Corner balancing on the cheap

M

mike_sno

Goblin Guru
Hi,

I'm looking into ways of corner balancing and need some help brainstorming ideas. I would love to build a corner balancing system which reads electrical load cells with an Arduino connected to a display. All the electronics and programming I can build myself with no help.

But looking at the mechanical design, I think I need some more ideas. Load cells for high weight are pretty expensive and for low weight are very cheap. $0.40 reach for up to 110lbs.

Now I'm debating on how to do this best. Either using like 6 of those in a sandwich between 2 plates. Problem how can I make sure that the weight is equal enough distributed and not one cell gets too much load.

Or my other idea is doing it with some kind of a lever mechanism. Maybe 1:10 that would allow up to 550lbs with 1 cell. I have a design in mind, but haven't put it on paper yet. Problem mechanical design way more complex as with the sandwich solution.

www.makerfabs.com

Load Cell-50kg

This Load Cell- load sensor, sometimes called a strain gauge, is the same one found in digital bathroom scales. This sensor can measure up to about 110 pounds.
www.makerfabs.com www.makerfabs.com

Leveling would in both cases need to be done manually. Calibration can be done within the software.
 
M

mike_sno

Goblin Guru
That's basically what I want to do. I think I just start putting 8 of the cells in a sandwich. With prefect distribution over all cells that would give 8x110lbs = 880lbs knowing that the weight will not be distributed equal it might end up around 600lbs should be enough for one rear tire.
 
duthehustle93

duthehustle93

Active Member
Are you trying to build a corner balancing system just to build one, or did you just want to corner balance cars on the cheap? If the latter...

I use these: https://www.amazon.com/My-Weigh-Xl-700-Talking-Bathroom/dp/B096CJB5CY/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3PRZ0HWRKCHGI&keywords=scale+700lbs&qid=1706645015&sprefix=scale+700lb,aps,157&sr=8-5&ufe=app_do:amzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc

For slider plates I use two linoleum tiles with grease between them... basically making a grease sandwhich. Make sure to have one slider plate per corner.

Because I'm extra cheap, and I'm only corner balancing ~once/year, I only bought two scales and will do one "axle" at a time. For the non-scaled "axle", I found some pavers that are the same height as the scales to act as mock scales, so each corner is at the same height.

I've corner balanced several cars using this setup and it's been surprisingly repeatable... maybe a bit cumbersome, but for how rarely I do it, they've been fine. So far all of our cars have an extremely low diagonal temperature delta off pyrometer data, which should imply that this quick/cheap corner balancing setup works to some extent. Just keep in mind that unless your corner balance is really off, the performance gain by correcting it usually is not going to be night and day.
 
duthehustle93

duthehustle93

Active Member
Sebnuts said:
You can get 660lb postal scales on Amazon for ~$50 as an even cheaper option.
Click to expand...
Nice! Having the screen on a cord would definitely be nice. I usually put the screen towards the center of the car so that the tire loads the center of the scale better (camber brings the center of pressure of the tire more inboard). I probably look pretty silly sprinting around my garage trying to get numbers. I can confirm the 700lb scales I linked above are great, but assuming they're repeatable, those 660lb ones would be way better.
 
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