Todd K. Moyer
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2025
I'm a bit torn on this one. There is a lot of evidence of quality materials in this product, and you get a neat anodized extruded aluminum enclosure (though if you're not careful, the heads of the mounting screws could get in the way of attaching the terminal strip connectors). I think the thing is, there is sloppy manufacturing evident, lack of proper thought going into design, and just very poor documentation.See the photos... several of them show some kind of (assumed adhesive?) material that holds the circuit board inside the enclosure. But, if you want to switch between voltage and current output, you need to take the board out of the enclosure! By pushing with enough force, I was able to pop the board out, and switch "SW1" from current to voltage calibration.I was then able to get a reasonable signal out of a 100 kg load cell I have, with a 1.000 kg calibrated mass. I believe you could achieve 0.1% repeatability, if not better, with suitable care.Evidence of sloppy manufacturing:* See the sticky label on the side; it arrived partially peeled off.* Several photos through my microscope show what appears to be conformal coating. The photos are an attempt to show that the coating is applied in a haphazard fashion. For instance the 4-terminal device Q2 seems to have brush strokes on top of it. I'm not sure why you'd coat part of the circuit, and not the rest, but that appears to be what's going on here. Conformal coating for an amplifier this sensitive is probably a good idea, since you want to keep humidity/moisture out of the circuit, but I'm not confident this material has been properly applied.Poor forethought in design?* See the 2 photos with the blue trimming potentiometers shown, along with the little brass screw. There is white material, something like glue, applied in what appears to be an attempt to 'lock' the potentiometer setting. Presumably this means the amplifier was shipped already calibrated? But I think you need to calibrate to your particular load cell in virtually all instances, so this is not very helpful. You need to break the seal of the white glue to calibrate. And for certain, if you want to use the voltage output mode, you need to recalibrate, as this device comes configured for current calibration. So why did they glue the pots?You might hope for some explanation, but the instruction sheet is written in very poor English, and is only about a half-sheet of paper.If you're willing to plow through the difficulties, and the price is attractive to you, and you're not doing something critical, I think this amplifier can work for you. It is disappointing that it gets so close to being a real quality product.
Bill
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2024
This KooingTech Load Cell Amplifier, (4 to 20mA) ( 0 to 10V) is very well made. It is very sensitive and stable. When set up for voltage calibration the millivolt (1/1000V) digit is stable. There is fluctuation in the tenth of a milivolt digit. The case is aluminum extrusion. In order to change from current calibration to voltage calibration a jumper on the circuit board must be moved. This is a bit difficult because the circuit board is glued to the aluminum extrusion case. A pair of tweezers does the trick. It is easy to adjust the zero and span with the accessible potentiometers.