Wolfram Perrey | Solid state Iambic CW paddle with load cell sensors @MrPerrey | Uploaded 4 years ago | Updated May 07 2024
This is a first feasibility study to use load cells as solid state replacement of the common used mechanical paddle switches. Two 500g load cells are connected to cheap chines HX711 breakout boards. The HX711 breakout board includes a complete bridge amplifier and ADC converter with a simple serial data interface for sample readout and programming. The HX711 breakout board was slightly modified to work with a 3.3V supply and a increased sample rate of 200 sample/s. (Default sample rate is usually 9 samples/s and 5V supply) Data readout and signal processing of the HX711 load-cell amplifier is done with a cheap Bluepill board. The very fast STM32C103 core of the Bluepull board enables very neat DSP options to make the paddle to feel very sensitive and snappy. Paddle sensitivity and dynamic reaction ("snappiness") is freely adjustable in accordance of the preference of the operator and his sending speed. The CW operator on the video is not the best, I know, but the paddle reaction feels really grate!
This is a first feasibility study to use load cells as solid state replacement of the common used mechanical paddle switches. Two 500g load cells are connected to cheap chines HX711 breakout boards. The HX711 breakout board includes a complete bridge amplifier and ADC converter with a simple serial data interface for sample readout and programming. The HX711 breakout board was slightly modified to work with a 3.3V supply and a increased sample rate of 200 sample/s. (Default sample rate is usually 9 samples/s and 5V supply) Data readout and signal processing of the HX711 load-cell amplifier is done with a cheap Bluepill board. The very fast STM32C103 core of the Bluepull board enables very neat DSP options to make the paddle to feel very sensitive and snappy. Paddle sensitivity and dynamic reaction ("snappiness") is freely adjustable in accordance of the preference of the operator and his sending speed. The CW operator on the video is not the best, I know, but the paddle reaction feels really grate!
