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An energy efficient microcontroller based digital solar weighing machine

Conference Paper · February 2013

DOI: 10.1109/ICPEC.2013.6527615

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 2013 International Conference on Power, Energy and Control (ICPEC)

AN ENERGY EFFICIENT
MICROCONTROLLER BASED DIGITAL
SOLAR WEIGHING MACHINE
S. Arisutha, Arvind Mittal and K. Sudhakar S. Suresh
Energy Centre Department of Chemical Engineering
Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology
Bhopal- 462 051, India Bhopal- 462 051, India
e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]

D.M. Deshpande
Department of Electrical Engineering
Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology Bhopal
Bhopal- 462 051, India

Abstract— The main aim of this study is to develop a digital It essentially comprises of an 8-bit 8051
weighing machine and to operate it with the help of solar PV microcontroller with a local memory module for storing data
panel, where the supply of electricity is the biggest problem. This from the ADC. High resolution, without compromising range,
Study describes the design and implementation of a low-cost, is achieved by designing a program for interfacing a serial 10-
energy efficient portable solar powered digital electronic
bit ADC to the 8-bit microcontroller [6]. This is due to the in-
weighing system ideal for domestic, laboratory and commercial
use. The system has highly reduced circuitry as it utilizes a built Serial Programming Interface (SPI) of the
standalone microcontroller chip. As this machine not uses the microcontroller used. Fig. 1a-b shows the basic block
electricity to charge, it saves the electrical energy. The system diagram and Photograph of the Setup
designed measures weights ranging from 0-30 kg.

Keywords- weighingbalance solarpanel microcontroller

I. INTRODUCTION
A digital weight machine measures weight by the
distance a load cell deflects under its load. But here we are
using solar cell as an electrical power input. Weighing scales
are used in many industrial and commercial applications. In
(a)
digital weighing machine the deflection of a beam supporting
the unknown weight is measured using which is a length-
sensitive electrical resistance [1-2]. The capacity of such
devices is only limited by the resistance of the beam to
deflection.

This work describes the design and implementation of

a low-cost, high-resolution and portable digital electronic
weighing system ideal for domestic, laboratory and
commercial use. The system has highly reduced circuitry as it
utilizes a standalone microcontroller chip [3-4]. The
Developed electronic weighing balance senses, measures and
displays the mass, placed on a single point load cell, on an (b)
LCD display. Figure 1. (a) Block Diagram and (b) Photograph of the
The results from several supporting locations may be digital weighing machine.
added electronically, so this technique is suitable for
determining the weight of very heavy objects, such as trucks The output of the load cell is given to the Instrument
and rail cars, and is used in a modern weighbridge [5]. Amplifier IC - AD622, which amplifies the signal and passes
II. DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL SETUP: the output to the microcontroller ATmega8L because the
978-1-4673-6030-2/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE
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 2013 International Conference on Power, Energy and Control (ICPEC)
microcontroller cannot read the signal below 1 Volt and the
load cell is giving the output in a few mV like 1.2mV, which
is very small and weak signal so we need to amplify it. The
Microcontroller is programmed with the help of CODE
VISION AVR software and displays the output accordingly in
the LCD display.
(i)Load Cell:
Load Cell is a device that converts force into electrical
signal. A strain gauge based load cell is made of a specially
engineered mechanical component called as an element. Four
strain gauges are positioned precisely and bonded on to the
element using a special adhesive [7]. Strain gauge is a device Figure 3. Internal Structure of Ad622
that changes resistance when it is deformed or stressed. Table The gain of AD622 IC is determined by using the equation:
1shows the basic specifications of a load cell. The force- G = 1 + (50.5 kΩ/Rg)
electrical signal conversion happens in two stages- Gain = 506
(i) Force applied deforms the element which in turn deforms Where,G = Gain
the strain gauges Rg = Resistance to be used for setting the gain A 100Ω
(ii)Strain gauges convert the deformation to electrical signals. Resistance is used to set the gain
Fig. 2 shows the circuit diagram of load cell (iii) Microcontroller – ATmega8L:
A microcontroller is a small computer on a single integrated
circuit containing a processor core, memory, and
programmable input/output peripherals [8]. A low power
ATmega8L microcontroller is used in this work . It has two 8-
bit bi-directional I/O ports and one 7-bit bi-directional I/O port
which also serves as the ADC. A pin diagram of AT mega8L
is represented in Fig. 4.

Figure 2. Circuit diagram of Load Cell

Table 1. Basic specifications of a load cell
Capacity 45Kg
Full scale Output 45*0.6 = 27mV
Sensitivity 2.25 mV/V
Excitation Voltage 9V or 12V DC
Input resistance 409 Ω
Output resistance 350Ω

(ii) Amplifier IC AD622

The AD622 replaces two or three op amp
instrumentation amplifier designs and offers good common-
mode rejection, superior linearity, temperature stability,
reliability, and board area consumption [8]. The low cost of
the AD622 eliminates the need to design discrete
instrumentation amplifiers to meet stringent cost targets.
While providing a lower cost solution, it also provides
performance and space improvements.
The Internal diagram of AD622 is represented in Fig. 3. Figure 4. Pin diagram of AT Mega 8L.
Basically internal structure of AD622 consists of an (iv) LCD Display:
Instrumentation Amplifier circuit which can easily be obtained A LCD is a small low cost display. It is easy to
by connecting 3 OPAMP like LM741. interface with a micro-controller. Each module uses a 5x8 dot
matrix for each character position [9]. It can display 224
different characters and symbols including a cursor. Each
module also has a low power variable intensity LED backlight.
Power consumption is typically 1mA, 5V DC power supply.

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 2013 International Conference on Power, Energy and Control (ICPEC)
0.08

0.07
III. RESULTS Conventional Source Solar Source
0.06
The characteristics of the Load Cell were determined by

Current (mA)
studying the Output signal of Load Cell with various weights 0.05

applied to the Load Cell. 12V DC supply is applied for the 0.04
excitation of the Load Cell and the output is measured in mV
with the help of multimeter. A plot between Load and output 0.03

signal revealed that the output varies linearly with the load 0.02
applied to the load cell.
Fig 5 shows the variation of current and output 0.01

voltagewith varies wieght ranging from 0-30 Kg. Fig. 6 shows 0

the variation between load and power. The results shows that 1 1.43 1.89 2.21 2.65 3.08 3.46 3.82
Voltage (V)
there is linear variation between load and power. Fig 7 shows
Figure 7. V-I characteristics of solar and conventional
the Comparison of V-I Characteristics of solar source &
source.
Conventional Sources. It is concluded that consumed by solar
IV. CONCLUSION
panel is less than conventional energy source.
The results of studies carried out for the design and
4 0.07
development of low cost, Solar based automatic weighing
0.06 Machine indicated that the equipment could be used as
3 Laboratory weigher. Performance analysis indicated that there
0.05
was no significant difference in mean value of measurements
Current (mA)
Output (V)

0.04 from set weights (10, 20, 30 Kilograms) and measured weights
2
at the 95% probability level. Minimum average percentage
0.03
error (< 0.2%) was observed for 10, 20 and 30 Kilograms
Output Current 0.02 weight measurements. The measurements revealed that
1
weighing of product by Solar digital weigher is very precise.
0.01
Solar digital Automatic weighing Machine can be used for
0 0 weighing and dosing of any products up to 30 Kg.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Weight(kg) ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Figure 5. Current and Voltage Variation for
Our thanks to MANIT for providing necessary facilities and
differentWeight.
to Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD),
0.3 Government of India for financial support.
0.25
0.25 REFERENCES
0.21
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