TouchDRO sharing scales with another Display

[Archer60x]

I could not find this question so it is probably a stupid one.

Can i connect the TouchDRO bluetooth interface AND a physical DRO display to one set of scales? A Y cable on the scales to send the signals to both?

Best of both worlds? Use touchDRO app via bluetooth when i need to. Then use the DRO display when i need to?

Chad

 

[ycroosh]

I could not find this question so it is probably a stupid one.

Can i connect the TouchDRO bluetooth interface AND a physical DRO display to one set of scales? A Y cable on the scales to send the signals to both?

Best of both worlds? Use touchDRO app via bluetooth when i need to. Then use the DRO display when i need to?

Chad

Short answer - yes, you can, but it's not that simple.
Long answer (or question) - why?

 

[Archer60x]

My tablet needs charged.
My kid is playing candy crush.
I dropped my tablet
Because we can?



I am sure there are use cases....

Like me being the newbie bouncing from your feature rich tablet back to the physical display. Learning how to use everything. Just a confidence booster. Maybe one display you zero differently then the other display.

 

[ycroosh]

My tablet needs charged.
My kid is playing candy crush.
I dropped my tablet
Because we can?



I am sure there are use cases....

Like me being the newbie bouncing from your feature rich tablet back to the physical display. Learning how to use everything. Just a confidence booster. Maybe one display you zero differently then the other display.

Well, so the problems you will need to solve:
If the other DRO has a proper input stage (i.e. is not just connecting the scales directly to the microcontroller), you are half way there. If not, you will need to add a high impedance input buffer.
The next thing is to figure out what the pull up/down resistors are in the other DRO. If they are less than 10-ish KOhms, you might need to do something about it (the scales' output stage might struggle with that).
Finally, the fun part - find a way to select the power supply source (both DROs will try to power the scales) and isolate one of the DROs from the mains ground to get rid of the ground loop.
How you'd do that depends on the other DRO, really. It's possible that it will have beefy enough 5V regulator to power the scales and the TouchDRO adapter. 5V that goes to the scales also goes to the v-reg that supples the rest of the circuit, so you can power the adapter through the scale's Vcc pin.

Hope this helps.

 

[Archer60x]

Well, so the problems you will need to solve:
If the other DRO has a proper input stage (i.e. is not just connecting the scales directly to the microcontroller), you are half way there. If not, you will need to add a high impedance input buffer.
The next thing is to figure out what the pull up/down resistors are in the other DRO. If they are less than 10-ish KOhms, you might need to do something about it (the scales' output stage might struggle with that).
Finally, the fun part - find a way to select the power supply source (both DROs will try to power the scales) and isolate one of the DROs from the mains ground to get rid of the ground loop.
How you'd do that depends on the other DRO, really. It's possible that it will have beefy enough 5V regulator to power the scales and the TouchDRO adapter. 5V that goes to the scales also goes to the v-reg that supples the rest of the circuit, so you can power the adapter through the scale's Vcc pin.

Hope this helps.

Yuriy, think about adding a pass through on the TouchDRO adapter for this concept of having an external Display and bluetooth at the same time. I think it could increase sales if people could run both at the same time. I guarantee there are people that want to try it, but keep thinking the will wait for their display to die then try it. If they can get into the TouchDRO and reduce the learning curve by allowing them to use the display they are used to using. Then they can slowly learn your App as they need/want too. Wont be long before the display manufactures add bluetooth and their own apps to their displays.