Hi, im currently working on a school project for a beehive scale and have gotten a bit stuck. I’m using Sparkfun load combinator and load amplifier with 4 50kg load cells. These are connected to an arduino and I’m trying to calibrate my scale but im getting no readings at all. Im using the code supplied by sparkfun on the tutorials.
A lot of things I’ve seen online say that the Sparkfun OpenScale might be a better option for a project like this. It looks good but I’m not sure if I’d be able to connect an LCD screen to it to display the weight and temperature.
Did you adjust the “float calibration_factor” to a value specific to the readings you are seeing? The idea is to load the example, watch the serial monitor’s output, and based on the value seen there without a load, and with a known weight, to adjust that -7050 number to one that offsets the appropriate amount for your design
I’ve been adjusting the calibration factor but no matter what value I do it always reads 0kg. I’ve tried positive and negative values and still nothing. My wiring should be right as I copied what was used in the sparkfun tutorial and the code is the example one. I’m not sure whats going wrong so I’ve attached a few photos of my setup and my problem.
With everything connected, verify there’s a steady 3-5 VDC on the Excitation to the combinator. Similarly, test for the few millivolts of swing on the Signal inputs in response to loading the platform.
I’m getting a bit over 4V between red and black on the combinator, and for each of my load sensors I’m getting 0.7V exactly between the positive and negative. When pushing on the load sensors that 0.7V difference does not change. The 3D print I use to hold the load sensors does leave room to move below so i’m really stuck on what my problem is. If that 0.7V difference on the load sensors is supposed to change when a load is applied does that mean all 4 of my load sensors are faulty? Any help thanks.
That’s the problem. Thought it would be safe to assume red and black would be positive and negative but it’s fixed now. Very strange wire coloring. Thank you heaps
