Gavin seems to be one of the few, knowledgeable, reloading RUclipsrs that is still producing current content! We appreciate you bro! Keep up the good work!
@@j0ey96 FortuneCookie45LC and ThorsAxe777 are as well, and several others are mostly posting on The Reloader's Network site now. You should check it out, a lot of good continent over there.
Received mine Yesterday40 Minute warm up then thru 25 24.5 Gr loads of VV140 with only ( 1 ) one high reading by 1/10. Verified with my RCBS beam scale and Lee Beam Scale. Both of which I trust explicitly. Then thru 25 loads of BE-86 at 4.1 with the same results! VERY HAPPY!
First, thank you Gavin for all your excellent videos. I purchased an Intellidropper scale recently. I've seen comments on this scale drifting. This (at least mine) will begin to drift if left sitting without weighing a charge for more than about 10 minutes. Which IMHO, it shouldn't do. I haven't called Frankford yet, to ask them about it. But the scale automatically zeros before a charge is thrown. That being the case, charge weight accuracy and repeatability shouldn't be a concern. If using the scale by itself for some reason, it would need to be manually zeroed prior to weighing. Another issue I first noticed in this video and believe I confirmed when I received my unit is, the built-in bubble level is nowhere near accurate on these scales. I thought it may have been the camera angle causing a distorted perception in the video. But now I don't think it is. Gavin's unit appears to be noticeably tilted to the right, from the camera's perspective. My unit tilts very obviously left from the same perspective, when the bubble is perfectly centered. I have a nice little Starrett pocket machinist's level that I used to level the unit properly. I wish I could post a pic of just how far off the bubble level is, when the unit is actually level. But approximately 1/3 of the bubble is actually outside of the line. If you have one of these units, I recommend that you do not rely on the bubble level. Just a couple of FYI comments.
After using a small Franklin Arsenal scale and having big problems with that (as in massive drift to the point of being dangerous) I am not convinced that it’s worth saving $10 over the RCBS chargemaster lite. You even showed it said 6.4 grains then had to trickle up as it was .2 grains off. I really do appreciate your hard work doing the heavy lifting for us Gavin. Keep up the great work.
@Stephen Box I bought the F/A tumbler kit combo, what a good deal to have everything I needed to start cleaning brass for not much more than other brands charge just for the tumbler.
Just to mention at 8:10 you talk about using the scale cover to prevent temp and air current from fans or AC units from interfering with the measurement. Personally the one thing I find I MUST have the cover on is simply to stop me from breathing on the unit. I can't tell you how many times I have found my reading fluctuate and I find that it isn't any air current from fans or anything. It is just me breathing on the unit while I am operating it. And the effects are HUGE
I noticed that you had static electricity keeping some of the powder sticking to the hopper. I've read that sometimes wrapping a dryer sheet around the hopper (and holding in place with a rubber band) will reduce the amount of static electricity there. I haven't had an occasion to try it yet myself, but I plan to. I just thought this tidbit of information might be helpful.
Hello, I'm from the UK and have only used Viht. N140 and N150 to date. N140 works very well with .223" 69gr Sierra Matchking, .308 168gr Sierra Matchking and also 8mm Mauser 196gr - 200gr. The N150 is very well suited to 6.5Creedmoor Lapua Scenar 123gr. At the moment, Nov 2023, it is very difficult to get any which is causing enormous problems. Thank you for your videos, you've given me a wealth of knowledge. Best Regards
Bought this thing and read the reviews cause the most common things will happen. To major issues I had with mine in just 5 months were. 1) buttons on the screen just stopped working, this is in all the reviews. 2) the wifi never connected for me, and call Frankford, they couldn't even get it. They did send me a new one. And after about 7 months, they screen went out again. This is kept on my bench, inside a control indoor room. Hardly ever moved the actual scale. Ended up going with the chargemaster lite and so far it was been incredible. If you are doing precision loads, no matter what you will be confirming all your loads on a manual precision scale.
My old digital scale gives me crazy readings if my cell phone is nearby. I noticed you had to re-zero a couple of times when you switched over to blue tooth. I would be inclined to leave my phone on the other side of the room and just work with the scale directly to avoid any possibility of the phone causing issues.
Use a used dryer sheet that you would use when drying your close and wipe the inside of your hopper, it will help eliminate that static and keep the powder from clinging to the acrylic cylinder.
Christian from Sweden here. Vihtvauori is great, I use N150 for 6.5 Creedmoor. The Frankford Intellidropper looks like a more polished version of the Chargemaster Lite. I had a Chargemaster Lite that broke after only a few months of moderate use. The connection between the motor and the dispensing pipe broke down so I am replacing it with an Auto Trickler v2 instead.
You very briefly showed cleaning the unit between powders. This can be a significant amount of difference between brands to ensure everything is out. A follow up video on that would be nice to show the level of detail required.
Its not brain surgery, your dealing with mostly smooth surfaces on the inside of the hopper, it pretty much flows out the bottom once u open it..... it literally takes me 45 secs to change powders in my Hornady auto dispenser, empty the hopper, blow the tube out { towards the hopper } empty hopper again......done
Note to @gavintoobe. I will be reviewing the Intellidropper on my RUclips channel too! As an electrical engineer, I can say that the load cell is extremely sensitive and relatively delicate. I would be very cautious in banging the side of the powder dispenser to get the powder to empty out! Great video nonetheless! If you notice that your pan weighs 129.0gr. However, when you were loading the pistol powder, the pan's weight was drifting up to 129.3gr. I always double check the weights against a 2nd scale which is my Ohaus 10-10 balance beam scale.
I was waiting on this review because I wanted a powder dispenser but due to being impatient, and got my tax return, I got the rcbs chargemaster lite and love it. Never needs re-zeroed and never had any under or over charges. I also love the auto function on it and it's fairly quick as well. I wish I would have bought one years ago.
Mine goes over occasionally with Varget. It's around one every 50-100 rounds so I'm not really worried about it. Still a lot better than the original chargemasters I have seen in action.
