Rope Tension Meter for Auto Tow

We at the Fault Line Flyers Glider Club in Briggs Texas want to build
or buy a tension meter for our auto tow operation.

Does anyone have experience that might be helpful.

Bill Snead
6W

On Dec 19, 3:52*pm, " wrote:
We at the Fault Line Flyers Glider Club in Briggs Texas want to build
or buy a tension meter for our auto tow operation.

Does anyone have experience that might be helpful.

Bill Snead
6W

If you have a dedicated tow vehicle, you might look at this

http://www.coloradosoaring.org/think...ey/default.htm

Frank Whiteley

Below is a link to the user manual for a Digital Tension gauge for
paragliding and hanggliding winches but it might be adaptable for auto
tow of sailplanes.

http://www.lemmen-engineering.nl/ima...Manual_DTM.pdf

Excerpt:
The Digital Tension Meter is specially designed for paragliding and
hangliding winches., however it can
also be used in other applications where force need to be measured.
The Digital tension meter is available
in two versions: single and double cable drum winches (DTM-S and DTM-
D).
The digital tension meter consists of three main parts: the analogue
panel display, the DTM box
(electronics) and one or two load cells. The DTM can be calibrated to
the application by means of three
buttons. After calibration the DTM stores the calibration values in
non-volatile memory.
The DTM-D automatically compares - after calibration- the measured
forces of the sensor inputs and
displays the highest force. The display value is updated every 25ms.
snip

At 22:52 19 December 2010, wrote:
We at the Fault Line Flyers Glider Club in Briggs Texas want to build
or buy a tension meter for our auto tow operation.

Does anyone have experience that might be helpful.

I have no direct experience (though I'm currently designing a load cell
setup for a winch), but a 2000 lb capacity S-type load cell like this
one:

http://www.icscale.com/td112.htm

In combination with an indicator like this:

http://www.icscale.com/XK315Aind.html

Should do the job.

Marc

On Dec 19, 6:47*pm, Marc Ramsey
wrote:
At 22:52 19 December 2010, wrote:

We at the Fault Line Flyers Glider Club in Briggs Texas want to build
or buy a tension meter for our auto tow operation.

Does anyone have experience that might be helpful.

I have no direct experience (though I'm currently designing a load cell
setup for a winch), but a 2000 lb capacity S-type load cell like this
one:

http://www.icscale.com/td112.htm

In combination with an indicator like this:

http://www.icscale.com/XK315Aind.html

Should do the job.

Marc

Marc,

What you describe was in the system that Udo built for auto launching
his ASW-27. I believe I have images of the system if anyone is
interested.

We used an auto tow system for launching Hang Gliders back in the Mid-
West. The vehicle hardware consisted of a small hydraulic cylinder
mounted on the rear bumper and a 5-inch diameter gauge mounted on the
hood with a CB antenna magnetic mount. They were connected with nylon
tubing and poly-flow fittings. We used this system for years without
any problems.

On Dec 19, 3:52*pm, " wrote:
We at the Fault Line Flyers Glider Club in Briggs Texas want to build
or buy a tension meter for our auto tow operation.

Does anyone have experience that might be helpful.

Bill Snead
6W

You can buy strain gauge based electronic tension systems with hand
held readout units either wired or wireless. They are sometimes
called "crane scales" or "dynomometers". Just Google "tension load
cell". You'll want a 0-2000 Lbf unit.

There are also clevis attached USB tension load cells which plug into
your laptop which come with appropriate software. The USB units are
nice since they are powered by the USB bus - just plug and play.

On Dec 20, 9:07*am, bildan wrote:
On Dec 19, 3:52*pm, " wrote:

We at the Fault Line Flyers Glider Club in Briggs Texas want to build
or buy a tension meter for our auto tow operation.

Does anyone have experience that might be helpful.

Bill Snead
6W

You can buy strain gauge based electronic tension systems with hand
held readout units either wired or wireless. *They are sometimes
called "crane scales" or "dynomometers". *Just Google "tension load
cell". *You'll want a 0-2000 Lbf unit.

There are also clevis attached USB tension load cells which plug into
your laptop which come with appropriate software. The USB units are
nice since they are powered by the USB bus - just plug and play.

There are others too. I've been looking for a similar inline load cell
and will probably purchase from http://www.futek.com/. I don't have
any relation to the company, but have been looking for a while and
their offerings appear to be pretty solid.
Craig

On Dec 20, 1:40*pm, Craig wrote:
On Dec 20, 9:07*am, bildan wrote:





On Dec 19, 3:52*pm, " wrote:

We at the Fault Line Flyers Glider Club in Briggs Texas want to build
or buy a tension meter for our auto tow operation.

Does anyone have experience that might be helpful.

Bill Snead
6W

You can buy strain gauge based electronic tension systems with hand
held readout units either wired or wireless. *They are sometimes
called "crane scales" or "dynomometers". *Just Google "tension load
cell". *You'll want a 0-2000 Lbf unit.

There are also clevis attached USB tension load cells which plug into
your laptop which come with appropriate software. The USB units are
nice since they are powered by the USB bus - just plug and play.

There are others too. I've been looking for a similar inline load cell
and will probably purchase fromhttp://www.futek.com/. *I don't have
any relation to the company, but have been looking for a while and
their offerings appear to be pretty solid.
Craig- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Great information

Thanks to all

Bill Snead

" wrote in message
:

On Dec 20, 1:40*pm, Craig wrote:
On Dec 20, 9:07*am, bildan wrote:





On Dec 19, 3:52*pm, " wrote:

We at the Fault Line Flyers Glider Club in Briggs Texas want to build
or buy a tension meter for our auto tow operation.

Does anyone have experience that might be helpful.

Bill Snead
6W

You can buy strain gauge based electronic tension systems with hand
held readout units either wired or wireless. *They are sometimes
called "crane scales" or "dynomometers". *Just Google "tension load
cell". *You'll want a 0-2000 Lbf unit.

There are also clevis attached USB tension load cells which plug into
your laptop which come with appropriate software. The USB units are
nice since they are powered by the USB bus - just plug and play.

There are others too. I've been looking for a similar inline load cell
and will probably purchase fromhttp://www.futek.com/. *I don't have
any relation to the company, but have been looking for a while and
their offerings appear to be pretty solid.
Craig- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Great information

Thanks to all

Bill Snead


Just out of curiosity, where is one of the items placed in the system???

They look like a big "S". Where do you attach what?

Larry