Load cell used like a pot

Using Arduino Sensors
1

I recently made a steering wheel using arduino and i want to upgrade my pedals to a load cell version.

Now evey single load cell tutioral sends the data to the digital pins but my wheel needs an analog signal for the pedals

Is it possible for me to use a load cell on the analog pins?

2

It is much, much easier to use a potentiometer to generate the analog signal than a load cell.

3

The output of a load cell is "clock" and "data"... both "digital"... not a variable output, like a potentiometer.

4

I see thank you

5

I am aldready doing that. Iwant to upgrade my pedals to the loadcell variety

6

How would that be an "upgrade"?

A load cell generates a very small differential voltage when pressure is applied, and you will need considerable electronics expertise to do anything useful with that output, from scratch.

That is why almost everyone goes the digital route, using the HX-711 load cell amplifier and digitizer.

Learn about load cells here: Getting Started with Load Cells - SparkFun Learn

7

Please explain what is the point of this "upgrade"? How will such a pedal be better than an analog one?
In fact, what you want can be done, but it needs very complex circuit and code and it is unlikely that such efforts will be justified. In addition, most likely such a pedal will have a slower response than an analog one, which will become a drawback in games

8

For reference, four types of pedals (resistor, load cell, hydraulic, force feedback), from US$150 to US$2k:

10

@12builder
You could use, e.g., a 1kg load cell mounted such that it reacted to foot pressure. Lets say the output of the load cell is 20mV at 1kg load and you wanted a 0-4V signal to your pedal input, you would use an instrumentation amplifier with a gain of 200 to produce that signal from your load cell. Depending on the quality of the load cell, you might have to compensate for zero drift over temperature with some sort of auto-zero circuit but that is easily done using a DAC driving the instrumentation amp REF pin. A multiplexer to switch between a zero load signal and the load cell signal would be needed for the auto balance scheme.

Not a beginner project but doable.

11

You could use an FSR (Force Sensitive Resistor). You can use a simple voltage divider to get an analog voltage output

12

@12builder
I would think that simulating realistic pedal travel while getting a meaningful signal would be the hardest part.