I need electronics help. #hx711 #teensy3.2 #logic levels #noise #scopePics

Status
Not open for further replies.

Gibbedy

Well-known member
Hello all.
I'm building the electronics for a Torsion bar dyno for a mate. It's a device that tests the load at various amounts of twist on a race car torsion bar.
It is a Teensy 3.2, a load cell, and an encoder.
I've used a cheap hx711 breakout board for a similar project successfully. (but using an arduino nano).

A week ago while testing I found the load cell readings were very erratic, giving random readings posotive & negative and occasionally correct.
It appeared to be a power supply or noise issue:

-Running the HX711 board and the teensy off USB power and the readings would be fine. With HX711 at 10SPS or 80SPS
-Running the board off 7805 power would work well at 10SPS but give random readings at 80SPS

Testing my supplys on my scope, the usb looked terrible compared to my 7805... or even pololu regulator, which looks even better. (something else I don't understand).

USB voltage is however sligtly lower than 5VDC.

I have now got the teensy and HX711 board setup for testing running at 10SPS.
With pics to follow, you will see that:
-@ 5000mV max supply I get good looking serial data out of the hx711, load cell readings are stable. Logic 0 at 630mV?
-@ 5040mV max supply I get slightly dodgy serial data out and load cell readings are starting to look noisy. Logic 0 is still offset.
-@ 5120mV max supply the serial data (DOUT) is pretty much no good.
496mV.jpg
504mv.jpg
512mv.jpg

I've reached the point where I don't want to spend allot of time solving the problem.. That is, I just have a feeling I'm going to go down the track of trying to fix this with my limited abilites..resistor deviders and zennor diodes or level shifters.. or separating hx711 analog and digital supplys, but I'm not confident I will succeed in a reasonable time.
This project has exhausted me for various other issues.. Looks like one of my nextion displays may have a hardware fault, had to custom build a linear encoder from a rotary encoder/linear bearing/rail, after switching away from a straight rotary encoder setup.. to a potentiometer... back to an encoder..

Anyay. I'm pretty sure I need a nice flat logic zero a bit closer to gnd than it currently is when the supply voltage approaches 5VDC. I would like to run my nice stable pololu reg that flat lines at 5.1VDC.

Please help me understand what is going on here and how I would fix it.
 
No I had not.
This sounds like a winner. I’ll test as soon as I can.
I expect scope will show clock pulse is out of spec (less than 0.2uS as per datasheet.
Thank you PhilB. I’ll post back later..
51F2DDDB-69AD-424D-B570-2C00C33B1FCE.jpg
 
Unfortunately this was not my issue. I'm using a version of the library where accommodation has already been made for speedy micro's like teensy. I'm getting a nice 3uS clock pulse.
Hardware wise I have multiple of these breakouts that do the same thing. Teensy3.2 is connected directly to the hx711 breakout. Nothing fancy.
I'm starting to consider I have a dodgy batch/clone hx711 if nobody sees this strange behaviour.
 
MatrixRat.. I hit refresh hoping nobody had replied... got my level converters in hand...
It will run from anyware below 4.99VDC. The crazy logic 0 on my scope got me confused.
A bit embarrassing. I looked at the scope again and noticed DOUT is staying low sometimes after my 25 clock pulses suggesting they are not all seen by the hx711.
sckIssue.PNG

I'll try out my logic level converter on sck and report back.
Thanks.
 
yep. level converion fixed this issue.
fixed with level converters.jpg
However when I increase supply voltage to the hx711 I get increased noise as seen by the min/max serial print. You can see where it goes from +-.1 to +-.6.
increase supply voltage, increase noise.jpg
I modified the breakout board to use my 5v for AVDD and disable the internal regulator. I also ran this one at 80SPS and I get very consistent results.
The strange DOUT logic 0 offset is gone too.
theBestHx711.jpg

Does anyone have a hx711 and a scope get the same results with their boards at anything above 5.120VDC Vp.

Just to compare two HX711's in 80SPS mode here is modified breakout board running external 5VDC
externalReg.PNG
and here is a non modified one using it's internal regulator but from the same supply:
internal reg.PNG
This is only about 1% of the load cell but its relatively worse running from the internal regulator.
 
Last edited:
To test the load cell I would disconnect it and substitute resistors of the same value. If the noise continues, then it's in the HX711 circuit.

Is the load cell a full bridge? Did you epoxy this onto the beam?
 
I’ve made an assumption it’s the hx711 because the modified breakout with the internal regulator disabled gave readings that vary less than another 2 that haven’t been altered.

I don’t know about bridges. I made up a dummy load for my setup based on what I imagine is called a full bridge (4 resistors) but haven’t checked it for this issue.

Load cell is 1000kg s type 2mV/V. 350ohm input/output resistance.

Perhaps my breakout boards have incorrect resistor values for transistor and 5v supply.
I might look at this if I do more with these. I’m happy it’s working well now.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top