[Maintainer] Note: Dedicated Systems has apparently gone bankrupt - please see VII.C.1.b. for more information.
Dedicated systems can be reached at 1-800-729-2808. The cost for the combined system is $225, while just the scale goes for about $160. They have a 30 day 'no questions asked' money back policy. ------------- The scale comes with a 500 grain check weight, has a 1500 grain upper limit, two powder pans, a 'training cup', and can be battery operated. It has a LCD read out to .01 grains, and includes a number of interesting software options. We investigated the precession of the scale by repeatedly weighing a set of RCBS check weights, and recording the results. We weighed one 200 grain , two 100 grain, one 50 grain, one 5 grain, one 1 grain and one .5 grain check weight. Each one was weighed 5 times. The deviations from the mean for each weight was entered into a histogram, and the RMS deviation was calculated. (we do this because we have no way of knowing that the check weights are in fact the nominal claimed values) The RMS deviation over all measurements was .043 grains. If the trials with the .5 grain check weight were eliminated, the RMS deviation was .038 grains. The trials with the .5 grain check weight showed large variations. The documentation warns that the software in the scale will probably not weight items below .2 grain with any degree of accuracy. From these measurements we made, we suggest that weights below 1 grain are probably suspect, in the default software mode. The software has something called 'tracker' mode which tries to compensate for thermal variations by recalibrating the scale's zero every time you remove the weight from the pan, and also tracks the variation of the weight (due to thermal noise, air movement, or whatever). There are software switches that allow only zero tracking, or no tracking at all. With the default tracker mode, if you manually dribble small amounts of powder, each grain of powder falling will/may be interprited as thermal noise, and the weight will be recalibrated to ignore the added weight of the powder as it is added. We believe that this tacker mode is responsible for the larger than expected variations of the 1/2 grain weight test. The scale was also tested for off-of-center weight measurement variations. We found a ~+-.5 grain extreme variation in a 1500 grain weight from one side to the other of the scale pan. The scale was found to be very off balance, about 1 bubble on a small carpenters level. When we leveled the scale to ~1/5 bubble, the weight variations across the scale were reduced to about ~+-.1 grain. The powder dribbler hooks via a ribbon cable into the back of the scale. It has a hopper that has about a 1 # capacity for 4198. The scale must be trained to operate each type of powder, this takes about 5 min, and about 1/4-1/2 # of powder. Up to 9 types of powder training parameters can be stored in the scale. We tested Red Dot and IMR 4198. Both powders were dribbled to within .05 grain accuracy. Charge weights of 80 grains of 4198 took about 15-18 seconds to dribble, while 3 grains of Red Dot took under 10 seconds. The scale will indicate a error condition if the dribbled weight is more than .1 grain out of tolerance. The scale also has the feature that you can define a 'nominal' weight, and high and low limits on that nominal weight, so that you can sort bullets by weight class, or check for over/under powder charge on loaded ammunition. There is no provision for parts counting. In summary, our recommendation on this scale is "Buy it". With the powder dribbler it is cheaper than dealer price on a RCBS electronic scale, and offers all of the features that one could reasonably want, and then some. [Maintainer: I was a bit confused about whether the 'software' mentioned was internal to the scale or was something that ran on a PC & contacted Chris. Apparently the software is all internal to the scale, but there is a unexplained port on the back of scale which has no known use (maybe downloading new SW?)]