Electronic stylus force gauge question

You might try to unplug the table from AC power and unplug the tonearm cable, (and ground wire) from your preamp/phono stage. This will isolate the table.

Seems to me that you are getting some type of an electrical interference from either the tonearm wires or the coils in the cartridge. See if this solves your problem. Worth a try.

I've actually had this happen before with a digital scale - probably the same one you are talking about that has the same cosemetic design as several sold by Acoustech, Audio Additives and Pro-ject among others.

Believe it or not, the darn thing would not only register weight as the cart apporached the scale, but would fluctuate in its readings by 0.1-0.2 grams each time I weighed the cart without change of the VTF.

I changed the batteries in the scale and presto - everything was fixed. I think if the batteries in the scale are not fully charged, you can start to see funny things happen to this scale. Wish there was a better digital scale that didn't cost $200 or more.

Thanks for the input, guys. I will try unplugging and replacing the batteries. I agree with Phil that it's a shame quality digital scales sell for so much. In addition, the design of some of the expensive scales such as Clearaudio (Mapleshade seem to have the same design with a lip for placing the stylus at record level) is not very practical with the Classic platter (and I suspect many other platters) because of the slight "cutout" in the platter for the label. I tried the Clearaudio scale and it was very awkward to use as I had to angle it on the platter to have it stable and perfectly level. That in turn made placing the stylus on the lip quite tricky. $250 is a lot of money for a scale that needs five minutes of setting up to take a measurement.

I have also had poor experience with those generic scales that sell under various brand names. I now use a Ortofon scale approx SGD 130 or so. It has a lip that extends beyond the platter so you are measuring pretty close to the right spot. Only downside is that it doesn't go beyond 0.1gm.I am supposed to track my Lyra Atlas at 1.72gm. So I measure to 1.70gm and then fine tune by ear.
Have ordered a relatively inexpensive scale from dx.com. You need some kind of makeshift stand to get it level with the platter.Hopefully it will work
Cheers
Pradeep

Stringreen,
It's evident from several recent threads that Actusreus is not yet comfortable with trusting his ears and prefers the security of measurements, even measurements that don't necessarily correlate to optimal sonics. If he believes that every Lyra is so free of sample deviations that precisely 1.75g of downforce is optimal, well, Jonathon Carr himself would tell him otherwise but we all have our own way of enjoying this silly hobby. It certainly won't do any harm to play at that downforce. ;-)

Actusreus,
I tried one of those scales and it was strongly affected by magnetics, so much so that I regard it as unfit for the purpose for which it is sold. Additionally, ANY scale that resolves to .01g or better will respond to the slightest changes in air currents. I can alter the reading on my scale (different brand, same resolution) by waving my hand over it. Try moving verrrrrry slowly... and hold your breath. Seriously.

You don't need a $250 scale, unless you insist on one with an audiophile logo. My My-Weigh MX-50 cost <$99. With the addition of a DIY weighing step it works just fine, certainly far better than the one you originally described.