I purchased a “Force Sensitive Resistor - Long” and it’s been working great until today. My project could no longer read it, and when checked with a multimeter directly no reading is made (as if disconnected). Visually both the strip itself and pins look fine.
Any thoughts to help?
Hi Keely,
How are you connecting the Force Sensitive Resistor (FSR) to the rest of your project? Are you using an adapter like [this to connect to the FSR or are you connecting directly to the pins on it? Can you take a few photos of your circuit and the FSR?](Amphenol FCI Clincher Connector (2 Position, Male) - COM-14195 - SparkFun Electronics)
I carefully soldered on some wires to connect to some female headers on my project (partly because of the negative reviews of that product). However, I have since disconnected it and am testing the strip’s pins directly with a multimeter like when I was first testing it. I attached a picture (shows both sides). Thanks!
Hi again Keely,
The solder could be the issue here. Did you by chance rework those solder connections prior to the FSR malfunctioning? It is difficult to see in your photos but it looks like there is solder going all the way up the plated connector pins on the bottom of the FSR. Comparing your photos to the ones on the [product page shows the difference.
The substrate underneath those pins is very sensitive to heat and per the [FSR Integration Guide and our [Hookup Guide, it is not recommended to solder directly to that substrate or to components that connect directly to it. If you test above that soldering on the actual substrate material with your multimeter, do you get a resistance? Also, does the FSR have any creases in it? That would also cause issues measuring a resistance from it.](Force Sensitive Resistor Hookup Guide - SparkFun Learn)](https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Sensors/Pressure/fsrguide.pdf)](Force Sensitive Resistor - Long - SEN-09674 - SparkFun Electronics)
It is a bit hard to tell in the picture, but I read the concerns so only applied solider at the thinner ends of the metal tabs. I also only soldiered/used heat once. It was working great for a few weeks, then (like I said) stopped giving any resistance readings. Thanks for the help so far, btw!
Have you tested for resistance on the substrate material instead of on the pins/wires? It is rare for these to suddenly stop working so I am curious if there is a break going on somewhere between where you are measuring and the substrate material on the FSR.