I really enjoy your videos. Since we are both "real" Engineers I can appreciate your need for patience and dedication to adherance to procedures. :-) I also noticed that you calibrated the unit without the cover for the pistol powder and I was going to ask about that in my comment, so I'm gld you explained that this was intentional. Great job and have a great week!
I recently purchased an automatic powder dispenser and my decision came down to the new Frankford Arsenal or the RCBS Chargemaster Lite. I like the features of saving load data and using a phone to control the FA, but have heard bad things about the scales and 'cheapness' of other FA products. Being close in price, I chose the RCBS. I keep all my load data in spread sheets anyway, and using the app to control it, just seems gimmicky. You are right there, with the powder drop. It's not like you are across the room trying to dispense powder. The thing I do like about the FA powder dispenser, that I didnt know about, was the speed at which it dispenses. However, my RCBS has yet to throw an overcharge with over 300rds dispensed. The RCBS maybe a tad slower, but I am more confident in it.
I have one of these and have had major issues with scale creeping. I have allowed it to warm up from 10 minutes to 10 hours. I have left it go and it keeps adding.1 every few minutes. Looks like he is having the same issue but maybe doesn’t want to call it out
Just getting into reloading and I’m enjoying your informational videos immensely. Appreciate You, when I get everything I need together I’m feeling more and more comfortable .
Thank you for such a detailed video. I just received my intellidropper and your video was extremely helpful. the directions that came with the unit were very descriptive also, combined with your video set up and use was a piece of cake. By the way I love the unit so far. I haven't gotten to the app setup as of yet and only have thrown maybe a dozen loads but the first impression is a thumbs up.
...glad I found this...I'm fixin' to load .38/.357 for the first time - I've been loading (on & off) since I got home from Germany in 1974 (started on a Rockchucker - which I still have) - I've loaded 9mm & .45 ACP over the years I plan on building different loads for both .38 & 357 with different bullet weights/styles (and powders) and thought an auto measure would make load development easier & quicker than fiddling with standard powder measures (Lee auto disk & Dillon hopper)...I like what I see...once I determine which load (s) I like - I'll set my standard hopper for each on my progressive press...it would certainly make using a single stage much easier...
VV is the most consistent powder you can get according to the bench rest shooters we have over here. N150 is my favorite for 6,5x55 behind our Swedish Norma 130gr DL or Lapua 8g Silver Scenar. Both have given me podium placings on national target shootings and field shootings. :)
Gavin I purchased an Intellidropper today and went through the process of setting it up. I let the unit sit for over 45 minutes. Problem I have and I sent an email to Frankford Arsenal is that all the numbers appear on the touch screen when selected except for numbers 5, 6, 7, and 8.
Hi, I bought this on your recommendation plus i got 20% off. Having problems with hooking up the app to the unit. Called 1800 number but still wont come together. Unit is a bit bulky, but the price is right, very sensitive, but also very accurate and quick!
This seems like a very nice machine for a good price. Well if it holds up over time I can see this being a good investment. Thank you Gavin for your high quality videos
Anti static dryer sheets are your friend, Gavin! Any electronic scale should be sitting on one and and electronic plastic scale should also be wiped down from time to time with one. You'll be surprised how much better and stable it will operate.
Gavin, I really appreciate your review of the Frankford Arsenal M-Press. I picked one up and it performs well for me. Based on what I see here, there may be some gotchas but the price of this powder measure with its features makes this a quick buy for me as well.
I've just landed on this video, very late in the game. I have a Chargemaster 1500 and a Lyman Gen 6 and am always encountering issues like those commented on by some other viewers. I've looked in vain for a seriously consistent scale that doesn't cost a fortune, but that's the point: apart maybe from the legendary (no longer available) GemPro 250, the kind of precision and stability often looked for by the more obsessively precise reloaders among us (I'm one of them) is only available if you're prepared to pay four figure sums for what are essentially laboratory precision balance scales. And even then there are limitations because many do not measure in gn. So ultimately you do get what you pay for.
Gravimetric analysis in college chemistry was a hated class by most. I loved it. Back then we had to use a manual scale to measure reaction products to one ten thousandths of a gram. It was in a secure room on granite table and yes it had glass doors protecting the measuring pan. Good times.
To verify if it's accurate you would need to use another scale. I use my Gem Pro 250 to check my RCBS lite and its accurate. Also RCBS starts to auto dispense once it stabilizes at zero.
I had an issue with a lyman scale. The scale would drift and then it wouldnt reliable turn on or off. It only had issues when running on AC. The AC checked out with a multimeter but it looked like it was noisy. I tried a benchtop power supply and the scale was drifting like crazy. Looks like the scale is very sensitive to noisy power supplies... I had heard that voltage variations would change readings. I removed the jack on the scale and replaced it with a USB plug so I could use USB power supply... it now runs reliably.
Does the app store the "powder calibration" if you use it to control the dispenser, or do you have to repeat the calibration every time you use the device? If it doesn't store the info, then all it does is save you from entering the grain amount. Also, does using the "powder calibration" seem to speed up the time or the accuracy of the charge or both?
wow these look amazing ,just getting into reloading and love it.its cool to watch someone that makes things really easy to follow,down in NZ by the time stuff reaches us it is very expensive.these dont look to bad price wise down here.great vid and easy to follow
Excellent video. Did you have a chance to weigh the charge on a manual scale to check if there was any deviation from the dispenser readout? Also, have you had a chance to test bullet run-out on the M-Press with better brass and dies than your initial overview? Still waiting on the edge of my seat for a precision load comparison of the M-Press, Forster, and MEC Marksman. Thank you so much for all your testing. It gives me the info I need to make an intelligent purchase.
One thing that would have been good to demonstrate is the AUTO mode. I use this mode almost exclusively. You simply press the mode button and AUTO appears in the upper left corner of the display. You key in a powder weight and hit the start button. When it's ready, you remove the pan and do whatever you do with the powder. When you place the pan back on the scale, in about 3 seconds it "auto" starts dispensing another load.
