RETIRED - Load Cell Amplifier HX711 Breakout Hookup Guide
This Tutorial is Retired!
This tutorial covers concepts or technologies that are no longer current. It's still here for you to read and enjoy, but may not be as useful as our newest tutorials.
View the updated tutorial: Load Cell Amplifier HX711 Breakout Hookup Guide
Sarah Al-Mutlaq Getting Started
The HX711 load cell amplifier is used to get measurable data out from a load cell and strain gauge. This Hookup Guide will show you how to get started with this amplifier using some of the various load cells we carry at SparkFun.
What You Will Need:
For this simple hook up guide we will just be hooking up a load cell with the HX711 amplifier, and showing how you would hook up four load cells with a combinator board and the HX711 amplifier. To follow along, you'll need:
- SparkFun Load Cell Amplifier - HX711
- Any Strain Gauge Based Load Cell:
If you are planning on using load sensors1 you will need to obtain or purchase four units. We recommend our Combinator Board to make it easy to turn the four strain gauges into a wheatstone bridge type load cell. (Single strain gauge load cells only have three wires instead of four.)
- (Optional) Combinator Board
Suggested Reading
If you aren't familiar with the following concepts, we recommend reviewing them before beginning to work with the HX711 Load Cell Amplifier Board.
- Load Cell Basics
- Getting Started with Load Cells
- Installing the Arduino IDE
- How to Power Your Project
- Battery Technologies
- How to Solder
1. [Strain gauges are two wired organized metal foil or wires that are set up in such a way that the resistance changes when it is compressed or stretched. When a strain gauge is placed on something (usually metallic in nature) its resistance changes based on the stress experienced by that something. When a single strain gauge is hooked up to a metallic cell, we are calling that a load sensors, which have three output wires. Load cells usually has four strain gauges hooked up in a wheatstone bridge formation, which have four output wires. For more information on load cells, strain gauges, and wheatstone bridges see our tutorial.]↩