Inside a ridiculously cheap digital luggage scale.

[@himselfe]

I've been staring at these every time I go into PoundWorld wondering if they're worth buying, now I know. Thanks! Nice cheap way to make a thrust gauge for brushless motors!

[@EastyUK]

We use the load cells for static test for aircraft components, they are strain gauges. These are linear, though they are also available in 3 directions called rosettes.

[@gorconx]

Its people like you that make the internet what it is today, you are such an interesting big guy and I am so glad I stumbled onto your vids, keep up the good work and thank you for enlightening me.

[@saraha180]

It's also possible that these weren't actually meant to be sold for a pound. They may have been designed to sell for five pounds and then they had surplus inventory that they couldn't sell and decided that the half pound they'd get from selling them in bulk to pound world would be better than nothing. I think a lot of dollar-store type stuff is basically inventory clearance.

[@PeterHopeTindall]

thank you for the videos Clive! - you must be one of PoundLand's best customers!

[@conoba]

What you have there is a full or half wheatstone type bridge. There is no need to temperature compensate it. Also it will be absolutely linear so the manufacturer just needs two calibration points.Regardless what the shape or accuracy of the spring body is.As long as shape change stays out of the plastic range(overload). All electronic scales are done this way and they work. You cant mess this up.

[@twocvbloke]

Could be useful for making an alarm system like that in movies where there's an artifact on a button that the thieves try to keep pressed down then use some silly method to keep it pressed, but a load cell could be used to measure how heavy the item is and any discrepancy sets off the alarm... :D

[@theirisheditor]

I'm sure Ryanair and other budget airliners hate these. Nice to see how compact they are now and didn't realise they are also accurate to within a few grams. I have one of the original Balanzza scales that cost something like £20 at the time and measured in 0.1kg increments. Even still, it well-paid for itself, allowing us fly right up to the 15.0kg Ryanair limit, unlike the very unreliable bathroom scales that were sometimes 2kg below the actual weight and of course an overweight baggage charge.

[@KX36]

+Seán Byrne Just wait until ryanair decides to charge you to weigh your luggage at the airport...

[@bigbadjohn10]

Another thing on the shopping list. I find it amazing how these things are made for the price.

[@InvisibleYetVisible]

Got one of these, works real well. It's usually about 0.5KG Under as well, so if you're reading 20KG, you can be very confident of being under at the airport ;-)

[@SeanBZA]

For the price surprisingly good, and linearity is not at all bad as well. I verified the ones I bought ( yes they are dead cheap at the China shop) and they are accurate to within 10g from 50g to 40kg, using assized masspieces.

[@lwilton]

I have two of those, a 20kg and 40kg unit. They track each other very well, as well as tracking other scales and some light calibration weights I have. The one thing to watch out for on those things is the "final value hold" function, which is on by default. If you have a changing weight they you are measuring, this will just latch some arbitrary weight at some unknown time. Those load cells are now available individually on eBay. With no useful instructions, of course.

[@bigclivedotcom]

I discovered that latching feature. And also how to turn it off.

[@azzym312]

+bigclivedotcom These scales use cheap force cells not " load cells" as the force is always along the same axis. Pan scales are different , they are weigh cells because they measure a force at any distance from a reference vector. Force anywhere on a pan moves the strain gauge through the same distance. Hence constant.

[@QlueDuPlessis]

Certainly a technological step up from the old spring balances.

[@BlondieSL]

It turns out that there's another great use for these cheap scales. That is, to calibrate Torque wrenches! Very simple too. Some use a vice, but I'd probably suggest some other way as when I tried that a few weeks ago, my vice just broke in half! I have a new one now, but as these crap vices from China are made from "white metal" (that metal with the bubbles in it) instead of SOLID steel, they break with the pressure that the torque wrench creates at the socket end. So anyway, apparently the way to use this to test if a torque wrench is accurate is to first measure from the center of the front end socket spindle (its center) to about the middle of the handle (if it's 12 inches or more). Using a piece of tape, put a mark and note down the number of this distance. Let's say it's 23 inches. Then, choose a setting on the wrench, perhaps 1/2 of its rating (unless its max is 250, then perhaps choose 80 foot pounds). Put this scale right onto the line of the measurement you just made and VERY SLOWLY pull it until the wrench CLICKS (or shows a digital number) The moment the wrench clicks, take note of the number on this scale. Take that number and the number of the measurement from center of head to point on the handle and do the following math: - torque wrench set to 80 (for this example). - center of head to middle of handle, let's say is 23 inches. - the scale reads say, 42 when it clicks. to get foot pounds that the wrench clicked at, take 42 times 23 divided by 12 This would get 80.5 It works!

[@rimmersbryggeri]

Most impressive is that they can factor in a profit into that pound though. Would probably cost more than apound to post it to your neighbour.

[@chistinelane]

rimmersbryggeri some stuff is very likely sold at a lost to get more loyal customers(heck it worked for me), while overpricing (not insane overpricing though) other items to cover for it. It's a risk, but apparently it's working for them since so many dollar stores are popping up. Note, I don't actually know how these stores work, this is just an educated guess. I've seen things sold at dollar stores that just can't actually cost less than a dollar in materials alone

[@2tommyrad]

Load cells are incredible devices aren't they?

[@Josh40996]

I want to see what's inside the blob, Clive!

[@wisteela]

Very impressive

[@weihengmanufacturer6921]

thanks for sharing

[@thepeacekeeper2013]

O.o Clive do you have a magnetic implant in one of your fingers or something? could swear some of the metals were attracted to a finger on your left hand.. maybe just me..

