Arduino and kitchen scales

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello,
I've never done anything with an Arduino before and would like some guidance, please.

I want to weigh hedgehogs as they feed and display the weight in a flexible location.

Goals:

  1. Have a A5 paper sized platform where hedgehogs stay reasonably still to feed. Platform is probably made of plywood or something.
  2. Have scales always on (or at least on a timer) and tare reset every time it goes to zero so paltform weight isn't taken into account
  3. Have a display with showing weight in a flexible location (i.e. it can be moved around)
  4. Maximum weight 3kgs.

I might want to also in future record the weight, as well as time, how light it is, air humidty, air temperature etc. but these may be once I am more comfortable with how things work.

Does it sound realistic at all? Is there a reference model anyone knows of or a list of bits I need? I am quite new to this so apologies for the basic info.
If I haven't given enough information or if what I am asking can be answered with some more searching, please let me know.
Thanks,
Neil.

2

Hi,
Probably need to build your own scale.

Typical load cells (available in many max loads) are like THIS one.

These need a special amplifier for the strain gauges, like THIS one.

There is a good Arduino Library for these on GitHub HERE.
It has "Tare" etc.

One of my kids built something like this 20 years ago, for race horses. 4 floor sections, 4 legs, they wanted to also know front-back weight distribution for training plans for the horses.

DISCLAIMER: Mentioning stuff from my own shop, for examples...

3

You can buy scales with a data output for exactly this sort of application.... look at professional horticultural suppliers.

I have friends who grow millions of lettuces/yr, and they gather data this way.

regards

Allan

4

Hi, thanks for the replies. I will buy some of the components and then I experiment.