"Buerste" wrote in message
...
The thing that scares me the most in my reloading endeavors is a squib.
To visually check every case for the proper amount of powder is
inconvenient and slow. (but better than two in the tube or a hand
grenade) I load /shoot about 1k/month. So, I'm going to mount a small
camera that will display a real-time video that is easy to see from my
position operating the press. I have a five station progressive press and
there are a few powder-check dies available that work very well, but I
don't have a station to spare between the powder dump and the bullet
seating. I use a separate crimp die after the bullet seating. (I did
start to design an eight station press but how obsessive CAN I get?) Get
just ONE squib and you'll never shoot the same, it'll always be in the
back of your mind. Thankfully, I've never had a double-charge!

I can mount the camera on the ram so it's focus it constant or I can mount
it to the press if the camera will auto focus fast enough to be useful.
Ideally, the camera would have it's own LED lighting source.

Any recommendations on a camera or refinement of my idea?

Imagine if the camera took a still at the bottom of the stroke and
instantly compared the image to a "standard" then sounded an alarm if the
image was too far from the standard and locked the press? Again, a
powder-check die would do just that but I would not be able to use my
bullet feeder or my separate crimp die.


I used to work for a machine vision system integrator and did some projects
for Olin for their military cartridges. One project was for the 30mm or
35mm (don't remember) cartridges for the A-10 tank killer and another
project was for 25mm cartridges.

You would either need some machine vision software and then a camera that
would be compatible or a stand alone machine vision system. I worked with
Allen Bradley, DVT, and Omron vision systems, you might be able to get an
eBay bargain. If I were going to use one at home I'd prefer the DVT, plug
it into your ethernet to configure it and the processor, on some models, is
in the camera.

A good lighting for seeing inside a cartridge might be a beam splitter type
of device that reflects a light from a partially silvered mirror, the camera
looks through the mirror and the light is directly in line (by using a 45
Degree mirror) with the camera lens. That setup would let you align the
camera to see the primer through the cartridge neck and also shine the light
in line with the lens, through the neck and to the primer. For the 25mm
cartridges the opening was big enough to use a ring light made of LED's.

RogerN