What is a loadcell? How can it be used in your project?

Introduction

The force transducer measures a stress applied by the user or an object and transmits it to the arduino board in the form of a voltage. It consists of a force cell. The force cell is a strain gauge used to measure force.

The force transducer measures a stress applied by the user or an object and transmits it to the arduino board in the form of a voltage. It consists of a force cell. The force cell is a strain gauge used to measure force.

The force sensor can read a value ranging from 0 newtons to 10 newtons, which corresponds to 1kg. You can find sensors up to 2-3 kg on arduino.

Depending on what you need for your project, there are force transducers of different sizes and precision.

Some sensors also have a conversion module to amplify the signal and convert it into a digital value. These sensors are plugged into a digital terminal on the Arduino board.

Here is a kit of different pressure sensors using a conversion module:

The force sensor pins

  • Vcc: Must be connected to the 5v of your Arduino board
  • GND & Signal: This pin is connected to a 9.1 kilo-ohm resistor, an analogue terminal and earth.

Display value on serial monitor

We’ll now see how to display the force values on the serial monitor in Newton-metres:

Measuring force with LEDs

We’re now going to look at how to light up LEDs as a function of force in Newton-metres.