a chance to really work on this with Adam yet (I hv been too busy)…there are anti-static matts and other static mitigation technics I have wanted to try but no time yet.



Jthor, can you print that tip out of conducting PLA? I have a CNC lathe I cut solids on….I am not huge G-code expert so it might be a bit of an issue for me to get that done in a timely manner. Of course, after the set-up work, I could crank out hundreds of the tips in brass easily. Perhaps a discussion with you and Adam at some point.
If you have parts you want to test I'd be happy to print them. I have a mark forged onyx at my shop which is capable of printing ESD carbon fiber impregnated filament. I don't get my V4 until april or sometime thereafter but I can prototype and ship parts.

 
davethedog,

Very interesting...I am thinking the printed components that come with the V4 specifically the hopper end that goes into the V4, instead of the clear hopper tube Adam ships with it I think I would just switch to aluminum. If you have a tight enough relationship with Adam maybe he would let you print them for us. (in other words share the files) That would be a discussion to have with him, I would of course understand if he was unwilling.

The nozzle that jthore has made would also be interesting to do in that material. Not sure I would ever get to producing those on my CNC, though I would like to.

Basically I am convinced static charge is my issue...this will of course depend on the chemistry of the powder and the environmental conditions. Alliant RL50 has always seems very charge susceptible.
 
The posted schedule on Adams site was revised as well. It's showing orders up to march 28th shipped and the April orders pushing back into February. I have an April 2nd order.

  • Reserved by March 28, ship January (shipped)
  • Reserved by April 22, ship early February
3/29 here and mine shipped today. You shouldn’t be far off!
 
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Mine is really struggling with overthrowing. Settings below still inducing overthrow at least 30% of the time. Scale is level and all setting confirmed per the manual.it’s significant overthrows from the large tube never even needing the small one.
 

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Mine is really struggling with overthrowing. Settings below still inducing overthrow 30% of the times. Scale is level and all setting confirmed per the manual.it’s significant overthrows from the large tube never even needing the small one.

Tilt it forward, from the back. Get the small tube flow rate to .15-.2. Mine runs better closer to .2. I am at .18. Then you can adjust speeds to get 10-12 second throws that are accurate. Mine speeds are set at 5 and 6 and transition at 1.8.
 
Tilt it forward, from the back. Get the small tube flow rate to .15-.2. Mine runs better closer to .2. I am at .18. Then you can adjust speeds to get 10-12 second throws that are accurate. Mine speeds are set at 5 and 6 and transition at 1.8.
It’s not even using the small tube when it overthrows so I don’t think it’s the small tube flow rate…
 
I've tried 3 different powders in mine so far and found the following:

1) 8208 - Fast & easy with almost no overthrows
2) Varget - Ran pretty good, a little slower with a few overthrows
3) H4350 - The most temperamental - throws went from fairly fast to slow with a few overthrows here and there.