http://www.sahuntingrifle.co.za/index.ph...id=8&id=185
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Improve your RCBS Charegemaster scale 2007/11/07 02:34 Karma: 23
A while ago the friend of mine phoned me regarding his RCBS Chargemaster combo scale. Up to then I have not taken much notice of my own scale, but he informed me that his scale was charging extremely slow. I timed mine and found that mine was running a lot faster then his. This set me on a journey to find out why there was a difference. The outcome however was that his scale was defective, but it gave us insightfull information about the working of these scales.
After doing some research on the internet I was able to determine that these little green scales are fully re-programmable. I sent an e-mail to RCBS on which I received no reply, and eventually telephoned them. They were very helpful and gave me their instructions on how to change the programming on this scale.
This has made a tremendous difference in my reloading experience with this scale. The scale is fully adjustable and there are many settings and that you can change. To enter the program mode pres EDIT MEM and ENTER at the same time. After making an adjustment pres ENTER to go to the next option. After the last setting the scale will reset and countdown. If you passed a setting you have to start from the beginning, there is no back button.
This is the list of settings that you can make to your scale, for some of the functions I do not have detailed instructions as to what they do, and would recommend that you do not change them:
HSB_A1 (15.68) Grains under target weight to go from full to high speed for low weight
HSB_B1 (3.42) Grains under target weight to go from high to slow speed low weight
BSP_C1 (1.08) Grains under target weight to go from slow to final trickle speed low weight
MSP_A2 (39.20) Grains under target weight to go from full to high speed for medium weight
MSP_B2 (8.55) Grains under target weight to go from high to slow speed medium weight
MSP_C2 (2.25) Grains under target weight to go from slow to final trickle speed medium weight
SSP_A3 (196.00) Grains under target weight to go from full to high speed for heavy weight
SSP_B3 (42.75) Grains under target weight to go from high to slow speed heavy weight
SSP_C3 (11.32) Grains under target weight to go from slow to final trickle speed heavy weight
SEL (065) ???
F_A (050) Grains for a Heavy Charge
M_A (035) Grains for a Medium charge
S_A (006) Grains for a slow charge
W_F (200) Rotation for Full speed
W_M (100) Rotation for Medium speed
W_S (036) Rotation for slowest speed
S_F (012) Scale sensitivity timeout time in m/s fast speed
S_M (024) Scale sensitivity timeout time in m/s medium speed
S_S (128) Scale sensitivity timeout time in m/s slow speed.
FR1 (040) ?
FS1 (016) ?
FR2 (080) ?
SR1 (032) ?
SS1 (008) ?
SR2 (040) ?
DEC (000) ?
AT (000) ?
I have to advise you to only make changes to your scale if you are confident to do so, and remember that there is not a “return to default” setting in the scale. If all else fails return your scale to the default settings listed above in brackets.
I am now able to throw 56 grains of S365 in less than 18 seconds (average of 15 charges), and with very few overthrows.
Another problem I experienced with the scale was that there were continued overthrows. The RCBS employee advised me to take a McDonnell's straw (because it is thicker than a normal straw), cut off about a half inch piece and put it into the tube where the powder exits. This caused the last part of an extruded powder to clutter less, and reduced the amount of overthrows dramatically.
I hope you have more joy a with your scale now.
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I found your post very helpful. Thank you! I was able to re-program the "HSP_" parameters on my unit and greatly reduce the time it takes to dispense a charge, without reducing the accuracy.
I have spoken with Don Legg at RCBS (who is the main technical contact person at RCBS for the Chargemaster product) and he was not aware of the function of the "HSP" parameters. This product is actually made by Excell Precision in China for RCBS, and Don has not been able to get a full definition of the programmable parameters from Excell.
He informed me, though, that the "W_" parameters control the initial speed of the trickler. They are properly interpreted as having an implied decimal point. That is, the "200" means 20.0 grains and the "100" means 10.0 grains. Above 20.0 grains the charge will start at the highest speed, between 10.0 and 20.0 grains the charge will start at the medium speed.
