Has anyone ever used one of these electronic VTF Scales?

Like this here doohicky

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3283&item=5778798635&rd=1

are they any good? I just use a cheapo plastic Ortofon thing, but I don't think its all that accurate and wondered if anyone had tried one of these or the various similar models which pop up on ebay and elsewhere.

 

I used to use a small metal stylus balance. Don't remember who made it. This device is just a toy for boys with waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much money. How precisely do you need to be able to set tracking force? I would say the nearest 10th of a gram is fine and a cheap balance will do that. And a cheap balance will never break. And a cheap balance won't need batteries.

 

Thing is though they are cheap - its all of £20. Okay not as cheap as my Ortofon thing, but that really is cheap (£4 I think) but I suspect not very accurate at all - not consistently within 0.1g anyway. To get a decent manual balance like the Shure is going to set me back the same or more than one of these things.

Probably quite good for weighing drugs as well ... if that's your bag :MILD:

 

I have got one recently, not used it yet.
I am aghast at the price of the cartridge man stuff, someone is really taking the mick with prices there. how much do dig scales cost nowadays?

 

That's what I thought. You regularly see digital scales like this going for 20 to 30 quid nowadays and they want how much? Over £200 last time I looked

Let us know how you get on with em.

 

IMO the thing to look for is what is the weight (tare) range.

0.1 to 5.0 grams would be accurate for what we want, but I do not know how accurate a tracking force of say 1.8 grams would be if the scales had a range of 0.1 to 100 grams.

 

Good point. I guess also you don't want the plate where you place the stylus to be very high. It'll need to be thin or the reading will be out some.

 

I bought a digital scale from maplins, a bargain for £24.99. It is pretty accurate as far as I can tell, tested it by weighing coins etc. It showed me that my shure balance was off by more than 0.2 grams. I also made a little adapter that allows vtf setting at record height, stole that idea from here

The maplins scale only reads to 0.1 resolution, but I think that is good enough for me... another thing, the maplins scale plate is non magnetic, so no worries about it sudenly deciding to become very attracted to your cartridge.
maplins digital scale

 

Hi,
I have one of these. I have found that delivered, mine was 0.1g underweighing(used a £2 coin). I believe them to be quite accurate (more so than the Rega arm dial) once properly calibrated, but you need some proper weights to do this.
Sid and Coke knows all about this, see below

http://imageevent.com/sidandcoke/turntablesetup

 

The maplins one I bought comes with a 100g weight to calibrate it with, mine measured that accurately, so I weighed a 5p piece ,then another couple of coins, all were within .1g, good enough for me=)

 

I also have one of these and they do need calibrating before you use them.

Have to say I've not found it any more accurate than my manual Shure gauge but they are easy to use and allows you to easily see the tracking force.

I haven't regretted buying mine (which was about £18).

 

Still very happy with a rather old Shure SFG here,which has been fine for setting up the Ariston RD11 I used to have,and my current Linn.

Cheap and cheerful,but a whole pile cheaper than the CartridgeMan offering.

V useful link there to SidandCoke's setup pages...thanks for that.

 

I see that Machineman has posted a link to my site.
I have been using an electronic scale for a couple of years or so now. In saying that I also bought another Shure SFG2 gauge a few weeks ago too, after selling my original one. The main reason that i went for another shure guage is that it is simple so easy to use, my electronic scales needing a bit fo setting up at first.

As you will see from the link above I also bought some M1 standard calibration weights, I have found that when cross referencing betwen the SFG-2 and that electronic Gauge that the old Shure see-saw is really very accurate.

One thing that you do need to ensure when using an electronic guage is that your cartridge body is ideally beyond its magnetic 'sphere of influence'. For example, i found that the magnets inside the Denon DL103 where incredibly strong for their size , a magnetic mounting screw being torn from the screwdriver and sticking to its side !!, (Hmmm... or was that my Nagaoka MP11 Boron , either way you get the picture.

I would now try to use something in between the cart and the Weighing scale platform to minimise this effect, something like a small plastic jewelery case or a matchbox will do, most electronic scales will have a tare facility to accomplish this easily . This will give a bit of 'non-magnetic free air' distance between the scale and the cartrige body for a more accurate reading.

My weighing scale is a MY WEIGH MX-50 and only has a 0 -50gram capacity, with 0.01g resolution. I figured that this range would be more accurate with the small forces used by cartridges , typically less than 2.5 grams.

2.5 grams of 5 Kg capacity is a lot less than 2.5grams of 50 gram capacity, so hopefully more sensitive to lighter weights. Obviously if you do as i did and buy some certified calibration mass of the same value as your carts VTF then you can check the scale for accuracy at your chosen weight.

Why did i buy an electronic sclae and all the rest of that paraphinalia..... basically it's a 'guy' thing and i love gadgets, gizmos, fiddling, fettling and meddling,
I think that makes sense ....

 

Yup - I bought one of these last year (albeit a black one) and it's done the job just fine. Only problem is that the scale's a tad tall and when sat on the platter, the arm is almost at the limit of its vertical travel when the stylus is on the weighing pad.

Mine was bang-on when weighing 20p/50p & pound coins (the machine can be calibrated).

 

I made an adapter for my digital scales that lowers the measuring height to record playing height. It's simply a credit card cut in half along it's length, then heated using a lighter and bent to shape ( like an elongated squared off "Z"). This adapter is then taped onto the measuring platform using insulation tape. Just place the scale onto the platter, turn it (the scale) on, then lower the cartridge onto the adapter platform.
An added benefit is that the cartridge is kept away from the slightly rougher textured surface of the digi scale, and is free to slide as its lowered onto the smoother surface of the credit card adapter. At the 2g or so that I am trying to measure, flexing of the adapter is negligable, so accuracy is maintained.

 

Now thats clever Also gets over the magnetic attraction thing mentioned by Sid.

Sid, wouldn't surprise me if the magnets in the DL-103 are that strong. The ones in the DL-160 certainly are.

 

suppose if we where going to be really (and pathetically ) pedantic about this whole thing then i would try to ensure that any adaptors that overhang the weighing platform weren't too long, as they could act as a lever and possibly affect the accuracy of the reading.
I always try to gently drop the point of my stylus slap bang in the middle of the platform.

I suppose yet again this is where the accurate calibration weights come in to their own again, as you could place one of these on your weighing adaptor and see what it reads in the middle of platform and then again on the adaptor, ( i did say pathetically pedantic ).

I got around the whole playing height thing by removing my outer platter, this allowed the weighing scale to be placed in between the inner platter and the armboard on a shaped foam support. This puts the weighing platform at about normal playing height.


Edited to add:

Just had a go with the 'Credit Card' plastic adaptor. The effects of using such a device with regards to accuracy or difference of readings, compared to placing the weight in the middle of the weighing platform seem to be almost non-existant or at at least negligable. I'd say it is a pretty good way to use a scale and will probably use this method myself in the future.