Looking to build a scale for a farm application. No one has what I need. Can you provide me with the necessary items to do so. I’m a fairly savvy farmer, so tech is not new to me. I simply need good, robust components, and a little direction. I need the following hardware/software:
4 load cells capable of 50kg each
Display for reflecting the weight
Necessary item/tools for connecting things
Ability to calibrate it from time to time
Necessary code for reflecting weight to display
I need it to be as simple as a scale one would weigh themselves on; however, the scale platform will be 30” x 60”.
It’s doable, but if you’re looking for something simple and robust, DIY electronics is probably not where you want to look. You might consider contacting a company that specializes in scales and see what parts they have that can be assembled into a system that suits your needs.
If you want to give DIY a try, the parts below might work for you, but you’re still going to need to write the software to drive a display though as we don’t have have a ready made display designed to show the weight of something.
The Firmware in the OpenScale was originally intended to output it’s data on a computer monitor over USB. You’d need to modify the firmware to support an external serial LCD display to get what you’re looking for. Unfortunately we can’t help you modify the firmware so you’d need to find a programmer that could do that if you’re not able to code. I’d suggest skipping the LCD at first and using a computer to get things setup and running. Once you have a working system, then you can look at modifying the firmware and adding an external display.