I tried changing the "MSP_" and "SSP_" parameters, but did not obtain results that I could interpret. I'm not sure why the unit would ever want to downshift if it was 196.00 grains below the target weight!
Don said that the "S_" parameters control the dwell time for measurements at the different speeds and that a setting of "64" corresponds to 2 seconds (each unit being 1/32 second). When I increased these parameters I did notice a longer lag time in detecting the scale reading and adjusting the trickler speed. I assume that this will allow the scale measurement a longer time to settle when running at the slower speeds.
A large setting for "S_F" causes serious over-charging, as the unit doesn't seem to be able to properly detect the downshift point. I assume the time delay also involves some type of time averaging, so the unit has to run past the desired shift point quite a ways before the average reaches the required value.
I also noticed that the "HSP_", "MSP_" and "SSP_" parameters are scaled versions of each other and appear as parallel linear lines if plotted on a log-linear scale. I'm not sure what this means, but I doubt that it is a coincidence.
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The settings I use are optimized for my load, which is 24.5 grains of Reloader-15. This is for the .223 Remington chambering. My goal was to reduce the amount of time that the Chargemaster spent on the lower speed settings. I haven't had any success trying to adjust the actual rotation speed of the trickler tube. I tried to maximize the time the unit spends at the fastest trickle speed without also causing over-charges.
The settings I chose, based upon trial and error, are as follows:
HSP_A1 = 5.50
HSP_B1 = 2.25
HSP_C1 = 0.40
I also put a thin metal tube within the trickler tube to slightly reduce the diameter and to cover the threads on the trickler tube.
With these settings the Chargemaster drops the first 20.0 grains in about 5 seconds. It downs shifts quickly through the medium speed and then slow speed, and then finally downshifts to the "bump" trickle mode. Two or three "bumps" are all that is typically needed.
The entire charge is dispensed in about 10 to 15 seconds. Waiting for the scale to stabilize, show the count number, and then show the final weight extends the total time to 15 to 20 seconds. This is just about perfect timing, since the new charge is usually ready by the time I have seated the bullet on the previous load.
These parameters should be able to be optimized for any powder type and weight with a little experimentation.
Copied from that link:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Improve your RCBS Charegemaster scale 2007/11/07 02:34 Karma: 23
A while ago the friend of mine phoned me regarding his RCBS Chargemaster combo scale. Up to then I have not taken much notice of my own scale, but he informed me that his scale was charging extremely slow. I timed mine and found that mine was running a lot faster then his. This set me on a journey to find out why there was a difference. The outcome however was that his scale was defective, but it gave us insightfull information about the working of these scales.
After doing some research on the internet I was able to determine that these little green scales are fully re-programmable. I sent an e-mail to RCBS on which I received no reply, and eventually telephoned them. They were very helpful and gave me their instructions on how to change the programming on this scale.
This has made a tremendous difference in my reloading experience with this scale. The scale is fully adjustable and there are many settings and that you can change. To enter the program mode pres EDIT MEM and ENTER at the same time. After making an adjustment pres ENTER to go to the next option. After the last setting the scale will reset and countdown. If you passed a setting you have to start from the beginning, there is no back button.
This is the list of settings that you can make to your scale, for some of the functions I do not have detailed instructions as to what they do, and would recommend that you do not change them:
HSB_A1 (15.68) Grains under target weight to go from full to high speed for low weight
HSB_B1 (3.42) Grains under target weight to go from high to slow speed low weight
BSP_C1 (1.08) Grains under target weight to go from slow to final trickle speed low weight
MSP_A2 (39.20) Grains under target weight to go from full to high speed for medium weight
MSP_B2 (8.55) Grains under target weight to go from high to slow speed medium weight
MSP_C2 (2.25) Grains under target weight to go from slow to final trickle speed medium weight
SSP_A3 (196.00) Grains under target weight to go from full to high speed for heavy weight
SSP_B3 (42.75) Grains under target weight to go from high to slow speed heavy weight
SSP_C3 (11.32) Grains under target weight to go from slow to final trickle speed heavy weight
SEL (065) ???
