New RCBS Pro 2000 ordered

[codefour]

I was at the SHOT Show 2012 and spoke with Kent Sakamura (the guy from RCBS on Shooting USA). He advised they will not have a case feeder any time soon for the Pro 2000. All though, with your hand on the right side handle and your left feeding cases with a bullet feeder, it is pretty fast.

GW Staar, they did copy your idea of the tube bullet feeder and it is a new product for 2012. It was listed as 36.95 with die and tubes, but MidwayUSA willo probably be in the 25-30 dollar range. The pre-made bulllet feeder looks like a winner. GW Staar, Can you please post your link to the six foot bullet feeder that you made using the tube? I believe it was your ingenious mind that came up with it.

RCBS did come out with there own deSwager that operates similar to the Dillon Super Swage 600 that I already have. It looked like a decent product, but the Dillon did appear more versatile with more and various sized rods.

 

[GW Staar]

I was at the SHOT Show 2012 and spoke with Kent Sakamura (the guy from RCBS on Shooting USA). He advised they will not have a case feeder any time soon for the Pro 2000. All though, with your hand on the right side handle and your left feeding cases with a bullet feeder, it is pretty fast.

GW Staar, they did copy your idea of the tube bullet feeder and it is a new product for 2012. It was listed as 36.95 with die and tubes, but MidwayUSA willo probably be in the 25-30 dollar range. The pre-made bulllet feeder looks like a winner. GW Staar, Can you please post your link to the six foot bullet feeder that you made using the tube? I believe it was your ingenious mind that came up with it.

RCBS did come out with there own deSwager that operates similar to the Dillon Super Swage 600 that I already have. It looked like a decent product, but the Dillon did appear more versatile with more and various sized rods.

Yes, RCBS copied two ideas....Hornady's dedicated feed dies and AlliedArmory's $28 bullet feeder.

I can't take any credit for the $28 bullet feeder. that was AlliedArmory's brainstorm after reading my thread where I converted the Hornady Bullet Feeder to a clear tube rendition with a stop switch. My part in the saga was to merely start his brain in this direction, answer his question with "sure it will work!", give him a good source I discovered, for the clear plastic tubing (for my Hornady project), and I gave him a little insight from my experience in testing the various size tube with different caliber Hornady Bullet Feed Dies.

It was a "why the hell didn't I think of that" experience for me!

The original post was Allied Armory's at Arfcom. (I'm GWhis over there...why did I change names? What can I say...ignorant of the ways of forums.)
I quickly added a link in THR to give you all a heads up. It has since marched all over the gun forums. Just google "$28 bullet feeder". Allied Armory is famous now!

 

[jediagh]

I was at the SHOT Show 2012 and spoke with Kent Sakamura (the guy from RCBS on Shooting USA). He advised they will not have a case feeder any time soon for the Pro 2000. All though, with your hand on the right side handle and your left feeding cases with a bullet feeder, it is pretty fast.

I can't recall where I read it but it was stated that it would be hard to design a case feeder for the Pro 2000 due to it's design.

@GW Staar
Thanks for looking into the counter again.

 

[GW Staar]

I can't recall where I read it but it was stated that it would be hard to design a case feeder for the Pro 2000 due to it's design.

@GW Staar
Thanks for looking into the counter again.

Hard but not impossible....I'm working on one for my Pro 2000....I may fail....then again...we will see.

Well Jediagh, I did my best. Kevin Harris (Moontaj) must have had his email changed, so no communications from him.

Then I tried Alan of SA Development (Press Monitor )(http://www.pressmonitordevice.com/order.htm And found that his offerings don't have warning capabilities...they're just statistic gathering devices. No dice there.

The only thing I can suggest is to try the kit I referenced in post #24 in this thread. That kit can do it, but you have to build the board. (you need a soldering iron and some soldering skills). That kit is what got me started on that project. I knew that if I reprogrammed the micro controller chip, I could make it fire up with 2 presets in memory. On power up, the first reset (15) would always come up....then press handle strokes would activate the counter and drive it to zero with 15 strokes. At zero the chip would then reset at 25 (the # of primers in an APS strip) and from that point down counter to zero and reset back to 25 over and over. You can do that with the kit, except power down would lose the resets and have to be set up again.

Now if you happen to know somebody who can program micro controllers, all it takes is the chip's programming software, a USD connection to a computer, and an hour or two.....I didn't so I started posting around at electronic sites and darned if I didn't meet one Kevin Harris. Could lightning strike again? To bad he disappeared with the source code and PCB board design. I'll keep trying.

 

[jediagh]

In what state did Mr. Kevin Harris live when you ordered from him.
You might try zabasearch.com to locate his via address/phone #.
=)

 

[GW Staar]

Missouri....tried that....there are more than 50 people by that name in Missouri. Who would have known.

I found a good tutorial on programing Micro controllers on Youtube.....I may have to learn a new skill, since I want to do a couple more things with mine. But don't hold your breath...may take me a few months.

