davorvr / pasta-bridge

PASTA HX711-to-USB bridge

PASTA HX711-to-USB bridge

This is a repository which contains Arduino code for a bridge which forwards HX711 data to a PC over a USB connection, based on the NodeMCU ESP-32S board, as used in the papers "Repurposing a digital kitchen scale for neuroscience research: a complete hardware and software cookbook for PASTA" and "griPASTA: A hacked kitchen scale for quantification of grip strength in rodents"

Papers:

• Virag D, Homolak J, Kodvanj I, Babic Perhoc A, Knezovic A, Osmanovic Barilar J, et al. Repurposing a digital kitchen scale for neuroscience research: a complete hardware and software cookbook for PASTA. Sci Rep 2021;11:2963. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82710-6
• Homolak J, Virag D, Kodvanj I, Matak I, Perhoc AB, Knezovic A, et al. A hacked kitchen scale-based system for quantification of grip strength in rodents. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.23.217737

How-to videos:

• Cooking PASTA: hardware how-to
• Fast PASTA: converting an HX711 module to 80 SPS

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How to set up PASTA bridge

1. Download and install bogde's HX711 library: Download the latest release, open the Arduino IDE, go to Sketch > Include library > Add ZIP library and select the downloaded ZIP.
2. Clone or download this repository as a ZIP archive and unpack it.
3. Load the hx711-calibration.ino sketch, set the hx_sck_pin and hx_do_pin variables according to the Arduino pins that you have connected the HX711 board to, and upload the sketch to your Arduino board.
4. Run the serial monitor (Tools > Serial Monitor), set it to 115200 baud, reset the Arduino board using the onboard reset button and follow the on-screen instructions. Note the calibration value.
5. Load the pasta-bridge.ino sketch, set the hx_sck_pin and hx_do_pin variables and set calibration_value to the calibration value you just obtained. Finally, upload the sketch.

Requires:

• bogde's HX711 library