paledragon
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone,
I'm working at a snail's pace converting my electric system over to Bru Control. First thing I decided to tackle was volume measurements. I decided to go with load cells, which did require me to learn how to solder headers onto circuit boards. I've still got some work to do, and maybe some of you guys will have pointers as well.
Overall, it's comprised of:
View media item 69340
Load cells are sandwiched between 1/2" sheets of plywood, with metal ties on the diagonally opposed load cells for support:
View media item 69349View media item 69342
HX711 (aka the load cell amplifier) has a standard Arduino package. I temporarily combined that with an LCD shield, since I haven't gotten to the Bru Control portion of the project yet:
View media item 69348
The plan is to have this Arduino read in multiple HX711s (HLT/BK, MLT, etc.), send PWM outputs to the Bru Control analog amplifier to convert to 0-5 VDC output, then have those signals go to a second Ardiuno Mega running Bru Control. The load cell Ardiuno will probably be tweaked to convert the PWM outputs from 8-bit resolution to something along the lines of 10- or 12-bit minimum.
Casual testing seems to indicate load cell creep is pretty insignificant. The spec sheet on these load cells seems to corroborate that.
Hopefully this plants the seed for other ideas where these can be used. Most of the components are pretty cheap, so destroying them in the process of exploring applications isn't too much of a concern
p.d.
I'm working at a snail's pace converting my electric system over to Bru Control. First thing I decided to tackle was volume measurements. I decided to go with load cells, which did require me to learn how to solder headers onto circuit boards. I've still got some work to do, and maybe some of you guys will have pointers as well.
Overall, it's comprised of:
- 0-50kg micro load cells from RobotShop ($7 each)
- Load cell amplifier from Sparkfun ($10)
- Arduino Mega2560 ($10 inland version)
View media item 69340
Load cells are sandwiched between 1/2" sheets of plywood, with metal ties on the diagonally opposed load cells for support:
View media item 69349View media item 69342
HX711 (aka the load cell amplifier) has a standard Arduino package. I temporarily combined that with an LCD shield, since I haven't gotten to the Bru Control portion of the project yet:
View media item 69348
The plan is to have this Arduino read in multiple HX711s (HLT/BK, MLT, etc.), send PWM outputs to the Bru Control analog amplifier to convert to 0-5 VDC output, then have those signals go to a second Ardiuno Mega running Bru Control. The load cell Ardiuno will probably be tweaked to convert the PWM outputs from 8-bit resolution to something along the lines of 10- or 12-bit minimum.
Casual testing seems to indicate load cell creep is pretty insignificant. The spec sheet on these load cells seems to corroborate that.
Hopefully this plants the seed for other ideas where these can be used. Most of the components are pretty cheap, so destroying them in the process of exploring applications isn't too much of a concern
p.d.