For future ref, here's the wiring for a four-cell bridge with the HX711
from: Arduino Bathroom Scale With 50 Kg Load Cells and HX711 Amplifier
from: Arduino Bathroom Scale With 50 Kg Load Cells and HX711 Amplifier
Corny Scales
- Thread starter The-Engineer-That-Brews
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Binkei Huckaback
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May I suggest something called 'pen and paper'? I think you can still get them at any high street bookies 
While I applaud the ingenuity (see what I did there) of this project and would probably be doing the same thing myself given half the chance (I don’t have cornys), being on the outside looking in I’ll put my devil’s advocate hat on and ask what is it you are trying to achieve?
1. Make an electronic gadget to indicate how much beer you have in a steel keg. An approach that appears not to be straight forward and requires a bit of software fixes to get to work….maybe?
2. Make something that doesn’t require power (electric) that can indicate when you have n, n-x, n-2x…etc pints left in the keg?
You’re doing option 1. But option 2 might be interesting to explore
. What about…
1. Mark off the side of your keg with a permanent marker your preferred increments, say every 4 pints, or 2….
2. If you haven’t already done so, convert your rigid dip tube to a floating dip tube.
3. Attach a PTFE coated rare earth magnet to the float so that it can be held on the keg wall by another rare earth magnet on the outside, positioned at the highest mark.
4. As beer is drawn from the keg it will run dry when the level drops below the float, at which point you slide the outside magnet down to the next mark and continue to draw beer until you reach the next mark and so on…
No electronics but could be fun
1. Make an electronic gadget to indicate how much beer you have in a steel keg. An approach that appears not to be straight forward and requires a bit of software fixes to get to work….maybe?
2. Make something that doesn’t require power (electric) that can indicate when you have n, n-x, n-2x…etc pints left in the keg?
You’re doing option 1. But option 2 might be interesting to explore
. What about…1. Mark off the side of your keg with a permanent marker your preferred increments, say every 4 pints, or 2….
2. If you haven’t already done so, convert your rigid dip tube to a floating dip tube.
3. Attach a PTFE coated rare earth magnet to the float so that it can be held on the keg wall by another rare earth magnet on the outside, positioned at the highest mark.
4. As beer is drawn from the keg it will run dry when the level drops below the float, at which point you slide the outside magnet down to the next mark and continue to draw beer until you reach the next mark and so on…
No electronics but could be fun
My full cornies sit in our big commercial fridge. Lift them out and you get condensation and a fill line. I mark that with liquid chalk. But I absolutely love your project 
johncrobinson
Landlord.
As a engineer myself i can understand Engineer who brews attitude.
Its a control freak thing we like to monitor and calculate every thing.
It gives us our comfort blanket.
Seriously our nation has in the past come up with some wonderfull things.
The fault lies with the "money men" a total lack of vision
Its a control freak thing we like to monitor and calculate every thing.
It gives us our comfort blanket.
Seriously our nation has in the past come up with some wonderfull things.
The fault lies with the "money men" a total lack of vision
Thanks for the suggestion ... you are essentially talking about a "keg ball":
Clever, but not quite geeky enough for me
https://www.brewuk.co.uk/kegball.html
![BREWING THERMOMETER STICKERS ACCURATELY MONITOR FERMENTING BEER & WINE LIQUID TEMPERATURES 5PCS HOME BREW SPIRITS WINE LCD ADHESIVE [US]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/311DDjo2X3L._SL500_.jpg)
Meanwhile, back at our hero's secret lab... design is well underway 
Unfortunately "our hero" has limited availability today, on account of tutoring his 15y.o on his GCSE physics revision...
Yes, that’s where I pinched the idea from
. I’ve read that the little orange ball is easily misplaced so thought this approach was an alternative. But you’re right…..not geeky enough for you
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Joust
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May I suggest something called 'pen and paper'? I think you can still get them at any high street bookies
Example:
1 pint
Half pint
2 pints
1 pint
1 pint
1 pint but almost a third was head
Walked off whilst pouring and a number of pints are on the floor.
1 pint
8 seconds of drinking from tap as no glasses found
1 medium vase
Always quite relieved to finish using the chisels without having to apply pressure while the missus calls 999...
To help avoid involving the Ambulance service:
I would recommend a couple of G-cramps to clamp the work piece to the bench top before addressing the mallet to the chisel.
And I think it would help reassure all of us concerned about your safety.
Thanks ;-) actually I was using G-cramps while I was actually doing the work (this was just for the photo) :hat:To help avoid involving the Ambulance service:
I would recommend a couple of G-cramps to clamp the work piece to the bench top before addressing the mallet to the chisel.
And I think it would help reassure all of us concerned about your safety.
There's a self-service craft beer bar in Nottingham (The Tap House) which uses tablets to enable dispense, it also tracks the volume left - but I'm assuming this is based on sales rather than being a "live" measurement of the actual amount left in each keg.
I can't remember the company who supplied the equipment/software - but there are a few - Pour My Beer/Tabology but as they sell licences I assume this won't be open source.
Could something similar be another option? A slightly more technological update to the pen and paper suggestion
I can't remember the company who supplied the equipment/software - but there are a few - Pour My Beer/Tabology but as they sell licences I assume this won't be open source.
Could something similar be another option? A slightly more technological update to the pen and paper suggestion
I've got an old Wii balance board that I'm looking to convert into a set of scales, hopefully just connecting to my iPhone via Bluetooth. Would be useful on brew days as they could sit happily under my boiler, would make water measurements a load easier, especially the sparge.
Good thinking!
The Balance Board would fit two kegs side by side, I was wondering if, with a bit of clever software analysis, you could ascertain the weight of each one based on the pressure differential in the four feet. On the Wii is uses that to show where your centre of gravity is and also for controlling things like a snowboard or skis.
Maybe that would be an upgrade for your device, with a bigger base plate that could fit two kegs...
Maybe that would be an upgrade for your device, with a bigger base plate that could fit two kegs...
I like your thinking, but to resolve the absolute weights independently you would need to know the precise position of each keg on the plate :-)
Also you’d need to use a separate measurement bridge for each pair of feet - so you might as well just have fully independent pads
Sensors connected and working - next step is to calibrate and run some tests
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