Hi Gavin, I am from the Netherlands 🇳🇱. Been following your blog about a few months with much joy. In Europe VihtaVuori Oy ( Finland) is on the market since 1922 and their gunpowders since 1926 providing the market with high quality products. Also a great gunpowder for pistol ammunition is Vectan BA 10, made by Nobel Sport ( Germany). Keep up your positive reviews and enthusiasm over the items you review. Leave the negative comments to the other channels. If the critical viewer is not able to see the pro's and con's of a product... He might have a lack of common sense and would likely be better off by buying his ammunition at Walmart. 😉😎😋😂😂😂😂😂😂
Nobel Sport is from France, not Germany. By the way, BA10 is one of the fastest commercial powder, so very tricky and even dangerous. Use it for 25ACP but feel better with BA9 :)
@@MajoPikeras, You are totally right, sir. 👍. My mistake.... I was at the same time downloading the reloading data from Dynamit Nobel/ RWS on my laptop and writing this comment on my phone.... Love the BA 10 as it is very economic in use. Need less powder to achieve the same velocity. It also burns very clean without leaving almost no residue, so cleaning my pistol and the cases is almost as good as no work... 😉.
Paul Jeurissen no worries! I have used plenty of vectan “poudres” but some years ago they start to have big lot to lot variations. BA10 is on the fast side for me, but for sure you get plenty of reloads from a can! There were also very good choices for rifle reloading... never get better speeds with the 222 than with SP7, the TU7000 works in mostly every common cartridge and SP11 was a hotrod for the ‘06... now I’m focused in VV powders and giving some chance to RS also Have good&safe reloading!
gavintoobe spanish viewer here! ;) Vihta Vuori powders are rally nice ones! Used for years for Lapua factory ammo. You may want to try RS powders also (if you have tried RE17 or RE33 you allready did!) Cheers!
Excellent video and very informative. The powder calibration program is a serious improvement over the competition and should be a real time saver. Thanks
only complaint I have is not verifying scale against another scale or two. Other then that I am sold. Will most likely buy one at my local shop tomorrow
Gavin have you ever noticed when a phone or iwatch is near the scale they start to get a bit finicky? My Hornady digital scale will tend to bounce around .2, .1 then zero. Idk if it’s phone waves(not sure if that’s real) creating but when I remove any cellular device or put it a good distance away I get much better results. Just wondering if you’ve had the same results
hahaha, I have done the power drop from the drain a ton of times, big mess, I feel you. I sold my Chargemaster awhile ago and was in the market for a new one but you sold me. I have almost everything from Frankford so I guess this dispenser will be the next one. I think the powder cal feature is what it sold me
Been using the n140 for over a year now very versatile powder I use it in 223 243 and 308. In your 223 you can use it from 50gr all the way to 90gr projectiles. I am running 77gr sierra match kings at 2850fps with a 24.4gr charge it's very repeatable especially here in the uk when weather is varied from 0°c to 20°c
I saw that the rtz was out a few times, was that a problem that was frequent or not? Also I noticed that the loads weren't checked on a high precision scale to test for accuracy. Would be worth doing to check how good the scale is.
so question I just got my intellidropper my question is does your power button turn the unit you tested on and off? Mine does not I have contacted Frankford arsenal and the rep told me that they/he didn't know and no one he spoke to in customer service knew.
Watched the review, bought the product. FA should be proud to have you as a partner. Hope I can figure out why the blue tooth wont pair but even if it doesn't, it is in my opinion far superior to others I have tried, and the price is nice too.
I didn't like the way the scales would drift and needed re-zeroing after dumping your charges. Other than that it seems like a good unit. If I had to say which was a better performing product based on you Frankford Arsenal reviews I liked the Coaxial Press. Thanks again for your content. Really appreciate the product reviews.
I've used one of these for quite a while. I have dispensed literally thousands of loads on it AND checked every one of them on a beam balance scale. It is very consistent. Having said that, I do see differences in measurements between the dispenser reading and the beam balance scale, but that difference can be that either the beam balance is off or the dispenser scale. I know this is going to sound sacreligious, but by using calibration weights, I have had to re-calibrate my beam balance scale several times to get it right - and it's a hassle to do. When I have my beam balance calibrated to the same calibration weights as the dispenser, they agree very close, typically right on the mark. Drift is a very rare problem and I've particularly noticed that as I've use it.
@@Tanglerwr Nice! Tanglerwr - So your saying your scale does not drift?, and, have to be re-zeroed, every dam time you take your pan off of it ? (That was what Gavin was having to do on this one ) I really want to buy this one, but not if I have to do that after every charge of powder.
@@PatriotPaulUSA That is correct. It is possible that the scale could drift if the temperature changes throughout the day, but I rarely have to zero it. I like to calibrate mine each use, and of course set the zero. Only takes about 30 seconds to do both and mine seems to be very stable and accurate.
I'm from the UK - Vihtavuori has a well-respected range of powders here, especially now there are new H&S regulations that effectively banned some powders from the USA. Also, It's really hard these days to get hold of some really popular powders like Varget because the manufacturer struggles to keep up with domestic demand, let alone producing significant export volume!
just bought one last weekend and seems to be working great for me so far at least for accuracy...though when punching in numbers on on the mobile app (Android) they do not seem to get transferred to the unit though when it drops powder it can be seen on the app. Unfortunately instructions for the app are lacking so maybe I'm doing something wrong
This seems like an ok scale if you are loading 20 rounds at a sitting and want super accuracy for power on the high end of rounds but a very slow method if you are reloading in bulk. Accurate scales will jump around as they are very sensitive. I am going to use a very sensitive baking scale in the upper mid cost range that measures in grains with unit conversion features to calibrate a mounted manual powder dispenser.
Thank you. I was leaning towards the RCBS Lite but not happy with the 9mm loading speed. I believe this could be the one. I have been using a Hornady Auto Charger now for 5 years and I love it. No problems at all until I got a power bump and there went my PCB. So I am willing to try something new.
