When you say 'scale' do you mean like a science laboratory balance or like
an old speedometer needle in a car moving across some numbers ?

If it is a balance then you should be able to remotely switch on/off, tare
and take readings.  You should be able to select between take the current
reading, wait for *SOME* stability, wait for total stability, or take the
average over a range of time periods.  Your display *MUST* give user
feedback when any of the above are changed and must also acknowledge unit
changes and accuracy changes.  A common addition is the ability to 'batch
count' - e.g. you put 1 coin on, then 5, then 10, then an unknown amount and
the balance tells you how many coins (or whatever you are counting) are on
it until you change modes.
To be *REALLY* clever you can add a routine to re-calibrate the scale - e.g.
when you start the re-calibration routine the display request a series of
masses to measure; after weighing the series of (6 or 8) masses any
non-linearity is compensated for in a lookup table stored into EEPROM.

Is this enough ?

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   David and Melanie [SMTP:gates@PACIFICCOAST.NET]
        Sent:   Thursday, 1 June 2000 11:17
        To:     PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
        Subject:        [PIC]:School DAQ project

        Hi,
            My name is David and I am going to a technical college in
Victoria BC Canada.  In my data acquisition course we are setting up a small
strain gauge scale feeding a ADC.  We will be using an f84.  I was wondering
if anybody had any suggestions as how to go about processing the information
being read in serailly from the ADC.  I was just going to take a series of
readings and average them, but our instructor encourages us to use the
internet for information.  I have been monitoring the list for a month now,
but haven't seen much for this area.

            Thank you for your time.

        David Gates