At 12:57 AM 3/15/02 -0800, you wrote:
>Hi All -
>
>Does anyone know of a soucre of cheap strain gauges?

Strain gauges themselves are pretty cheap- maybe $5-(unlike
load cells), but you have to mount them on a suitable substrate
(matched tempco if you get fussy) and deal with rather low-level
signals. They measure strain (deformation of the substrate) so
the way you mount them determines how they work.

P.S. If you've even seen a piece of aerospace mechanics- such as
the Shuttle's robot arm (made by Spar Aerospace in Toronto), they
plaster the prototypes with strain gauges at every joint and
every other conceivable location. They have excellent
computer models, but *everything* is verified.

Best regards,



>  The plan is to measure the force and transmit it to a
>readout station - via IR or rf.  So, I need a way of measuring the force
>-- any other ideas?  (cheap is in :-)
>
>David
>
>--
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Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com
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