I have a (new) 3010d (It was inexpensive enough that even with this problem it was still worth it).
Obviously, if I can fix it, I want to.
The ammeter is off - with a .5 amp load; it's off by over .2 amps across the voltage range.
The less the load, the more it's off. And when I'm doing battery powered projects, I want to see the amps being used as accurately as possible.
I tried adjusting the trimmer on the meter board, and that helped only somewhat (it was off by more than I noted above before I adjusted). It is now at the max adjustment possible (counter clockwise).
I would appreciate any ideas on improving the accuracy. (the volt display is pretty good)
The binding posts are easily accessible, so I could add in my own shunt, remove the existing LED display and try to pack it in, but there isn't a lot of room for that... But I do have the parts here to do it.
Thanks.
so I could add in my own shunt,
If you can find the existing shunt you can change the value. You didn't say if it's high or low, but if it's reading high you can add a resistor in parallel with the existing one.
A different shunt will only change the slope (not the offset). If it's 200mA off across the range, that's offset. There may be trim pots for slope and offset. Normally, you "zero" the offset by calibrating at zero and you calibrate the slope/gain at maximum.
The less the load, the more it's off.
So... That's a screwy problem that can't be fixed with a slope or offset adjustment. (Although you may be able to make it more accurate at some amperage that's most important to you... i.e. If you want it to be accurate at 1 Amp you might be able to do that...)
I want to see the amps being used as accurately as possible.
That's what your multimeter is for. 
...I'm sure the ammeter on the HP power supplies we have at work are more accurate than yours, but they are not periodically calibrated like our meters & 'scopes so they have a sticker that says "For Reference Only. It's handy to see if you've got no current, a short, or way too much current, but I don't expect it to be super-accurate.
Thanks. Right; I'm not going to junk it over this.. Tape over it or wire in my own; still worth it --it didn't complain when I put 9 amps on it for a while...
I found 2 trim pots on the meter-board -- one is for ammeter, the other is for volts.
probably centering around "1/2 amp load" would be ideal for me, and at 1/2 amp load, it's 0.2 amps low almost across the board (up at 15v it as a little less wrong (0.16amps off), but rounded, still 0.2 amps)
The trim pot for the ammeter, clockwise, lowers the read out, counterclockwise it raises the read out. It is 'maxed'.
There are 2 other trimmers on the main board, I didn't try futzing with those.
I suppose I could measure the pot maximums and see if I have one that has a greater swing to see if more helps.
If there is a resistor (or more) I could swap out to adjust the display, I'm game to try that -- unfortunately, I don't have a schematic for the meter board. I asked yihua for one, we'll see...
I would rather it say I have .3 amps when I have .1 instead of reading 0 when I have .2
Thanks for your input!
cheers
-josh