Digital strain gauge technology

Mantracourt  has announced the availability of their Strain Gauge to USB Converter (DSCUSB), a compact, high performance digital signal conditioner with USB connectivity aimed at applications requiring high accuracy measurement. The DSCUSB converts a strain gauge sensor input to a digital USB serial output. Having been developed and applied to several specialist applications, Mantracourt's digital strain gauge technology is now available off the shelf, along with a dedicated PC based data logging software package.

"The DSCUSB is ideal for all strain gauge bridge based sensors including strain, weight, load, force, torque, pressure & displacement," said Kelly Voysey, Marketing Co-Ordinator at Mantracourt. "Typical applications for the DSCUSB will be those requiring simple sensor connectivity in desk top settings such as test & measurement, R & D and laboratory environments. For several of our customers it's proving to be a very powerful technology that enables the accurate monitoring, collection and analysis of critical data."

Mantracourt are specialists in the design and manufacture of electronics for measurement technologies including strain gauge, temperature, pressure, voltage, current, potentiometer, rate, flow, LVDT and displacement in either analogue, digital or wireless form.

The Strain Gauge to USB Converter is enclosed within a rugged metal case, making the device suitable for all indoor environments. It is a combined miniature precision strain-gauge conditioning amplifier and an analogue-to-digital converter with a USB serial interface. For more advanced use, the device has five-point temperature compensation and seven-point transducer linearisation algorithms, all available via the comm port. The strain gauge, load cell, pressure transducer and torque sensor may be programmed to produce an output in engineering units; real mV/V calibration may be applied.

The DSCUSB also features an onboard shunt calibration resistor. The resolution is selectable to one part in 66,000 and may be programmed to take up to 500 points per second, with programmable peak-and-trough recording built in. Mantracourt supply standard Windows DLLs for both native USB and virtual serial port communications with the modules.


“We can provide this technology in an OEM format for companies looking to integrate this technology into their own systems,” said Kelly Voysey, “Such an application has seen the DSCUSB integrated into weighing scales for a diet club, providing a simple solution for a chain of Diet & Health Clubs. Members of these clubs weigh-in at weekly meetings and the system automatically tracks their weight loss to help reach their weight loss goals."