Hi guys, it's been a little while since I've been here.
I was at an estate sale last week and bought 3 boxes full of electronica very cheap ($10.00)
Included in them was a very nice load cell, the kind that plugs into a ratchet wrench to measure the twisting torque on nuts, bolts, and other rotating objects. This a very high quality part, worth 100x the $3.33 I paid for the box of goodies.
Much of the other stuff is SMD which is useless to me so I will be giving that away here.
My problem is scaling the output of the load cell. It's output is 1.9965mv/v at 1500 in-lbs. I would like to be able to resolve 30 in-lbs. With 10vdc excitation, I'll get 150 in-lbs. If I build an amplifier with a gain of 5, I'll get 30.
Is that valid thinking? The last time I played with Strain gauges and conditioners was 1968. I forgot 95% of what I knew then and I think it was all discrete. Is there an IC solution?
Thanks,
Joe