Great video. Added to my list of "needs". Still not sure though what benefit the mobile app serves. You have to be standing there to take the powder load so I just don't see why you couldn't just use the screen on the dropper itself. I guess maybe it does help with reducing vibrations and movement but it still seems like more of a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Edit: I guess storing your loads is a nice feature for the mobile app so that does give it a bit of purpose.
I bought one of these set it up according to directions & it would not register anything placed on the scale (ranging from a small powder charge to the calibration weights). Contacted tech support & after several questions & checks they agreed to replace it. Set the new one up & it would register but even after being turned on for several days (with the scale cover on) I watched the empty pan readout change by several grains and never stabilize for more than a few minutes while 3 other scales sitting right next to it remained at zero. Ran some charges & checked against 2 RCBS scales & one lab scale - it was marginally quicker than RCBS Chargemastet but had to be re-zeroed about every 25-30 charges. Many of the design features & the mobile app are nice but not worth the unreliability.
Thank you very much for the great video. It will help me in my buying decision. As to the powder: in all of my AR-style 308s the N140 powder delivers the best precision and it burns very clean. Greetings from Germany
the guard is creating mega static build up, thats why its throwing the zero off, you need to wash it and de-static is and it'll be fine, or just run it without the guard, same for the powder hopper
Hey Gavin, some of my findings with this powder dropper: 1. There is not an obvious way to set the Count back to zero. You would think by resetting the Target Load to zero, it would also set the Count back to zero. 2. The drain plug is a pain to rotate to drain the powder, would be nice if it had grip rings. 3. The software crashes when you add a photo to a recipe in the database and you delete it. 4. The powder calibration is not saved with the recipe, so even though you can save a recipe, you have to re-calibrate the powder calibration. 5. As you experienced the Bluetooth drops out with a message box in French? after certain operations and it has to re-scan. 6. I am hoping the drift will settle as the unit "breaks in". You have to zero it if you are on manual. It is fast. The loads are fairly consistent as verified on a scale that measures to 1000th of a GRAIN. The display is really nice. One feature, Gavin, that I don't think you covered, is the Auto Mode. It's just like the ChargeMaster Lite and is SUPER useful. Hope this helps others!!
19 hours later... The scale seemed to calm down a bit and is more stable (i.e. it stays zero'ed) which is a good thing. Some additional notes: the Bluetooth stop working on the scale side and would not reconnect to the application. A restart of the scale fixed it. I'd say they have some bugs to work out in the application and the Bluetooth stack. Some notes on how well it drops charges. Using my Satorius scale to verify the mass, the Intellidropper, does a good job. The range of error is -.08 - +.04 grains. I didn't dump them in Excel, maybe next time. Many were within +/- .03 grains which is excellent..
N560 and N570 seem impossible to find these days. I have all but given up on VV powder since it can't be found anywhere in my area. I have heard it is pretty temperature stable, but have also heard reports of it being very temp sensitive. Any feedback on the temp sensitivity? I mainly just stick to hodgdon extreme powders these days.
Gavin seems to be one of the few, knowledgeable, reloading RUclipsrs that is still producing current content! We appreciate you bro! Keep up the good work!
basically just him and johnny as of late
@@j0ey96 FortuneCookie45LC and ThorsAxe777 are as well, and several others are mostly posting on The Reloader's Network site now. You should check it out, a lot of good continent over there.
@@jonlockhart8436 where's the reloaded network?
@@HuntShootOffroad here is the URL if you are interested: thereloadersnetwork.com/
UR is a commercial platform now. Glad he is making money.
It would be interesting to see an automatic powder dispenser shootout like the incredible shootout you did with the presses
Check out Backfire. He did a comparison a short while ago
Received mine Yesterday40 Minute warm up then thru 25 24.5 Gr loads of VV140 with only ( 1 ) one high reading by 1/10. Verified with my RCBS beam scale and Lee Beam Scale. Both of which I trust explicitly. Then thru 25 loads of BE-86 at 4.1 with the same results! VERY HAPPY!
Watching from Germany, originally a native Texan, cant wait to go back home and reload, i never knew how much i enjoyed it untill i left
I thought they still hunt over Europe??
First, thank you Gavin for all your excellent videos.
I purchased an Intellidropper scale recently. I've seen comments on this scale drifting. This (at least mine) will begin to drift if left sitting without weighing a charge for more than about 10 minutes. Which IMHO, it shouldn't do. I haven't called Frankford yet, to ask them about it. But the scale automatically zeros before a charge is thrown. That being the case, charge weight accuracy and repeatability shouldn't be a concern. If using the scale by itself for some reason, it would need to be manually zeroed prior to weighing.
Another issue I first noticed in this video and believe I confirmed when I received my unit is, the built-in bubble level is nowhere near accurate on these scales. I thought it may have been the camera angle causing a distorted perception in the video. But now I don't think it is. Gavin's unit appears to be noticeably tilted to the right, from the camera's perspective. My unit tilts very obviously left from the same perspective, when the bubble is perfectly centered. I have a nice little Starrett pocket machinist's level that I used to level the unit properly. I wish I could post a pic of just how far off the bubble level is, when the unit is actually level. But approximately 1/3 of the bubble is actually outside of the line. If you have one of these units, I recommend that you do not rely on the bubble level. Just a couple of FYI comments.
When you say you let it warm up….do you run the motor? Or just plug it in for 30 min?
After using a small Franklin Arsenal scale and having big problems with that (as in massive drift to the point of being dangerous) I am not convinced that it’s worth saving $10 over the RCBS chargemaster lite. You even showed it said 6.4 grains then had to trickle up as it was .2 grains off. I really do appreciate your hard work doing the heavy lifting for us Gavin. Keep up the great work.
I have literally been waiting for this powder measure for over a year!
@@leveragelogic9008 Ah, but my money is destined for the just-released Walther Q5 Match classic - I will buy this once my hobby funds are back!
