Andrew:
Wasn't thinking about using the whole contraption. Just rip it apart and hopefully land up with the 'bridge & 4 wires' bits ... the rest being despatched to oblivion.
Some where on youtube I found a vid with someone hacking 4 of these things from a bathroom scale, can't damn well find it now .. but they are just the same principal as the big ones.
If that was the case then all I'd do was to shove 5V at it and squirt the output into one of the ADxxx Instrumentation Amp chips I have ... err, somewhere ... and thence to a 12-bit ADC in a PIC.
Did briefly think of buying one until I saw the prices at Farnell & RS ...
http://uk.farnell.com/tedea-huntleigh/1022m-10m-f-106/load-cell-10kg/dp/7256152?ref=lookahead That idea didn't last long ...
Got a 5kg and a 10kg on way from Honkers ... £13 the pair ... not really what I wanted re: O/P ( 1mV/V rather than 10mV/V ) but if they're n.b.g. I've lost nothing much ...
Phil:
I wondered if they had a max voltage of 3V ? Not bothered about max volts as I was going to use 5V anyway. Not sure whether 5V would clobber the things ..
My scales don't move much if I wobble on them, just about 0.2kg ?? Posh ones from John Lewis ... the previous version was utter crap, tell you anything and refused to work at all on a carpeted floor ... Comet
sh .... excreta .... when they went tits up I larfed and larfed and larfed .... serves the sods right ...
Anyway, thanks all for the input, I will await gifts from afar ... I hope ...
Dave