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☛ Official ☚ The Big & Dandy Scale / Balance Thread - Part 2.000±

fyi, for anyone who doesn't want to use/buy ac adapters for their scales, battery packs of the same voltage as the internal cells (IE 3xaa- ~4.5v) can be scaled up in lieu of ac adapters. You will also get cleaner dc power, and no ripple, meaning better accuracy.

An example would be taking 3 d cell batteries and wiring them in series in a holder, then just get a jack of the right size for your ac/dc in port.

Battery life, assuming were talking 3x 1000mah aaa's, using 3x 10000mah d cells would be ~10x longer.

Remember, anytime you use an ac adapter its dirty dc power (ripple, unwanted frequency variations), or they are really expensive adapters with very good rf filtering. Battery packs of the same voltage are cheap, easy, and the best power you can use for your scale in terms of how it affects its accuracy. Just use the same voltage as the internal batteries, more could damage the scale, less would prob give innaccurate readings.
 
The best scales in my opinion are the ones in the Chemical Engineering Lab at my Uni. The door is usually unlocked and the room unattended after 6pm. It has a box around them to stop air affecting the balance and they go to .01mg accuracy or .00001g

I believe the brand is KERN:

Laboratory_Scale_4f30eb8258489.jpg
 
Unfortunately such a set of scales typically costs thousands, but you're fortunate to have such access.

PsychedelicDoctor: They look just like any other set of cheap scales except they only have 2mg resolution. IMHO if you are unable to get a proper balance then you may as well stick with the cheapest ones as these are ok in my experience.
 
daytryptr said:
Remember, anytime you use an ac adapter its dirty dc power (ripple, unwanted frequency variations), or they are really expensive adapters with very good rf filtering. Battery packs of the same voltage are cheap, easy, and the best power you can use for your scale in terms of how it affects its accuracy. Just use the same voltage as the internal batteries, more could damage the scale, less would prob give innaccurate readings.
Click to expand...

As far as GemPro 250 goes i heard different. Always use the power adapter, but power the scale on for 15 Minutes before using and let it gain room temperature if stored elsewhere.
So it your theory suggests the GemPro scales come with a good filtered power adapter?

From personal experience with this scale: using batteries (no matter how new) i regularly see 1mg jumps, with the power adapter rarely to never.
 
depends on a bunch of factors.

Basically, if the scale has a decent voltage regulation circuit built in, (it should/will if it runs on batterys, hell prob if its an only ac/dc adapter powered scale), batteries are your best option. No noise from recitification of the ac, and if you use a few eletrolytic caps rated at the right specs with some decent batteries (in my case lithium primary cells), you get voltage regulation without noise there too.

The only way an adapter could have an advantage, is if you have load demand current spikes, which the adapter accounts for by rectifiying more ac watts and filtering the dc out from the voltage regulator, which senses a voltage drop when the loads impeadance drops, and compensates accordingly.

But, once again, nice batteries, and rated caps, will do the same for load current spikes, the caps just act as "reserve" supply that can be rapidly charged/discharged. And you don't have to deal with ac noise, which can be an issue depending on the hardware being used. Well filtered ac/dc adapters (rectifiers, with filtering circuitry) tend to be more costly, than the simple solution, of high mah rated new lithium primarys, and if necessary caps to account for load demand spikes. When your talking about a setup where those batteries will in all likelyhood last for years, its a worthwhile investment.

Just sayin, dc->dc from a battery, is always going to be cleaner than ac->dc using an adapter.

Were talking about sensitive digital loads, and most likely switching (possibly linear) voltage converters, with pre-post rectification filtering. Wiki switching power supplys, rf low pass filters, recftification, linear supplys, and a bit of googling to learn the difference between a dc battery current source, and ac rectifier sources. Its a bit technical if you don't have an electronics background (or just an interest as a side hobby in my case), but nonetheless imho valuable info on powering these sensitive digital loads (mg scales), with either purely linear dc from a battery, or frankenstiein (no matter how badasss he's designed lol) dc from a rectifier.

Batterys will always be cleaner. But like i said, other factors can come into play, but in the end those issues can be solved while still maintaining a pure dc source from a battery.
 
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Transform said:
Unfortunately such a set of scales typically costs thousands, but you're fortunate to have such access.

PsychedelicDoctor: They look just like any other set of cheap scales except they only have 2mg resolution. IMHO if you are unable to get a proper balance then you may as well stick with the cheapest ones as these are ok in my experience.
Click to expand...

Thank you. My concern with some of the cheaper models are the weighing cups you need to use. I much prefer having an open flat weighing surface like my Acculab. I can foresee difficulty with powders in that little cup. Do you know of any reasonably priced alternatives with a flat scale? This is why the GemPro250 looked attractive. Wish the price point were a bit lower.

Unfortunately, the Acculab I had had a 9V battery port thing underneath but for some reason, the manual says it was not designed to be used and the battery door had a sticker over it saying no battery a la Ghostbusters. Anyway, when I put a 9V in, all it does is power the LCD. Very silly.
 
Recently purchased a GPR-20, as of the last time I used it my old $20 scale proved more accurate & reliable. Gonna try new batteries before I return it. Not sure if I got a lemon or if this model is crap. Seems like most user reviews I read were favorable. Any of you guys use an AWS GPR-20?
 
A while back someone was asking about the HA-20 scales, did you end up buying them? Any good?
 
jesuspeople666 said:
is this a ok scale?? http://dx.com/p/high-precision-portable-digital-scale-10g-0-001g-2-aaa-52751
im thinking about getting that one, ill be using it for 25b-nbome and mdpv
Click to expand...

I would not use that for anything less potant than ketamine. Perhaps 2c-b but to expect the dose to be a lot stronge or weaker than I intended it to be. My friend has those and I would expect something like +-5mg at least. To measure out <5mg accurately You probably need to shell out over $100 at least I would think.
 
Yeah you really need to be using volumetric solutions to get doses below 20mg with scales like that. One would need to tread very carefully when using it for NBOMes
 
What Scale is recommended to proper weigh out doses in low mg-ranges? I'm thinking about buying some new equipment.

Any thoughts about the MyWeigh GemPro 250?
 
If you want to weigh in the single mg range then you will need a 0.1mg balance like the one I've posted there.

The MyWeigh GemPro 250 is particularly insufficient because it only has 2mg resolution. You could use any cheap 0.001g balance for weighing above 20mg but it is worth ensuring they are still accurate on a regular basis.
 
jesuspeople666 said:
is this a ok scale?? http://dx.com/p/high-precision-portable-digital-scale-10g-0-001g-2-aaa-52751
im thinking about getting that one, ill be using it for 25b-nbome and mdpv
Click to expand...

For some reason it does not really look trustworthy but in the more expensive end of the price range at dealextreme you will find 0.001g scales that I would consider alright (I have one myself and I rarely have creeping or surprising reactions that could have been caused by inaccuracy).
And you will still be under 30$ 8) :D
 
I have a silver AWS Gemini 20 but it's only accurate to ~2mg now. I have never changed the battery, could that be why it's lost it's .001mg accuracy? It used to weigh to 1mg spot on every single time I used it until about 4-5 months ago.
 
I highly doubt it... seems much more likely that the mechanics inside that attach to the sensor aren't what they used to be. Maybe the strain gauge is deformed a bit and you need to buy a new one.

Mine is not always so hot anymore either but I don't think it is time for a replacement.
 
Well I have no interest in super potent psychedelic compounds, and I don't use my balance for much else. I guess I will have to deal with the +/- 2mg innaccuracy for now.
 
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