As you'll see if you read through the project history on this page and others, the vast majority of development effort went in to the flexure I tried a number of fabrication strategies, none of which were perfect but all of which taught me a great deal. CAD model, STEP format and Fusion 360 formatįabalance consists of several distinct subsystems: the flexure, the electronics, the firmware, and the enclosure.In particular, I'd like to thank Alfonso, for helping fabricate a number of aluminum parts on the CBA water jet cutter Jiri, for suggesting the AFM-like mirror-based optical feedback mechanism Jake, for helping steer me back from a few deep rabbit holes and Danica, for putting up with week after week of late nights at the lab. Many people helped support this project along the way. Importantly, the learnings of the last Fabalance iteration paint a clear path to the next steps in the project, which I hope to take after I catch up on sleep. But all of the subsystems worked, and the overall integration and packaging of the instrument can be considered a qualified success.
So, did it work? Short answer: I didn't get up to weighing anything, and crucially I never closed the control loop between the electromagnetic actuator and the optical sensor. Your browser does not support the video tag. Unlike common scales, analytical balances don't use load cells instead, they use an electromagnetic balance mechanism with an optical feedback loop, inferring mass by the power required to keep the weighing dish from moving. Most chemistry and biology labs have at least one decent analytical balance, easily identified by the sliding draft shield and prominent spot on the bench. As discussed in Week 1, analytical balances are a crucial scientific instrument that as of yet has not been reproduced in the open-source science community. For my final project, I designed and fabricated an open-source analytical balance I'm calling Fabalance.
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