@Stephen Box I bought the F/A tumbler kit combo, what a good deal to have everything I needed to start cleaning brass for not much more than other brands charge just for the tumbler.
Just to mention at 8:10 you talk about using the scale cover to prevent temp and air current from fans or AC units from interfering with the measurement. Personally the one thing I find I MUST have the cover on is simply to stop me from breathing on the unit. I can't tell you how many times I have found my reading fluctuate and I find that it isn't any air current from fans or anything. It is just me breathing on the unit while I am operating it. And the effects are HUGE
I noticed that you had static electricity keeping some of the powder sticking to the hopper. I've read that sometimes wrapping a dryer sheet around the hopper (and holding in place with a rubber band) will reduce the amount of static electricity there. I haven't had an occasion to try it yet myself, but I plan to. I just thought this tidbit of information might be helpful.
I would have to see the charges it is throwing put on another known precision scale to verify that it can perform consistently.
Hello, I'm from the UK and have only used Viht. N140 and N150 to date. N140 works very well with .223" 69gr Sierra Matchking, .308 168gr Sierra Matchking and also 8mm Mauser 196gr - 200gr. The N150 is very well suited to 6.5Creedmoor Lapua Scenar 123gr. At the moment, Nov 2023, it is very difficult to get any which is causing enormous problems. Thank you for your videos, you've given me a wealth of knowledge. Best Regards
Thank you for your video. You helping to me to be a more detailed reloader.
I finally picked up one of these........ Loving it! Thank you! Gavin.
Bought this thing and read the reviews cause the most common things will happen. To major issues I had with mine in just 5 months were. 1) buttons on the screen just stopped working, this is in all the reviews. 2) the wifi never connected for me, and call Frankford, they couldn't even get it. They did send me a new one. And after about 7 months, they screen went out again. This is kept on my bench, inside a control indoor room. Hardly ever moved the actual scale. Ended up going with the chargemaster lite and so far it was been incredible. If you are doing precision loads, no matter what you will be confirming all your loads on a manual precision scale.
Great video. Just bought one. Can't wait to try it
Wipe the tube down with a little bounce. Great vids!!!!!
My old digital scale gives me crazy readings if my cell phone is nearby. I noticed you had to re-zero a couple of times when you switched over to blue tooth. I would be inclined to leave my phone on the other side of the room and just work with the scale directly to avoid any possibility of the phone causing issues.
Use a used dryer sheet that you would use when drying your close and wipe the inside of your hopper, it will help eliminate that static and keep the powder from clinging to the acrylic cylinder.
Waxing the inside of it will do the trick too.
Christian from Sweden here. Vihtvauori is great, I use N150 for 6.5 Creedmoor. The Frankford Intellidropper looks like a more polished version of the Chargemaster Lite. I had a Chargemaster Lite that broke after only a few months of moderate use. The connection between the motor and the dispensing pipe broke down so I am replacing it with an Auto Trickler v2 instead.
Welcome! Glad to have you tuning in from Sweden! :)
You very briefly showed cleaning the unit between powders.
This can be a significant amount of difference between brands to ensure everything is out.
A follow up video on that would be nice to show the level of detail required.
Its not brain surgery, your dealing with mostly smooth surfaces on the inside of the hopper, it pretty much flows out the bottom once u open it..... it literally takes me 45 secs to change powders in my Hornady auto dispenser, empty the hopper, blow the tube out { towards the hopper } empty hopper again......done
Note to @gavintoobe. I will be reviewing the Intellidropper on my RUclips channel too! As an electrical engineer, I can say that the load cell is extremely sensitive and relatively delicate. I would be very cautious in banging the side of the powder dispenser to get the powder to empty out! Great video nonetheless! If you notice that your pan weighs 129.0gr. However, when you were loading the pistol powder, the pan's weight was drifting up to 129.3gr. I always double check the weights against a 2nd scale which is my Ohaus 10-10 balance beam scale.
I was waiting on this review because I wanted a powder dispenser but due to being impatient, and got my tax return, I got the rcbs chargemaster lite and love it. Never needs re-zeroed and never had any under or over charges. I also love the auto function on it and it's fairly quick as well. I wish I would have bought one years ago.
Mine goes over occasionally with Varget. It's around one every 50-100 rounds so I'm not really worried about it. Still a lot better than the original chargemasters I have seen in action.
I love my chargemaster lite. Accurate and fast.
You ever screw up and hit "zero" when it is in auto and the pan isn't under it? I was pretty unhappy with myself lol
@@duckslayer11000 Never had that happen yet. I'll try to be more aware of it in the future. Thanks
@@duckslayer11000 no.
I am from Arizona, Vita is my powder for long range shooting. Extreemly consistent and unmatched accuarcy !
I really enjoy your videos. Since we are both "real" Engineers I can appreciate your need for patience and dedication to adherance to procedures. :-) I also noticed that you calibrated the unit without the cover for the pistol powder and I was going to ask about that in my comment, so I'm gld you explained that this was intentional. Great job and have a great week!
Thanks Robert!
I recently purchased an automatic powder dispenser and my decision came down to the new Frankford Arsenal or the RCBS Chargemaster Lite. I like the features of saving load data and using a phone to control the FA, but have heard bad things about the scales and 'cheapness' of other FA products. Being close in price, I chose the RCBS. I keep all my load data in spread sheets anyway, and using the app to control it, just seems gimmicky. You are right there, with the powder drop. It's not like you are across the room trying to dispense powder.
The thing I do like about the FA powder dispenser, that I didnt know about, was the speed at which it dispenses. However, my RCBS has yet to throw an overcharge with over 300rds dispensed. The RCBS maybe a tad slower, but I am more confident in it.
Take Sharpie and on the inside of the powder hopper cover write, "Check the Drain!"
