steveinjava

Hi, thanks for the info. I will work through it. I must say though that rather than poll for the beginning of every second/minute/hour you should use interrupts to save the Arduino sweat/electricity/time.Take a look at https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=99588.0 for example.

I am getting there slowly. Do you reckon using the 8bit ADC on a A pin of the Arduino is losing accuracy? I have a 24 bit ADC which I could use. Any idea if it will make any difference? Of course it adds another chip onto the crank. If I decide to use an ESP32 then they have 12 bit ADC's which might be good enough. Any thoughts? Thanks

Great project! I see you get the variability down to 0.03mm...Does that mean we could differentiate between distances of, say, 0.05mm? Or is the digital encoding limited to whole mm's?

Hate to say this but you do know you can buy fifty adapters for peanuts here...Just saying :)https://www.aliexpress.com/item/50pcs-bag-Adapter-...

Hi, where did you get a breadboard tiny enough to fit the pins of the SRAM chip please?

Hi again. Finally at the second attempt I have the strain guages...Really cool they are too! Can I ask what glue you used? I am guessing the glue needs to be very rigid or the flex will not be transmitted to the guages. Perhaps SuperGlue or would that dissolve the gauges?

Using the Arduino IDE, what device do you call this module...there are several ESP32 devices listed and none seem to connect for me...Txs in advance

This chip is 3.3V logic so it ought not to work with 5V logic. That is the SDA and SCL should need a converter. But if you are sure this works then there must be tolerance in the system somewhere...Thanks for the info

I would have thought you could recycle a 'good' commercial kettle- Gut it and fit the Arduino and sensors etc? The element would thus be 'free' and swapping the thermal trip etc should be less hassle than getting a container made from scratch...Anyway, thanks for the ideas and I will take apart a kettle which seems suitable for the work and see if I can fit the parts inside.

I ordered ten of those strain guages (dirt cheap) but then noticed this module...It seems to be the whetstone-bridge circuit/amplifier etc all integrated ready...https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Strain-gauge-Bendi...Given space is limited around the crank a couple of these (one each side) would be a lot more compact and reliable if they do what I think they do...What do you think?Again, thanks for all your assistance!

Thanks. So the 7805 goes in series between the battery and the Nano? I can't see it shown on your wiring diagams. The VIN pin accepts voltages up to 12V so I am slightly confused. BTW I was involved in the design of a commercial poweremeter which never got completed so I have loads of ideas and code for the use of the data- I will get it to work with a 2.4" TFT LCD altough this will require a bigger battery to run. As I develop this I will share stuff via your comments if you do not mind :) Thanks again for sharing your work

So if the components all work with 5V then couldn't I just use a 5V battery- or (as I have now ordered the 7.4V batteries!) I could use the 5v pin on the Nana to feed the wheatstone-bridge and Amp?

Thanks for the inspiration to try this myself. I am unclear how you connect the amplifier(s) LF353 to the strain guages. Could you give us a circuit diagram/parts list of the wheatstone bridge set up please?

I watched the video and there is the circuit diagram for the sensors- sorry i didn't look first. Where does the voltage regulator get used...You seem to put the 7.4V straight into VIN (which is fine) so where does the 7805 regulator get used? Thanks!

I have N555D rather than N555P. The spec sheet says they can cope with similar (0.2 amp) load. I mention it for others to be able to know but if you believe they are unsuitable please correct me. I have not had time to build the circuit yet. Thanks for the article!

PTFE tape...lots of it. Just saying :)

Thanks. I will try using a Nano 5V although I also think I would love to use a 3.3V model so i could miss out the voltage stepper but then the solar panel would either need to be 3.3V or need more steppers...Thanks for the ideas!