[@Zerbey]

It's from all the electric shocks over the years.

[@chistinelane]

thepeacekeeper2013 his powers are growing

[@sublimationman]

Here in the U.S. our dollar stores often sell items that have some issue with the packing like wrong name or misspelled words and such at the low cost when the item would normally be worth more. I wonder if there is a glaring issue with the card insert on the ones you bought?

[@doloresdavis9750]

h

[@ChaosHusky]

I need to visit PoundLand etc more frequently.. Those seem rather good for a quid though, as i'd imagine their stock comes from liquidation/bankruptcy so..maybe used to retail for much more? Depressing thought on how many little companies fail or get eaten up.. Lol.

[@AAO-Falcon]

ChaosHusky I did not know thats how they did it

[@TornTech1]

Clive, I'v watched a number of your new videos(catching up on them all now i have returned from my honeymoon!) (released in the last 8-10 days) and any with a white table seem to have a different type of branding..... Are you using some sort of gobo on your bench lights to write your web-address? you can see it faintly here and there...

[@bigclivedotcom]

TornTech I've been travelling with work, so I'm away from my usual workshop and bench. The watermark you see is on tape underneath a translucent surface.

[@danielhorne6042]

i got a few of the weight sensors from a wii fit board

[@jernhesten]

Hi. i just saw a "dog repeller" on Ebay....Hmm could you test one of those?

[@andymadden8183]

So sad that Poundworld just disappeared.

[@Dishmopo]

The sensor is probably made in one piece as a four-arm wheatstone bridge using Constantan (55% copper, 45% nickel). Something like this: www.vishaypg.com/doc?11368

[@bigclivedotcom]

Dishmopo Ah, that's quite neat. A lot cheaper to make than a traditional platinum film sensor too.

[@doingstuff76]

Where did you buy and where can I buy one of those black screw drivers?

[@bigclivedotcom]

Poundland in the UK or search online for 8 in 1 or 9 in 1 precision screwdriver.

[@FeasableOption]

neat indeed

[@CurtisEFlush5962]

Ashens is number two then, Peter.

[@CalHallows]

Christian Nielson Now that's a collaboration I would like to see!

[@Gunbudder]

"Pound World" sounds like a gay bar.

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Gunhaver It is.

[@miles11we]

+bigclivedotcom you two made my day

[@zedorda1337]

+Gunhaver I always pictured a mall full of fastfood.

[@azzym312]

+Gunhaver Is a pound cake a fruit cake that just got a good pounding ?

[@svnhddbst8968]

pound cake is just a fruit cake sans sadness.

[@robertparkes4982]

We have a £1 shop AND a 99p shop where I live .I'm going to stick to the £1 shop, as the quality might not be as good in the 99p shop !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@woofbark4475]

Lol

[@SvenSchumacher]

I like the way you comment on that stuff ;) And also I like the calm voice compared to all the overexited people here at youtube. Maybe you mention to say LC-Display or LCD ... but not LCD-Display? That's not really important ... but you know? ;) Anyway ... go on and I hope to see much more :)

[@TunsaMcHaggis]

+Sven Schumacher like ATM machine, or VIN number

[@shiftymiata]

LCD display is the same as saying "Liquid Crystal Display Display"

[@nimeq]

An LC Display you could extend into a Tank Circuit Display. Aka, partial acronyms with extended last letter might not make any sense either, but a duplicated last acronym letter will always make explicit sense even if it's not logically required. I think the extra generic term is for laypersons so that even if you don't know what an LCD is.

[@HifiCentret]

If it's like mine you can enter calibration mode by pressing and holding all buttons from off state. Again if it's like mine you need a 20 kg calibration weight to calibrate it. No your 20 kg dumbell, kettlebell etc. isn't accurate enough.

[@mc_cpu]

Does yours measure temperature too? Try holding down the buttons.

[@mc_cpu]

Had to go and test... It's the "Unit" button, hold it down for a couple of seconds and mine shows the temp in degrees C. Hold down the "Tare" button puts it into calibration mode. Probably they had a spare channel on the D/A converter so put a thermistor onto the board.

[@frollard]

mc349iii It strikes me that the calculation would vary some factor in the load math with some temperature coefficient -- I bet it needs to know the temperature in order to get a reasonable repeatability since the unit is portable.

[@bigclivedotcom]

mc349iii That's interesting. I'll have to try that when I'm back at my workshop.

[@albertosapiens1]

+mc349iii mine doesn't have that option.

[@FireSwordl]

I have the same :) Julian Illet also made a similar video :)

[@domino52o26]

I weigh things down to tenths of a gram... *cough cough*

[@mickeygovender]

Can you say "That's right moneypenny"

[@iainroberts3685]

+bigclivedotcom "It shows the power of mass production when they can sell a full digital luggage scale in a pound shop." Now that's what I call economies of scale. (Sorry! Someone had to ;)

[@stewartmcminn7773]

Not cheap now

[@shurdi3]

Can't you just use a wheatstone bridge for such a scale?

[@Firecul]

I knew I had seen this before somewhere, and so had you, one of Julian Ilett's videos kzbin.info/www/bejne/p163ZoN5a853gqM Still good to hear how accurate these are, might actually get one.

[@evilutionltd]

LCD display. Liquid crystal display display.

[@chistinelane]

Or it's a display that displays lcds