Digital scale

savageyote94

New member
Anyone have problems with the frankford araenal digital scale not wanting to calibrate? Brand new scale i recieved aa a gift, so no recite to return
 
I've got one (small, a bit taller than a pack of smokes), fairly accurate, never had a problem with it calibrating, might try a new battery as they can act wonky with a weak battery.
 
Mine was drifting up and down before my eyes and would not settle or calibrate. Turned out I had a grain of extruded powder under the plate. Blew it out with canned air. Back to normal.
 
Originally Posted By: jpx2rkI've got one (small, a bit taller than a pack of smokes), fairly accurate, never had a problem with it calibrating, might try a new battery as they can act wonky with a weak battery.

this is a very good point!

with any battery operated scale - this is always a good place to start.

even if they're relatively new... swap them out for a fresh set of quality manufacturer batteries. if that doesnt fix it, dig deeper

good luck and keep us posted what you find
 
Don't have digital scale but seems I read somewhere that florescent lights can interfere with them, too????

Regards,
hm
 
older fluorescent lights that use magnetic ballasts emit mild stray EM pulses because they're not shielded, so yes thats a possibility too.

these older fixtures are relatively easy to identify as they're typically the ones with the big fat 1.5" (T12) lamps

some of the early 1" (T8) lamped fixtures use them as well - i just pulled one the other day on a job in fact.


most newer fixtures use electronically controlled ballasts and are much less susceptible to stray EM escaping. T5's are all electronic ballast fired, so little to no worry from them. LED's dont have ballasts so no risk there at all.
 
Thanks, Plant. I don't understand everything I know about "florescent" bulbs, including how to spell them....but neither does spell check. LOL

What would make (the old ones) not start when humidity is a bit high? Have them in my old office which I only keep A/C @ 80* + a dehumidifier on. If the reservoir fills up and D/H shuts down, about half the lights don't come on (don't go out there but about once a week). Good reminder to empty the D/H, though.
We usually have pretty high humidity here.

Regards,
hm
 
amen on speel check not knowing how to spell it either - ugh.
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no idea why humidity specifically would cause them to not light up - hard to say though as it could simply be a short inside the ballast itself or a lamp issue or even an endcap issue.

most of those old ballasts were filled in with tar - they're also called tar ballasts - and its possible with age that they've become compromised and some moisture is getting in there. I've had some failed units that look like they leaked black sap out of them.

start by checking for burnt marks on the endcaps where the lamp pins make contact. if those look good, i'd suggest just wiring some new ballasts in and putting new t8 lamps into the endcaps (they use the same pin width). as mentioned lamp age could also be a factor, but if you have to invest in new lamps - i would recommend investing in a fresh ballast too to modernize them and enjoying the few watts of energy savings (32w per 48" lamp vs 40w).

new ballasts for a 2 lamp 48" fixture are about $15 at home depot
 
Thx, Plant. Those old lights are one reason I've never considered a digital scale. Will get them checked out; I've seen leaking ballasts on other lights and worry about being a fire hazard.

Regards,
hm
 
i doubt there's much of a fire hazard. the way fixtures are assembled, with the ballast contained inside a (usually) metal housing with limited oxygen would midigate the vast majority of it - even in the event of one leaking out. I've seen browned out wires before, and fried endcaps, but thats about it. usually the fixture fails long before anything serious can happen, or you get a circuit breaker trip and i'm working with ones that around water constantly (aquarium/reptile/turtle fixtures). some of the older ones i've taken apart when you remove the ballast cover you get showered with about 5 lbs of rust dust
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if you're gonna go thru an upgrade, i would suggest looking into LED fixtures as well. might be a scenario where if you're gonna spend $30 (ballast and two lamps) upgrading a dinosaur, you might be able to put in a LED fixture for another few bucks.
 
Quote: if you're gonna go thru an upgrade, i would suggest looking into LED fixtures as well. might be a scenario where if you're gonna spend $30 (ballast and two lamps) upgrading a dinosaur, you might be able to put in a LED fixture for another few bucks.


Fluorescents are a pain, ^^^ will do. Thx.

Regards,
hm
 
Originally Posted By: Plant.Oneif you're gonna go thru an upgrade, i would suggest looking into LED fixtures as well. might be a scenario where if you're gonna spend $30 (ballast and two lamps) upgrading a dinosaur, you might be able to put in a LED fixture for another few bucks.

highly, highly, highly recommend this^^^^ there is no downside.

you dont even need to buy new fixtures. buy the single ended powered bulbs(around $10 each) and use them in the fixtures you have now. you dont need a ballast of any sort.

and they give off so much more light that i am only using one bulb in some of the fixtures that had 2 fluorescents. love my new lights.
 
these are the ones i got.

https://www.amazon.com/Hyperikon-equivalent-Daylight-Single-Ended-Lighting/dp/B00OMAIG2S/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1509724973&sr=8-8&keywords=4%2Bfoot%2Bled%2Blights&th=1

i have swapped out 26 fluorescent bulbs as of yesterday.
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those look like a win - even at $10 a lamp. jumper the ballast, run the power to one end of the lamp and bingo. while you're in there, might as well just pull the ballast out and toss them in the junk bin to lighten the fixtures up too.

5000K lamps are a nice bright white color, those will really get you some good worklight and being LED there will be NO startup delay in cold weather either. flick the switch and instant on.
 
Originally Posted By: Plant.Onethose look like a win - even at $10 a lamp. jumper the ballast, run the power to one end of the lamp and bingo. while you're in there, might as well just pull the ballast out and toss them in the junk bin to lighten the fixtures up too.

5000K lamps are a nice bright white color, those will really get you some good worklight and being LED there will be NO startup delay in cold weather either. flick the switch and instant on.

yep, i removed the ballasts out of all of them. saw no reason to leave them in. most of them were the newer type, much lighter weight ballasts. a couple fixtures had the old style heavy, black junk filled ballasts.

been debating on what to do with all the ballasts? they have any resell value at all?
 
Originally Posted By: SlickerThanSnotthese are the ones i got.

https://www.amazon.com/Hyperikon-equivalent-Daylight-Single-Ended-Lighting/dp/B00OMAIG2S/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1509724973&sr=8-8&keywords=4%2Bfoot%2Bled%2Blights&th=1

i have swapped out 26 fluorescent bulbs as of yesterday.
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These look like a winner for sure. Thanks for the link.
 
not really. the older ballasts have some value if you wanna tear down the windings for scrap - but you have to burn the tar off once you disassemble them which destroys the #1 copper price anyway.

its not worth it for a few ballasts thats for sure. if you had a truckload of them it would be worth scrapping them out - but not enough to even fill up a bucket, you might as well just toss them.
 
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