 

[jediagh]

LEGO Counter for RCBS Pro 2000

@GW Staar

Well I copied your idea with the counter and using a LEGO Mindstorm kit was able to duplicate it!

See here for the proof of concept demo.
I have to attach the unit to an RCBS but the concept/code won't change.
Inside of using a piece of paper to cut the "light beam" the press lever will do that.

I also added a touch switch which can give you the total # of counts during the session. You will see the following in the video.

1) Unit starts at 15
2) Each time the beam is broken unit counts down
3) At 0 the unit will beep to indicate time to add a primer strip
4) Unit will reset to 25 and start the process over again
5) At count 24 the touch switch is presses & indicates 17 "primers" have been counted in this session.
5) At count 23 the touch switch is presses & indicates 18 "primers" have been counted in this session.

Note that I think the number is off by one. I think I coded the total count off by 1. Will have to confirm when I look at the code again. But wanted to show just the proof of concept.

Thank you for the idea.

BTW. The LEGO can run on battery or a wall plug adapter.

http://youtu.be/JlsxRP1vd3M

 

[GW Staar]

That sounds like a winner, jediagh, now enlighten me......what the heck is a Lego Mindstorm Kit and where does one get a hold of one, how much does it cost, and most important, how smart to you have to be to program it!!

Pictures!

 

[jediagh]

The LEGO Mindstorm is a small programmable computer from The LEGO Company designed so school kids grade 5 - 12 can get an introduction to robot design, computer software development, and engineering/science.

The yellow brick in the video is version 1 which is no longer sold DIRECTLY by LEGO anymore (ie. not available in stores but you can buy it online 2nd hand or even via LEGO's educational retailer).

The latest version of mindstorm can be found here:
http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx

That is a much more powerfrul robot design than the first.
Programing for the robot via LEGO's software is very simple. It was design so a 5th grader could program in and it's a graphical software system. You can "upgrade" the code to a more advances system of coding if you know what you are doing (ie. I used Not Quite C) to program mine.

In terms of cost. Well I got mine 15 years ago back when the overall set cost $120. Not sure what the set runs now. But you don't need the set just the programmable brick and the USB Tower (ie. to download your code from PC to robot). It probably runs $50 for the brick and $50 for the tower. Not sure. Will have to check more.

 

[jediagh]

This is what a LEGO Mindstorm RCX unit looks like:

Like I said the version above was discontinued by LEGO a while back.
However LEGO Education branch still has them on sale.
http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/product/rcx_programmable_brick/336
They run $65 from them or you can find it on eBay as well.

The NEW LEGO Mindstorm is called the NXT & looks like this:

It is far more advance and have a slew of new sensors that the old one did not. But is also cost more for the kit. Granted it's newer technology but for the purposes of this thread it's overkill.

For someone that does not have any of this equipment I think the cost would end up being around $$100 - 145.

$65 for the RCX (Although you can get it used on eBay for $25)
$40 for the USB Tower (ebay) to program the RCX via computer
$20 for the light sensor on ebay
$20 for the touch sensor (optional) on ebay

The sofwtare is free to download.

 

[GW Staar]

You made my head hurt! I'm not smiling I'm winching.

5 graders do that now? I'm 62. I wish I was a 5th grader.....uh....maybe not....too many rules and I'd have to wait a few years to buy a gun.

I think its super that you made what you wanted with that....but its a little expensive for somebody to go out and buy it for a single use application.....are you going to dedicate it to do just that? You're done with the robots, then?

 

[jediagh]

@GW Staar
aaaahhhhhh that explains a lot about you then (your age).
I don't mean that in a bad way. You are double my age and I grew up with computers/robots all my life. My background is software engineering and I love to do software code so for me it's natural to try and automate stuff around me via code.

Agree that for a single use application this is over-kill and expensive vs being able to use a dedicated electronics device like you got.

I have 4 of the LEGO RCXs that I use from time to time on various items when I "play with my LEGO". Now sure if I want to commit 1 to reloading strictly just yet.

In terms of what 5th graders are doing. Oh you would be suprised. There are LEGO robotic teams at all grade levels in america that go to tournaments at the state and national level. The LEGO kit has been a very good way to introduce kids to lots of math/science areas via a hands on approach.

- robot design
- problem solving skills
- software design
- material design (ie. you can build the robot with more than just LEGO bricks)

Overall I can't "beat" your design in terms of cost. But alas we also can't get your design right now.

 

[GW Staar]

Actually I'm betting he'd build one for you if you emailed him. Nice guy.

And, actually I used to be a bit of a computer guru. I built my own computer to run version 2 Autocad with a soldering iron. That was when you could solder transistors, capacitors, resistors, and integrated circuits to a board. Now it's all done by computer-operated machines and the parts are too small to even handle by hand. Bought and installed my first mighty hard drive (a whole 20 megabytes) and it cost me $2500 (just the part)! You and my son are spoiled, terabytes cost way less than that these days. (my son is a software engineer for Lockheed) I learned Fortran and Cobol with punch cards. C++!.....spoiled I tell ya!