GOOD CALL!!! :)
I have one of these and have had major issues with scale creeping. I have allowed it to warm up from 10 minutes to 10 hours. I have left it go and it keeps adding.1 every few minutes. Looks like he is having the same issue but maybe doesn’t want to call it out
i use Vihtavuori for years, especially n140 , n150 and n135 ... good stuff
Just getting into reloading and I’m enjoying your informational videos immensely. Appreciate You, when I get everything I need together I’m feeling more and more comfortable .
Thank you for such a detailed video. I just received my intellidropper and your video was extremely helpful. the directions that came with the unit were very descriptive also, combined with your video set up and use was a piece of cake. By the way I love the unit so far. I haven't gotten to the app setup as of yet and only have thrown maybe a dozen loads but the first impression is a thumbs up.
...glad I found this...I'm fixin' to load .38/.357 for the first time - I've been loading (on & off) since I got home from Germany in 1974 (started on a Rockchucker - which I still have) - I've loaded 9mm & .45 ACP over the years I plan on building different loads for both .38 & 357 with different bullet weights/styles (and powders) and thought an auto measure would make load development easier & quicker than fiddling with standard powder measures (Lee auto disk & Dillon hopper)...I like what I see...once I determine which load (s) I like - I'll set my standard hopper for each on my progressive press...it would certainly make using a single stage much easier...
Your like Batman! You always have the best toys!
Hi from France, Vitha powders are really interesting, for old military calibres and .308, I use N150 ; for 30-30, 222R I use N133 .
I made this shot with 30-30 loaded with N133 : ruclips.net/video/NNWKV5qg4r0/видео.html
I use N133 for 6ppc very very very consistent powder
Thanks guys for the info in Vihta!
I just paid 149.00 for mine haven't been able to use it yet will be doing so tomorrow doing 41 mags and 556 can't wait to try it out!
VV is the most consistent powder you can get according to the bench rest shooters we have over here. N150 is my favorite for 6,5x55 behind our Swedish Norma 130gr DL or Lapua 8g Silver Scenar. Both have given me podium placings on national target shootings and field shootings. :)
Gavin I purchased an Intellidropper today and went through the process of setting it up. I let the unit sit for over 45 minutes. Problem I have and I sent an email to Frankford Arsenal is that all the numbers appear on the touch screen when selected except for numbers 5, 6, 7, and 8.
Fantastic job Gavin. Watching your videos show a no BS review on exactly what to expect.
Glad it was helpful!
Just purchased one ,22,250 loader using VHIT N140 I'm in Scotland so hope it comes with the power adapter
Hi, I bought this on your recommendation plus i got 20% off. Having problems with hooking up the app to the unit. Called 1800 number but still wont come together. Unit is a bit bulky, but the price is right, very sensitive, but also very accurate and quick!
This seems like a very nice machine for a good price. Well if it holds up over time I can see this being a good investment. Thank you Gavin for your high quality videos
Anti static dryer sheets are your friend, Gavin! Any electronic scale should be sitting on one and and electronic plastic scale should also be wiped down from time to time with one. You'll be surprised how much better and stable it will operate.
I'll have to try that!
Gavin, I really appreciate your review of the Frankford Arsenal M-Press. I picked one up and it performs well for me. Based on what I see here, there may be some gotchas but the price of this powder measure with its features makes this a quick buy for me as well.
Good summary! Glad you like the M-Press!
I got one work's great thanks for the heads-up great video
Great video. I would like to see a comparison video of frankford and rcbs powder dispensers ? ? ?
Great video looks like an fantastic scale thank you for sharing your knowledge I have learned a lot from your channel
Gavin could you please review how to connect Bluetooth ?
It shouldn't need zeroing so often. Did you check its dispensed weight against another scale?
I've just landed on this video, very late in the game. I have a Chargemaster 1500 and a Lyman Gen 6 and am always encountering issues like those commented on by some other viewers. I've looked in vain for a seriously consistent scale that doesn't cost a fortune, but that's the point: apart maybe from the legendary (no longer available) GemPro 250, the kind of precision and stability often looked for by the more obsessively precise reloaders among us (I'm one of them) is only available if you're prepared to pay four figure sums for what are essentially laboratory precision balance scales. And even then there are limitations because many do not measure in gn. So ultimately you do get what you pay for.
Gravimetric analysis in college chemistry was a hated class by most. I loved it. Back then we had to use a manual scale to measure reaction products to one ten thousandths of a gram. It was in a secure room on granite table and yes it had glass doors protecting the measuring pan. Good times.
i just bought one on sale a bass pro. got home and did a quick 50 rounds and works perfect
Can't wait to get mine! By contrast my Dillon 550 powder measure wavers from not today thank you to, here's all the powder..
Did you have any problems levelling the unit??
VV N140 is great for 223. In my Tikka T3X Sporter, 25 grains, giving 3,000fps on QL, I get 1 hole accuracy @ 100yds!!! Amazing!
Sorry, I should have said, with a SMK 69gr projectile.
To verify if it's accurate you would need to use another scale. I use my Gem Pro 250 to check my RCBS lite and its accurate. Also RCBS starts to auto dispense once it stabilizes at zero.
I had an issue with a lyman scale. The scale would drift and then it wouldnt reliable turn on or off. It only had issues when running on AC. The AC checked out with a multimeter but it looked like it was noisy. I tried a benchtop power supply and the scale was drifting like crazy. Looks like the scale is very sensitive to noisy power supplies... I had heard that voltage variations would change readings. I removed the jack on the scale and replaced it with a USB plug so I could use USB power supply... it now runs reliably.
Hi Gavin im using the Bacherie and Pelagrie Powder for the 308 ist an Italien Power Works well
Excellent, excellent and informative. Your videos are thoughtful, thorough and enjoyable. Thanks
Thanks Gavin, just sold the old Hornady and got this.
If you had to choose between the FA or the Hornady, which one would you choose?
i have the rcbs one and just turn it in and go, never experienced any drift and never had to level it either, just sayin Gavin
Does the app store the "powder calibration" if you use it to control the dispenser, or do you have to repeat the calibration every time you use the device? If it doesn't store the info, then all it does is save you from entering the grain amount. Also, does using the "powder calibration" seem to speed up the time or the accuracy of the charge or both?
