ARC Digital scales converted to mains power.

[Chris BarryParticipant @chrisbarry]

Hi,

Hope this is in the correct section and I’ve not found a thread about this before.

ive got a 6 inch scale from ARC on the Quill of my Bridgeport and it eats battery’s, my question is can I run this off a power supply, it’s got a micro USB port on the side and is powered by a internal button cell CR2032 3v.

I've emailed ARC but I’m impatient so I thought I’d ask the knowledge on here, below is a link to the ones I’m talking about.

**LINK**

TIA

Chris

[Chris BarryParticipant @chrisbarry]

Has anyone done this and how,

[John RutzenParticipant @johnrutzen76569]

I've got a similar one on my mill and on my vertical height gauge. I'm just in the habit of turning them off as soon as I've made the reading.

[Chris BarryParticipant @chrisbarry]

Hi John,

I thought I did turn it off and don’t often use the quill but it appears to turn on of it’s own accord, I’ll try and be more careful about turning it off but it’s seems a waste off battery’s being by a plug socket

cheers

chris

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

micro USB wall wart otherwise known as a phone charger

[Chris BarryParticipant @chrisbarry]

Cheers Dave, just wanted to check that it wouldn’t kill it before just diving straight in with that, will give it a try.

cheers

Chris

[Peter SpinkParticipant @peterspink21088]

Surprised – current draw in these scales is tiny and batteries usually last for ages.

Have you put in a new battery? Maybe original was duff.

[Stuart Smith 5Participant @stuartsmith5]

Chris

I think it may be worth waiting to check with ARC before using a USB phone charger.

I have the ones from ARC with a separate display unit **LINK**

I have just made a circuit with an Arduino to use these with a tablet computer running the Touchdro app so I had to check the volts and pin outs on the micro usb connector. There are 4 wires – ground, 3 volts , clock and data.

The one you have may be different but if the same, you would need a 3volt supply.

Stuart

[Chris BarryParticipant @chrisbarry]

Cheers for the replies,

Peter, I’ve tried a new battery and it worked for a couple of months and then died, there’s power sockets on the mill and it seems a sensible move to put it onto a mains supply rather than going through battery’s, my height gauge seems to go through them at a similar speed.

Stuart, that’s exactly what I was looking for, I thought a 3v supply would be required,I’ll wait till ARC confirm but knocking up a 3v supply and a straight USB to micro USB lead would be ideal. I like having the display on the quill instead of with the rest of the DRO for drilling.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Dave Halford on 10/04/2020 21:01:09:

micro USB wall wart otherwise known as a phone charger

No they do not use USB it's a propriety interface (yes bad choice of connector, but better than the old style) and I think it uses a different voltage.

Wait and see what Arc say.

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Dave Halford on 10/04/2020 21:01:09:

micro USB wall wart otherwise known as a phone charger

No they do not use USB it's a propriety interface (yes bad choice of connector, but better than the old style) and I think it uses a different voltage.

Wait and see what Arc say.

Neil

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

If you buy their remote display from this list the set includes a power supply for the display. I don’t think my separate readers are battery powered at the moment. I do occasionally find anomalies with the operation, but they are good enough for most things I do.

**LINK**

Best to ask ARC about the specifics, I would advise.

[Chris BarryParticipant @chrisbarry]

Cheers for the info, as I said I have emailed ARC and there is no rush in this, just the pondering of a Friday evening and if someone else had done it before. The lockdown is just giving me a chance to bring some further order to the workshop and this was on the list.

thanks again for all the replies.

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

I dunno about these particular ones, but I have a pair of scales on my mill that connect to a pair of readout units. The readout units are powered by an internal lithium battery, actually a standard Nokia phone battery. I've tried to arrange to run those off a mains supply, but get jittery readings which seems to indicate problems with mains hum. Making sure everything is grounded correctly without loops doesn't help. I've never managed to figure out what is going on, despite having worked with this sort of thing lots in my career. I suspect that the long length of the scales makes quite a nice antennae to pick up any noise that is floating around.

John

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