When digital bathroom (people) scales first came out they just replaced the rotating dial with an optical encoder.
Replacing the analog pointer with an encoder would be an easy way to go digital and tie into a computer.
Adapting a cheap scale is simple and inexpensive compared with building a strain gage torquemeter.
While these approaches require analog to digital converters, a true digital approach would be to tie the torquemeter pointer to a piece of music wire. The resonant frequency of the wire depends on tension, much like tuning a guitar string.
I can provide a Paypal account for royalties.
Good luck,
H
To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
From: tmathews1_at_sympatico.ca
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 14:46:03 +0000
Subject: [Indoor_Construction] Re: Torque meter bearing?
Tapio,
I knew this idea was just the sort of thing to spark your interest!
I worried about the scale locking to a reading because my cheap 0.1 resolution scale (used to weight F1B parts) always does this and would make it useless for this application. But it seems the newer higher resolution scales don't have this feature? That would be ideal.
Tony
--- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, Tapio Linkosalo <tapio.linkosalo_at_...> first came
> Tony was worried about the scales locking to a reading... In my
> experience with the new cheapo scales, this is not an implemented
> feature. Rather, if the weight changes (like trying to weight a full
> model when there is drift present), the reading rather changes all the
> time. There is an indicator when the scale thinks the weight has
> stabilized, but once there is movement, it starts to change readings
> again. So should work OK for a torque meter.
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Received on Sun Apr 25 2010 - 14:50:04 CEST