Hello,

I am trying to take some measurements with some equipment that require a voltage input, and am having some trouble setting this up correctly with DT85 series 2.

According to what I have read, I thought I could do this by using the external input location. I have a regulated 10V source plugged into the External plug. and set up a channel for a load cell and configured with "E" for excitation.

I assumed once I set this up, and activated a measurement, that 10V differential would be available through the * and # pins on this measuring channel, however, it isn't. Is there something I am missing, or doing wrong? Thanks for any help!

Kevin

Never mind... I found out that the voltage is there, but only when the channel is active. Is there any way to make this voltage supplied to channels constantly through the board?

Hi Kevin,

Why not use the BGI or BGV channel types? They are specifically designed to power load cells.

Load cells and Whetstone bridge circuits are ratio metric. That is the output in proportional to the input Voltage so the actual excitation Voltage is not so important as long as you know what it is.

You don't need to supply continuous power to the load cells but you can if you want but you will have to wire the load cell external to the DT80. For best accuracy the excitation should be limited to 3 VDC and you must read the excitation Voltage and assign it as the bridge reference channel before reading the bridge output.

Cheers,
Roger