We report progress in the development of a self-contained 3 He melting curve thermometer, designed to be both easy to construct and simple to operate. It is based on a cylindrical pressure gauge, with good linearity of pressure versus inverse capacitance making calibration straightforward. The gas handling system is compact and in principle automatic. The readout electronics is based on a tunnel diode oscillator circuit, since one of the capacitance plates of the gauge is necessarily grounded. We present preliminary data on the performance of the thermometer, which will allow convenient dissemination the new provisional low-temperature scale PLTS-2000.