Congrats - from Brazil !
wow these look amazing ,just getting into reloading and love it.its cool to watch someone that makes things really easy to follow,down in NZ by the time stuff reaches us it is very expensive.these dont look to bad price wise down here.great vid and easy to follow
Excellent video. Did you have a chance to weigh the charge on a manual scale to check if there was any deviation from the dispenser readout? Also, have you had a chance to test bullet run-out on the M-Press with better brass and dies than your initial overview? Still waiting on the edge of my seat for a precision load comparison of the M-Press, Forster, and MEC Marksman. Thank you so much for all your testing. It gives me the info I need to make an intelligent purchase.
One thing that would have been good to demonstrate is the AUTO mode. I use this mode almost exclusively. You simply press the mode button and AUTO appears in the upper left corner of the display. You key in a powder weight and hit the start button. When it's ready, you remove the pan and do whatever you do with the powder. When you place the pan back on the scale, in about 3 seconds it "auto" starts dispensing another load.
Hi Gavin,
I am from the Netherlands 🇳🇱.
Been following your blog about a few months with much joy.
In Europe VihtaVuori Oy ( Finland) is on the market since 1922 and their gunpowders since 1926 providing the market with high quality products.
Also a great gunpowder for pistol ammunition is Vectan BA 10, made by Nobel Sport ( Germany).
Keep up your positive reviews and enthusiasm over the items you review.
Leave the negative comments to the other channels.
If the critical viewer is not able to see the pro's and con's of a product... He might have a lack of common sense and would likely be better off by buying his ammunition at Walmart. 😉😎😋😂😂😂😂😂😂
Nobel Sport is from France, not Germany.
By the way, BA10 is one of the fastest commercial powder, so very tricky and even dangerous. Use it for 25ACP but feel better with BA9 :)
@@MajoPikeras,
You are totally right, sir. 👍.
My mistake....
I was at the same time downloading the reloading data from Dynamit Nobel/ RWS on my laptop and writing this comment on my phone....
Love the BA 10 as it is very economic in use. Need less powder to achieve the same velocity.
It also burns very clean without leaving almost no residue, so cleaning my pistol and the cases is almost as good as no work... 😉.
Thanks Paul, glad to have you viewing from NL !
Paul Jeurissen no worries! I have used plenty of vectan “poudres” but some years ago they start to have big lot to lot variations. BA10 is on the fast side for me, but for sure you get plenty of reloads from a can! There were also very good choices for rifle reloading... never get better speeds with the 222 than with SP7, the TU7000 works in mostly every common cartridge and SP11 was a hotrod for the ‘06... now I’m focused in VV powders and giving some chance to RS also
Have good&safe reloading!
gavintoobe spanish viewer here! ;)
Vihta Vuori powders are rally nice ones! Used for years for Lapua factory ammo.
You may want to try RS powders also (if you have tried RE17 or RE33 you allready did!)
Cheers!
Excellent video and very informative. The powder calibration program is a serious improvement over the competition and should be a real time saver. Thanks
Gavin... by warming them up do you mean leaving them plugged in or just warm room?
only complaint I have is not verifying scale against another scale or two. Other then that I am sold. Will most likely buy one at my local shop tomorrow
Gavin have you ever noticed when a phone or iwatch is near the scale they start to get a bit finicky? My Hornady digital scale will tend to bounce around .2, .1 then zero. Idk if it’s phone waves(not sure if that’s real) creating but when I remove any cellular device or put it a good distance away I get much better results. Just wondering if you’ve had the same results
Mine just stays a blank screen what to do
Glad I waited... this could be my first Powder Auto-Dispenser Scale. It's nice to know there's No Overcharge throughout your video.
hahaha, I have done the power drop from the drain a ton of times, big mess, I feel you. I sold my Chargemaster awhile ago and was in the market for a new one but you sold me. I have almost everything from Frankford so I guess this dispenser will be the next one. I think the powder cal feature is what it sold me
Been using the n140 for over a year now very versatile powder I use it in 223 243 and 308.
In your 223 you can use it from 50gr all the way to 90gr projectiles. I am running 77gr sierra match kings at 2850fps with a 24.4gr charge it's very repeatable especially here in the uk when weather is varied from 0°c to 20°c
great video, thank you
You have one of these kotaboy32?
If you epoxy a wing nut to the open/close valve, it becomes very easy to use.
I saw that the rtz was out a few times, was that a problem that was frequent or not? Also I noticed that the loads weren't checked on a high precision scale to test for accuracy. Would be worth doing to check how good the scale is.
Good suggestion on high-precision scale! I'll look at that for future articles/videos...
@@Ultimatereloader Thanks for the reply!
so question I just got my intellidropper my question is does your power button turn the unit you tested on and off? Mine does not I have contacted Frankford arsenal and the rep told me that they/he didn't know and no one he spoke to in customer service knew.
Watched the review, bought the product. FA should be proud to have you as a partner. Hope I can figure out why the blue tooth wont pair but even if it doesn't, it is in my opinion far superior to others I have tried, and the price is nice too.
I'm having the same issue
Just got this today and I’m having spurattic problems hitting numbers to change loads. Not sure what the issue is?
I didn't like the way the scales would drift and needed re-zeroing after dumping your charges. Other than that it seems like a good unit. If I had to say which was a better performing product based on you Frankford Arsenal reviews I liked the Coaxial Press. Thanks again for your content. Really appreciate the product reviews.
This thing is drifting all over the place. I would have liked to see weight verification against at least 1 other scale, preferably a beam scale.
I've used one of these for quite a while. I have dispensed literally thousands of loads on it AND checked every one of them on a beam balance scale. It is very consistent.
Having said that, I do see differences in measurements between the dispenser reading and the beam balance scale, but that difference can be that either the beam balance is off or the dispenser scale. I know this is going to sound sacreligious, but by using calibration weights, I have had to re-calibrate my beam balance scale several times to get it right - and it's a hassle to do.
