Just how accurate and expensive do fishing scales need to be?
I bought a pair in the bargain shop that appears to be just as accurate as my more expensive ones. Weigh in pounds and ounces, grams or kilos and have a built in tape measure. Only cost £4.
Just how accurate and expensive do fishing scales need to be?
I bought a pair in the bargain shop that appears to be just as accurate as my more expensive ones. Weigh in pounds and ounces, grams or kilos and have a built in tape measure. Only cost £4.
I always say this when the question of digitals comes up...the issue for me is that I am concerned that accuracy will be impacted as the batteries begin to run low ...and before anyone says just change the batteries - how do you even know they are starting to run low ?
You may already be weighting out before it becomes apparent they need changing.
A decent design should work well (and accurately) until the batteries run down enough for them to work no more, much like high quality torch designs. A digital scale that goes haywire as the power levels of the battery drops is a poor design. For me, the biggest issue with digital scales is going to them and finding that they are dead.
Torches get dimmer as the batteries start to fade. I have not seen a torch yet that shines at perfect brightness and then goes directly to flat dead. There is always a certain period when it still works but not as well.
Thats the moment digitals could weigh out and you wont know as its not apparent like with a torch light.
I will admit my comments are not based on first hand experience as I have avoided them for this reason.
Cheaper torches get dimmer as the batteries fade. Top notch ones with decent circuitry work and then stop working once the battery drops to a specified voltage. Any battery operated device can be made to do exactly the same. In electronics terms it's very easy to do. The problem is that it costs a bit more, batteries are useless before they would be in another device and some people simply don't like the feature. I make no claims as to which scales work in this manner, but it's not beyond the wit of a decent electronics designer to do it.
Reality therefore is your scales are impacted as you battery drains and you have zero indication at what point you accuracy is being imparied.
No argument, provided you make the assumption that you have inferior quality (no comment on price) scales. Possibly a very safe assumption to make, but not necessarily the whole truth. I've little doubt that most electronic scales, especially angling branded ones, don't have such a feature. However, there will be such scales on the market. How much extra you have to pay for such a thing is anyone's guess. I know that with torches, you generally pay a significant premium for such voltage regulation.
We are talking about fishing scales. If someone makes digital scales with that feature i doubt its going to be for the fishing market for the cost reasons uou mention. It would more likly be for something like a lab for example. I would also expect anyone worried enough to put the feature in would also connect the device to the mains not a battery unless they absolutly had to.
Do I anticipate £20 Korum scales to have such a feature? No. All I was arguing was that digital scales don't have to suffer from inaccuracy as batteries run down. It's a doddle from an electronics design point of view to negate such an effect. I quite agree that most people worried about accuracy would choose mains power and that most anglers wouldn't pay the extra for such a feature. Though the number that are happy to pay £60 and upward for better quality dial scales makes me wonder. I'd happily pay for relatively small, accurate digitals, with voltage regulation, in preference to huge dial scales that are considered de riguer by most specimen anglers and the match fraternity.
That doesn't mean that they don't exist. Not all scales used by anglers are aimed purely at angling. The Electro Samsons by Salter are an example. Whether they have voltage regulation for their inflated price, I've no idea. Unlike you, I'd be surprised if there are absolutely no handheld, battery operated, scales out there that have such a feature. There's no technical reason why they can't.