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Wheatstone bridge saturation error

Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2020 10:17 am
by ainsliej
Hi there,

I have been using Wheatstone bridges to measure the voltage ratio input from load cells. After a small amount of use now 2/5 of my Wheatstone bridges are giving saturation error messages when I open the Phidget control panel, and won't work with my task. I have checked cables, load cells etc and the problem definitely is with the WBs.

They have only been used sporadically for a couple of days, and nothing has happened which would be likely to break them. Any advice on what might have gone wrong?

Thanks in advance,
Ainslie

Re: Wheatstone bridge saturation error

Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2020 9:14 am
by mparadis
Have you tried moving the load cells from the working bridges to the ones that aren't working? Unexpected saturation errors usually result from a bad physical connection. For the bridges that seem to be broken, are all channels having this issue?

Re: Wheatstone bridge saturation error

Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2020 9:35 am
by ainsliej
Hi Again,

Yes, the load cells work fine when connected to other WBs (I have also checked wires, connections, ports in the VINT etc) so the problem is with the WBs. Both channels in the WBs have the saturation error message, even if a load cell is only connected to one.

Also to update you: I tried them again this morning (without changing anything relative to yesterday) and all were spontaneously working fine. So while it now isn't an urgent problem, I am still concerned that it might happen again in the future,

Best wishes,
Ainslie