Hello,

I have a question about how can the oscilloscope can be used with a force sensor.
The output of a force sensor is an electrical signal. When I feed this signal to the oscilloscope I get a wave with a certain amplitude of some mV.
How I am expected to use the oscilloscope to calculate the input force?
Shall I first run the experiments using some known weights to record the average output voltage and determine a calibration coefficient?
However, I believe this is only valid for linear relationships. How can I know that something is linear over the whole range the experiment will run?

Thank you in advance

 

Assuming that the sensor responds to static loads, you can use a DC voltmeter to measure the output voltage.

The only way that I know of to check for linearity is to apply a series of known weights spanning your range of interest. Tabulate the voltage reading vs the load and plot the graph of voltage vs weight.

 

Assuming that the sensor responds to static loads, you can use a DC voltmeter to measure the output voltage.

The only way that I know of to check for linearity is to apply a series of known weights spanning your range of interest. Tabulate the voltage reading vs the load and plot the graph of voltage vs weight.

Great thank you!

 

Exactly what is the sensor? Force sensors take on many forms and have many different outputs. A data sheet on the force sensor would go a long way in answering your question. Some as mentioned, respond to static force such as various load cells and some only dynamic force like shock and vibration.

Ron