THE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF A 20KG DIGITAL WEIGHT SCALE

INTRODUCTION

A digital scale is a measuring device that reads and displays the weight of an object. Unlike

an analog balance scale, a digital scale is a high-quality scale that gives a more correct weight

reading. A digital scale works best on a flat surface. When an object is placed on a digital

scale, its weight causes its internal strain gauge to deform. The scale converts that amount of

deformation to an electrical signal, runs the signal through a digital converter, and shows the

weight on the scale’s display.

In this work, we create a digital scale with the Arduino-Uno microcontroller using a load cell

and the HX711 amplifier. First we wire the load cell and the HX711 amplifier to the Arduino

to build a scale and then calibrate the scale to get accurate reading. A liquid crystal display

screen is used to display the measured weight in grams.

COMPONENT REQUIRED

 Load Cell

 Hx711

 Arduino-Uno

 16 x 2 LCD screen

Load Cell

A load cell converts a force into an electrical signal that can be measured. The electrical

signal changes proportionally to the force applied. There are different types of load cells:

strain gauges, pneumatic, and hydraulic. In this tutorial, we’ll cover strain gauge load cells.

Strain gauge load cells are composed of a metal bar with attached strain gauges (under the

white glue in the picture above). A strain gauge is an electrical sensor that measures force or
strain on an object. The resistance of the strain gauges varies when an external force is

applied to an object, which results in a deformation of the object’s shape (in this case, the

metal bar). The strain gauge resistance is proportional to the load applied, which allows us to

calculate the weight of objects. Usually, load cells have four strain gauges hooked up in a

Wheatstone bridge (as shown below) that allow us to get accurate resistance measurements.

Figure 1 Load Cell

Because the changes in strain when weighting objects are so small, we need an amplifier. The

load cell we’re using is usually sold together with an HX711 amplifier.

HX711 Amplifier

The HX711 amplifier is a breakout board that allows you to easily read load cells to measure

weight. You wire the load cell wires on one side, and the microcontroller on the other side.

The HX711 communicates with the microcontroller using two-wire interface (Clock and

Data).
The HX711 is a precision 24-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that is designed for

weighing scales and industrial control applications to interface directly with a bridge sensor.

It is specially made for amplifying signals from cells and reporting them to another

microcontroller.

Figure 2 Hx711 Module

LCD Screen (16 x 2)

An LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen is an electronic display module and has a wide

range of applications. A 16x2 LCD display is very basic module and is very commonly used

in various devices and circuits. A 16x2 LCD means it can display 16 characters per line and

there are 2 such lines. In this LCD each character is displayed in 5x7 pixel matrix. The 16 x 2

intelligent alphanumeric dot matrix display is capable of displaying 224 different characters

and symbols. This LCD has two registers, namely, Command and Data.

Figure 3 16 x 2 LCD
Arduino Uno Microcontroller

The Arduino Uno is one kind of microcontroller board based on ATmega328, and Uno is an

Italian term which means one. Arduino Uno is named for marking the upcoming release of

microcontroller board namely Arduino Uno Board 1.0. This board includes digital I/O pins-

14, a power jack, analog i/ps-6, ceramic resonator-A16 MHz, a USB connection, an RST

button, and an ICSP header. All these can support the microcontroller for further operation by

connecting this board to the computer. The power supply of this board can be done with the

help of an AC to DC adapter, a USB cable, otherwise a battery.

Figure 4 Arduino-Uno Microcontroller

METHODOLOGY

The HX711 amplifier communicates via two-wire interface. You can connect it to any digital

pins of your Arduino board. We’re connecting the data pin (DT) to Pin 2 and the clock pin

(CLK) to Pin 3 of the Arduino board as shown below.

Figure 5 Circuit Diagram

We make a weighing scale machine which can measure weights up to higher-value like

20KG. We make the connections as shown in the circuit diagram above. We need to calibrate

the load cell and find the calibration factor. Once the calibration is done, we can include that

factor in the code of weighing scale. Thus this will make the scale precise and accurate. The

greater is the mass the greater the error. So we will try to remove the error from the weighing

scale. We will finally display the measured weight in the 16×2 I2C LCD Display.

A load cell is a transducer that transforms force or pressure into electrical output. It has two

sides, the right side and left side, and it is made out of aluminum blocks. As we can see in the

middle of the material is thinned by putting a big hole. Which is why that is the point that

suffers deformation when a load is placed on the mount side. When the right-side cell is

mounted to the base and the left side is where the load is placed, this configuration deforms

the strain gauge load cell because of the giant hole in the middle. When a load is placed on

the load side of the load cell, the top part will suffer tension, and the bottom part will suffer
compression. That is why the aluminum bar bents downward on the left side. If we measure

this deformation, we can measure the force that was applied to the aluminum block and that's

exactly how we measure the weight of objects using this sensor.

IMPLEMENTATION

Figure 6 Internal Circuitry

Figure 7 Full View

TESTING

After the weight scale is built and properly calibrated, it is tested by weighing various objects

as shown in the image below.

Figure 8 Testing the Weigh Scale

CONCLUSION

Digital displays render the exact weight of an object without being open to interpretation,

giving a precise and accurate result. No matter who uses the scales, for the same item that is

being weighed all operatives will give the same result. Digital scales can be configured to

provide an exact resolution as required. For example, if you need exact weights down to the

nearest pound, then your scale can usually be configured to do so. If you need more accurate

figures