Computer-based Reverse Engineering of a Manual Weighting Spring Balance.

Abstract

Every man from birth till date has been affected by weight and weight measurement in one way or the other. Weight is a body's relative mass or the quantity of matter contained by it, giving rise to a downward force. A weighting spring balance is a machine used to measure the weight of an object. Some weighing balances are manual weighing balance and the others are digital weighing balance. Computer based reverse engineering of the weighing spring balance is a systematic reconstruction of a manual spring weighting balance to include a digital hardware circuit that can interfaces the spring balance to the computer. This research work shows the benefits of interfacing a weighting balance to a digital computer. Weights of objects can be read directly off the computer and the records of transactions kept in the computer. Computer based reverse engineering of a manual weighting spring balance involves a systematic study of the existing weighting balance, the design and development of the hardware interface and the development of the software to read from the manual spring balance. The researchers came up with digital encoder interface that connects to the computer through the parallel port. The weighting spring balance spindle that indicates the weight of the measured object is connected with a conductor that runs through the digital encoder. Modularization research methodology is used in this research work were the research work is broken down into modules; the different modules were designed, developed, tested and integrated. The result of the research is a manual spring balance that can be interfaced to a computer so as to directly capture the data of a weighed object and other associated data or parameter into a digital computer.

Keywords: Reverse Engineering, Weighting Spring balance, Systematic reconstruction, Digital interface, Digital encoder.