I am a retired mechanical engineer and am interested in making a few projects involving strain gages. These projects are primarily for personal learning. I have been trying to find a supplier of strain gages at a reasonable cost. I can find some expensive ones from Digikey and a couple other places and found some cheap ones from AliExpress. The problem with the what I found from AliExpress is I can't find any datasheets about them and all the info is only in Chinese. Can you please help me find a place to buy strain gages at a reasonable cost?

 

I got 4 of them out of a digital bathroom scale which I got from a charity shop (thrift store ?) for £1.

 

I got 4 of them out of a digital bathroom scale which I got from a charity shop (thrift store ?) for £1.

Thanks. What were they attached to? I want to put them on a simple beam to work out the electronics etc. then after that is sorted out I have a more complicated structure that I want to put them on for strain measurement. Aren't strain gauges only a one application device since they are essentially glued to the part you want to measure? How do you unglue them without ruining them?

 

Can you please help me find a place to buy strain gages at a reasonable cost?

Sadly, strain gages are just plain expensive, no matter where you buy them; there's no way around it.

Aren't strain gauges only a one application device since they are essentially glued to the part you want to measure?

Yup. They can only be used once, unless you have them bonded to some sort of re-usable mechanical device like a load cell.

How do you unglue them without ruining them?

You don't. You can try, but it's an excellent way to drive yourself insane.

 

hi old'
These are OK for hobbyist projects, use a quality adhesive.
You can use with a HX711 module, Arduino Nano [ all from Amazon].
Arduino Sketch for the HX711 and libs are free on the web.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/strain-gau...qid=1500898479&sr=8-14&keywords=strain+gauges

E

 

If this is for experimentation why not build your own?


How-To-Make-a-DIY-Force-Plate <= Free

DIY strain gauge transducers (Part 1). b y J. POPLE<= Not freehttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-1305.1980.tb00312.x/pdf

 

There are a few reasonable ones on this site:

http://www.kr4.us/load-cell-10kg-straight-bar-tal220.html

Also depending on your application, a load cell amplifier (basically an ADC) can also be very helpful, such as:

http://www.kr4.us/sparkfun-load-cell-amplifier-hx711.html

 

Maybe I'm thinking of something different....but these were the things I got from bathroom scales.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10245

 

I get mine off ebay for $1.50!!
Load cells and strain gauges.
Max.

 

thanks for your help guys. I appreciate it. Got some ideas to pursue.