© Adam Equipment Company 2008
6
The main PCB assembly includes:
A/D converter (AU1),
Microprocessor (DU1) and
Power supply/battery charger circuits (DU5, T2).
6.0 LOAD CELL DAMAGE
The most common reason why a scale fails is that the load cell has been damaged. The
damage can be from 2 primary causes. The first is physical damage due to an overload or
an impact from the side and the second is damage due to the environment, such as
moisture, extreme heat or a cut cable if the cables are exposed.
PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
The stain gauge load cell is a method of measuring the amount of stress put onto a metal
structure due to a weight being supported by the structure. The stress is measured using
4 strain gauge sensors mounted in a particular way on the metal structure.
These 4 strain gauges are connected in such a way that they form a Wheatstone Bridge.
See figure below. In the simplest load cells there are only the 4 resistances of the strain
gauges to consider. Normally without a load on the load cell all the resistances are the
same. However when the load cell has a weight on it 2 of the strain gages will be in
compression (A and D) and the resistance will decrease and 2 will be in tension (B and C)
and their resistance will increase.
35
0 o
hm
35
0
oh
m
35
0 o
hm
35
0
oh
m
A
B
C
D
+E
-S
-E
+S
BALANCED BRIDGE
10 VOLT POWER
SUPPLY
Vout = O VOLTS,
BS AND -s
35
1 o
hm
34
9
oh
m
35
1 o
hm
34
9
oh
m
A
B
C
D
+E
-S
-E
+S
UNBALANCED BRIDGE
FULL CAPACITY LOAD
ON THE LOAD CELL
10 VOLT POWER
SUPPLY
Vout = 0.028 VOLTS (28mv),
BS AND -s
This will cause the bridge to become unbalanced. When the bridge has a voltage across it
from +E to -E then the signal output at +S and -S will show a voltage of zero volts with no
load and a small voltage proportional to the load as the load is increased. Typical load
cells show 20-30mv of signal if the excitation voltage is 10volts and the load cell is fully
loaded.
Most load cells used in scales are not as simple as this example. They have additional
resistance elements added to compensate for temperature variations and to set the
outputs to correct voltages. The circuit of a typical load cell is shown below-