F_A (050) Grains for a Heavy Charge
M_A (035) Grains for a Medium charge
S_A (006) Grains for a slow charge
W_F (200) Rotation for Full speed
W_M (100) Rotation for Medium speed
W_S (036) Rotation for slowest speed
S_F (012) Scale sensitivity timeout time in m/s fast speed
S_M (024) Scale sensitivity timeout time in m/s medium speed
S_S (128) Scale sensitivity timeout time in m/s slow speed.
FR1 (040) ?
FS1 (016) ?
FR2 (080) ?
SR1 (032) ?
SS1 (008) ?
SR2 (040) ?
DEC (000) ?
AT (000) ?
I have to advise you to only make changes to your scale if you are confident to do so, and remember that there is not a “return to default” setting in the scale. If all else fails return your scale to the default settings listed above in brackets.
I am now able to throw 56 grains of S365 in less than 18 seconds (average of 15 charges), and with very few overthrows.
Another problem I experienced with the scale was that there were continued overthrows. The RCBS employee advised me to take a McDonnell's straw (because it is thicker than a normal straw), cut off about a half inch piece and put it into the tube where the powder exits. This caused the last part of an extruded powder to clutter less, and reduced the amount of overthrows dramatically.
I hope you have more joy a with your scale now.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I found your post very helpful. Thank you! I was able to re-program the "HSP_" parameters on my unit and greatly reduce the time it takes to dispense a charge, without reducing the accuracy.
I have spoken with Don Legg at RCBS (who is the main technical contact person at RCBS for the Chargemaster product) and he was not aware of the function of the "HSP" parameters. This product is actually made by Excell Precision in China for RCBS, and Don has not been able to get a full definition of the programmable parameters from Excell.
He informed me, though, that the "W_" parameters control the initial speed of the trickler. They are properly interpreted as having an implied decimal point. That is, the "200" means 20.0 grains and the "100" means 10.0 grains. Above 20.0 grains the charge will start at the highest speed, between 10.0 and 20.0 grains the charge will start at the medium speed.
I tried changing the "MSP_" and "SSP_" parameters, but did not obtain results that I could interpret. I'm not sure why the unit would ever want to downshift if it was 196.00 grains below the target weight!
Don said that the "S_" parameters control the dwell time for measurements at the different speeds and that a setting of "64" corresponds to 2 seconds (each unit being 1/32 second). When I increased these parameters I did notice a longer lag time in detecting the scale reading and adjusting the trickler speed. I assume that this will allow the scale measurement a longer time to settle when running at the slower speeds.
A large setting for "S_F" causes serious over-charging, as the unit doesn't seem to be able to properly detect the downshift point. I assume the time delay also involves some type of time averaging, so the unit has to run past the desired shift point quite a ways before the average reaches the required value.
I also noticed that the "HSP_", "MSP_" and "SSP_" parameters are scaled versions of each other and appear as parallel linear lines if plotted on a log-linear scale. I'm not sure what this means, but I doubt that it is a coincidence.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The settings I use are optimized for my load, which is 24.5 grains of Reloader-15. This is for the .223 Remington chambering. My goal was to reduce the amount of time that the Chargemaster spent on the lower speed settings. I haven't had any success trying to adjust the actual rotation speed of the trickler tube. I tried to maximize the time the unit spends at the fastest trickle speed without also causing over-charges.
The settings I chose, based upon trial and error, are as follows:
HSP_A1 = 5.50
HSP_B1 = 2.25
HSP_C1 = 0.40
I also put a thin metal tube within the trickler tube to slightly reduce the diameter and to cover the threads on the trickler tube.
With these settings the Chargemaster drops the first 20.0 grains in about 5 seconds. It downs shifts quickly through the medium speed and then slow speed, and then finally downshifts to the "bump" trickle mode. Two or three "bumps" are all that is typically needed.
The entire charge is dispensed in about 10 to 15 seconds. Waiting for the scale to stabilize, show the count number, and then show the final weight extends the total time to 15 to 20 seconds. This is just about perfect timing, since the new charge is usually ready by the time I have seated the bullet on the previous load.
These parameters should be able to be optimized for any powder type and weight with a little experimentation.
