85 replies to this topic

[bmarshall1]

Thanks.  Anything you think would help is more than welcome.  Dims, designs on how the load cells connect and lever in the casting or anything else mechanical you think would help.  I almost bought a set of used Rebco scales for $300 on ebay a few weeks back to use as a test base.

 

EDIT:  As long as a mechanical method is not patented it's perfectly legal to copy it.  Bolt for bolt, wire per wire.  The scale pad and/or method is not patented.  There could be an issue with using code directly from a closed project but the software side is original open source using open source support methods and mechanisms.   In most cases (and this case specifically) it's perfectly legal to copy the pad design.  The issue would be with hacking the software or using the trademarks of Intercomp, Longacre, etc.  For example if a copyrighted logo was on the pad that was copied there would likely be an issue incorporating the logo.  Basic mechanical design, no problem.

 

If you could plug a dongle into your existing Intercomp set (one battery powered dongle each pad) that would give you wireless capability to your phone/tablet/computer would that be of interest?

Very much a YES

[OrangeCrush86]

Hey everyone, things are starting to slow down for the winter so I'm on my way to getting back to this project. I prototyped a related piece of hardware that will allow us to build a Bluetooth dongle design that can be used on existing scale pads. I'll post about it as well for feedback.

[Steve Scheifler]

Please make it at least BLE 4.2

[Andy Mitchell]

Cool, I forgot all about this. I promised pics/dimensions of the commercial scales I bought earlier on in this thread, I'll try to get those for you sometime in the next couple of days.

 

BTW, doing a Bluetooth dongle for existing scales sounds to me like it would be pretty easy from a 'tech' point of view... but you'd need batteries and an auto-shutoff circuit for each pad (unless you were less absent-minded than me, and could remember to shut them off every time). It's the little things that kill you...       

[Andy Mitchell]

Hi,

 

Don't know if anyone is actually interested, but I did follow through and grab some pics/dimensions of my commercial scale pads for you all to look at. Hope this works:

 

https://www.facebook...01362859&type=3

[Slothgsr]

I know this is an old thread.  But I stumbled upon this while working on a set of scales for my sons Quarter Midget race car.  I got a working set as of now using an arduino uno.  Total cost right now is around $330 for 8" x 7" scales with LCD readout on breadboard.  I plan to move it over to raspberry pi and work on using  Orange Crush's code.  I'm still beginner with python so working on trying to figure out how it all works yet.  

 

here is short video of me testing them out.

 

 https://www.reddit.c...es_for_my_sons/