New AD FX-120i has a seriously drifting zero pulling my hair out

Munkey1973

Munkey1973

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So I was initially pleased as can be when the new FX-120i balance showed up with the Autotrickler V3 assembly this week.

Last night I was using the scale to simply weigh and sort my brass.
Using the cup I took a reference piece of brass and zeroed the scale... naturally I was sorting grains over and under (based of the 1st reference piece).

It was working fine last night.... then all of sudden today the scale is drifting up/down all the time..
I am constantly re-checking with the reference piece to see if it holds zero (which it isn't and its not consistent as such).

Its driving me MENTAL !!

Not sure that I can trust the scale to measure powder if it can not consistently measure brass.

My reloading bench is heavy and solid.
All of my overhead lights are LED (as I've heard that Fluorescent lights emit radio waves that interfere with most scales).

The breeze brakes are installed and the built in bubble level is spot on.

Anyone else ever have this problem with the Fx-120i ?

Is it some kind of other electrical interference that I am missing ?
 
where is the power source running from and where are the wires routed? that scale is super sensitive to air flow and vibration
 
You might try running the feed power through a power filter such as used on an UPS. The power circuits on these are the same and the price difference mostly comes from the battery. If you get one that has no battery it will filter the power just fine. Since installing one of those I have zero issues with my scales.
 
I flipped a breakers until I found the one my scale was on. It shut down things in a few rooms. My laptop, an extra monitor, modem & wifi…. maybe these other electronics were doing something to the power.
Will test performance/consistency of scale tonight or tomorrow with these other devices shut off.

SteveB… do you have issues with your scale before you used one of these power filters ? do you have link to the one you currently use?
 
SteveB said:
You might try running the feed power through a power filter such as used on an UPS. The power circuits on these are the same and the price difference mostly comes from the battery. If you get one that has no battery it will filter the power just fine. Since installing one of those I have zero issues with my scales.
Click to expand...

The UPS is the power filter. It takes in "dirty" utility, converts it to DC and then back to AC so it outputs clean power with a perfect sine wave.

A small UPS might help if there are power quality / noise issues.
 
Sniffer is correct in his description. It is my understand that APC uses the same circuitry on its UPS regardless of price. The price difference is based on the battery size which determine how long your computer will run after a complete power failure. I bought an APC unit which has no battery and just protects from line power spikes.

APC is the dominant company in this area from what I understand and I bought mine from Costco for 20 to 30 bucks years ago.

I did have issues with the RCBS Chargemaster and similar scales before installing the APC. However, I did have it installed when I bought my FX-120 and never have had issues since.
 
did have issues with the RCBS Chargemaster and similar scales before installing the APC
Click to expand...

I never had anything similar in problems with my RCBS Chargemaster .

However, last night I again used the Fx-120i to weigh some brass and set the autothrower & trickler…. but this time it was the only thing running on the circuit.

Worked absolutely flawlessly !

It must have been picking up some interference from other appliances... I will definitely invest a quality UPS

Thanks for your help SteveB and & Sniffer !
 
Its also important to watch temperature and humidity. 20°C is ideal for precision equipment, and under 50% humidity or so. I have one and it gets very sticky and unreliable at 25+C in summer when humidity is way high.
Shouldn't really be a problem this time of year though.
 
adamg said:
I think some of the info being written about how UPSs work, and that all types do the same thing electrically for your devices, is false.

https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/when-to-use-an-uninterruptible-power-supply

There's a whole category of UPSs that don't even alter the electricity until it senses the feed supply is lost.
Click to expand...

Ive worked on dozens of UPS, some as big as buses and every one I've ever seen has the capability to supply the end device with utility as their primary or secondary source.

It makes sense to pick the appropriate product for your application. If the end goal is smooth power with no spikes / transients then it will be an online unit with PWM conversion of some kind.
 
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