I still use Autocad every day...version 20 something or so (now they go my the release year, 2009). But I don't work on circuits or programing anymore. Reloading is way funner.

 

[jediagh]

Actually I'm betting he'd build one for you if you emailed him. Nice guy.

And, actually I used to be a bit of a computer guru. I built my own computer to run version 2 Autocad with a soldering iron. That was when you could solder transistors, capacitors, resistors, and integrated circuits to a board. Now it's all done by computer-operated machines and the parts are too small to even handle by hand. Bought and installed my first mighty hard drive (a whole 20 megabytes) and it cost me $2500 (just the part)! You and my son are spoiled, terabytes cost way less than that these days. (my son is a software engineer for Lockheed) I learned Fortran and Cobol with punch cards. C++!.....spoiled I tell ya!

I still use Autocad every day...version 20 something or so (now they go my the release year, 2009). But I don't work on circuits or programing anymore. Reloading is way funner.

Yup you sound like my dad and uncle.
I did get to see those old relics called the punch cards in the glass displays when I was at Purdue. We would dust them off every now and then so that they did not look "old" in the glass cases.

So I take it you remember the floppy discs as well and not the 3" once but the larger 5 ones, right?

Yes my generation is spoiled rotten when it comes to storage and processing power. But my nephew/niece (5 & 10 years old) are even more spoiled as they have have "the internet" all their life.

BTW I also use CAD every day. We are on version 2011 and just got permission to upgrade to 2012!

I do missing soldering from back in my college days. But alas it's a thing of the past as well.

But you know I think I might just send him an email and get the "official GW Staar" part because I'm afraid my LEGO RCX can be used for other stuff. Like annoy the dog when I make the robot dog chase him around the house.

 

[DBR]

I modified my RCBS 2000 to use a Dillon powder sensor. It only required drilling one hole.

 

[jediagh]

Pics?

 

[DBR]

I don't know how to post pics. email me and I will send pics.

 

[GW Staar]

I don't know how to post pics. email me and I will send pics.

If you can email a pic, you can upload them to PhotoBucket.com, a free image hosting service that many of us use. Setting up your free account there is simple, once you have your own page, you upload your digital pictures to them. Here's the process of adding a picture to your post:

• Once your PhotoBucket site has your pictures, you click on a picture....
• A links box shows up on the right of the screen.....
• you click on where it says "direct link" (that copies the link in your computer's cut and paste)
• Then you go to a THR "reply box" click the yellow picture icon. (which gives you a place to paste your link, using [control V], then click OK.
• Preview your post and you will see your picture is there.

I wondered about using the Dillon powder measure sensor.....so the disk fits inside the Uniflow? I assume the single hole you drilled is in the cap of the Uniflow? Actually it wouldn't be very hard to copy one...its a really simple design.

 

[DBR]

We are talking about two different things. I was refering to the Dillon powder checker that insures powder is in the case. I also use the Dillon powder measure on the RCBS press but I don't have the low powder alarm.

Right now my RCBS press is set up for processing brass and the Dillon trimmer I use is obscuring the hole for the powder checker rod so no pics for now. It will be a while before I break it down.

 

[GW Staar]

So where did you drill the hole?

 

[DBR]

Go to the Dillon website and look at a pic of the Dillon powder checker. It has a pushrod that is actuated by the shell plate. The body of the device screws into the fixed die station (#3) on the 2000. The drilled hole is beside the fixed die hole and allows the push rod to extend down to the shell plate.

I don't use my press in the conventional way.
Station #1 has the size/decap die.
Station #2 has the powder measure and primes.
Station #3 (fixed) has the Dillon checker.
Station #4 has the bullet seater.
Station #5 has the crimp die.

 

[GW Staar]

But you know I think I might just send him an email and get the "official GW Staar" part because I'm afraid my LEGO RCX can be used for other stuff. Like annoy the dog when I make the robot dog chase him around the house.

He emailed me on his own today, and said He'd make another board for you....do email him.....I'll bet the price is still right.

Go to the Dillon website and look at a pic of the Dillon powder checker. It has a pushrod that is actuated by the shell plate. The body of the device screws into the fixed die station (#3) on the 2000. The drilled hole is beside the fixed die hole and allows the push rod to extend down to the shell plate.

I don't use my press in the conventional way.
Station #1 has the size/decap die.
Station #2 has the powder measure and primes.
Station #3 (fixed) has the Dillon checker.
Station #4 has the bullet seater.
Station #5 has the crimp die.

That's right, I remember the rod. You just have to be brave and permanently modify the casting.

Your way of using the Pro 2000 is becoming more conventional every day, since RCBS finally came out with their powder through expanders last fall. Now I do that too, except I use a mirror and Hornady bullet feeder in 3.