When I have my beam balance calibrated to the same calibration weights as the dispenser, they agree very close, typically right on the mark.
Drift is a very rare problem and I've particularly noticed that as I've use it.
@@Tanglerwr Nice! Tanglerwr - So your saying your scale does not drift?, and, have to be re-zeroed, every dam time you take your pan off of it ? (That was what Gavin was having to do on this one ) I really want to buy this one, but not if I have to do that after every charge of powder.
@@PatriotPaulUSA That is correct. It is possible that the scale could drift if the temperature changes throughout the day, but I rarely have to zero it.
I like to calibrate mine each use, and of course set the zero. Only takes about 30 seconds to do both and mine seems to be very stable and accurate.
@@Tanglerwr OK Thanks! I appreciate the info.
Thank you for doing this review. So which is better. This one or the RCBS lite?
This seems to be very similar to the RCBS chargemaster lite, but the app seems gimmicky to me. I have the RCBS and it doesn't zero drift as much.
I'm from the UK - Vihtavuori has a well-respected range of powders here, especially now there are new H&S regulations that effectively banned some powders from the USA. Also, It's really hard these days to get hold of some really popular powders like Varget because the manufacturer struggles to keep up with domestic demand, let alone producing significant export volume!
Europe here. N140 is a brilliant powder. Overhere Vihtavuori is considered a top brand.
just bought one last weekend and seems to be working great for me so far at least for accuracy...though when punching in numbers on on the mobile app (Android) they do not seem to get transferred to the unit though when it drops powder it can be seen on the app. Unfortunately instructions for the app are lacking so maybe I'm doing something wrong
Thanks Eric Austin, Good to know.
This seems like an ok scale if you are loading 20 rounds at a sitting and want super accuracy for power on the high end of rounds but a very slow method if you are reloading in bulk. Accurate scales will jump around as they are very sensitive. I am going to use a very sensitive baking scale in the upper mid cost range that measures in grains with unit conversion features to calibrate a mounted manual powder dispenser.
Gavin, what do you think about this measure today a year later ? Is it holding up on accuracy ? Any comments pro or con ?
Thank you. I was leaning towards the RCBS Lite but not happy with the 9mm loading speed. I believe this could be the one. I have been using a Hornady Auto Charger now for 5 years and I love it. No problems at all until I got a power bump and there went my PCB. So I am willing to try something new.
Great video. Added to my list of "needs". Still not sure though what benefit the mobile app serves. You have to be standing there to take the powder load so I just don't see why you couldn't just use the screen on the dropper itself. I guess maybe it does help with reducing vibrations and movement but it still seems like more of a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
Edit: I guess storing your loads is a nice feature for the mobile app so that does give it a bit of purpose.
I bought one of these set it up according to directions & it would not register anything placed on the scale (ranging from a small powder charge to the calibration weights). Contacted tech support & after several questions & checks they agreed to replace it. Set the new one up & it would register but even after being turned on for several days (with the scale cover on) I watched the empty pan readout change by several grains and never stabilize for more than a few minutes while 3 other scales sitting right next to it remained at zero. Ran some charges & checked against 2 RCBS scales & one lab scale - it was marginally quicker than RCBS Chargemastet but had to be re-zeroed about every 25-30 charges. Many of the design features & the mobile app are nice but not worth the unreliability.
Thank you very much for the great video. It will help me in my buying decision.
As to the powder: in all of my AR-style 308s the N140 powder delivers the best precision and it burns very clean. Greetings from Germany
the guard is creating mega static build up, thats why its throwing the zero off, you need to wash it and de-static is and it'll be fine, or just run it without the guard, same for the powder hopper
Hey Gavin, some of my findings with this powder dropper: 1. There is not an obvious way to set the Count back to zero. You would think by resetting the Target Load to zero, it would also set the Count back to zero. 2. The drain plug is a pain to rotate to drain the powder, would be nice if it had grip rings. 3. The software crashes when you add a photo to a recipe in the database and you delete it. 4. The powder calibration is not saved with the recipe, so even though you can save a recipe, you have to re-calibrate the powder calibration. 5. As you experienced the Bluetooth drops out with a message box in French? after certain operations and it has to re-scan. 6. I am hoping the drift will settle as the unit "breaks in". You have to zero it if you are on manual.
It is fast. The loads are fairly consistent as verified on a scale that measures to 1000th of a GRAIN. The display is really nice. One feature, Gavin, that I don't think you covered, is the Auto Mode. It's just like the ChargeMaster Lite and is SUPER useful. Hope this helps others!!
19 hours later... The scale seemed to calm down a bit and is more stable (i.e. it stays zero'ed) which is a good thing. Some additional notes: the Bluetooth stop working on the scale side and would not reconnect to the application. A restart of the scale fixed it. I'd say they have some bugs to work out in the application and the Bluetooth stack.
Some notes on how well it drops charges. Using my Satorius scale to verify the mass, the Intellidropper, does a good job. The range of error is -.08 - +.04 grains. I didn't dump them in Excel, maybe next time. Many were within +/- .03 grains which is excellent..
Note: that measurement was with Alliant 2400 ball powder.
Nice, but have we gone too far? I enjoy measuring and getting it exactly right.
Gavin..does that have auto start for the next charge? Can you slow the start speed down for a few seconds to prevent splash over?
One of my reloading rules: never have more than one powder cannisters on the bench at one time.
N560 and N570 seem impossible to find these days. I have all but given up on VV powder since it can't be found anywhere in my area. I have heard it is pretty temperature stable, but have also heard reports of it being very temp sensitive. Any feedback on the temp sensitivity?
I mainly just stick to hodgdon extreme powders these days.
Can you tell me the cleanup procedure for after you are done with a reloading session. What do you do with the bits of leftover powder in the unit?
that powerd is about the only thing found in our stores, use 340 for 38sp and 357