Acu-Rite is catching up to TouchDRO :)

[akjeff]

yes but is it transmitting over bluetooth?

No it's not on bluetooth. Didn't say this was technically practical today, but it will be eventually. I've strayed off topic enough. Apologies to the OP.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

yes but is it transmitting over bluetooth?

I was going to go there, but I'm still waiting on my flying car.

 

[ycroosh]

I was going to go there, but I'm still waiting on my flying car.

This thread wandered off in a weird direction, but since y'all went there...
Capacitive scales with built-in BlueTooth LE would be pretty easy to make. They won't run as long as the traditional scales, though. The display in the Mitutoyo scales consumes nano or micro Amps of current when active. The rest of the circuit is probably pulling single-digit micro-amps. Bluetooth LE consumes about 15 milli Amps (3 orders of magnitude more) while transmitting. It can run on a small battery for months or years in sensors with infrequent refresh rates. For example, a meat thermometer only needs to update once every few seconds; a regular thermometer might need to refresh once every few minutes.
For a scale to be usable, it needs at least a 10 Hz refresh rate. Even BTLE will drain a small cell battery very quickly while the scale is in use.

Glass scales draw on the order of 50 mA at all times, and many magnetic scales can go up to 150 mA. To be practical, they will need a decently sized battery that is charged daily or at least every few days. Since those scales are usually mounted stationarily, there is a marginal benefit to making them wireless, so I don't expect to see wireless optical scales any time soon.

Also, to a larger point, the fact that TouchDRO (or Acu-Rite DRO) uses Bluetooth is a matter of convenience for the developers (me, or Acu-Rite folks). The fact that there is no wire between the adapter and the tablet is not that big of a deal. Bluetooth is easier to deal with. The profile is baked into Android and iOS (Although Apple makes using it a huge PITA), doesn't need any drivers, and the protocol is very reliable. USB needs special drivers, is more sensitive to noise with longer cable runs, and is a huge pain in the neck to implement correctly.
The interesting part about TouchDRO and Acu-Rite's tablet-based DRO is the "software running on a commodity tablet" part of it, which brings gobs of power and capabilities. They would be impractical/unfeasible with a hardware-based DRO.
I.e. the value proposition is "software-defined DRO systems are more powerful, capable, and flexible than traditional hardware-based DRO displays", not "Bluetooth DROs are better".

In reality, Bluetooth (classic) is slowly being pushed out by Bluetooth LE, except may be for use in Audio devices. BT LE has different characteristics, and might not be that great for DRO use (it has lower latency, but slower transfer speed and range, to name a few things).

Regards
Yuriy

 

[dabear3428]

No it's not on bluetooth. Didn't say this was technically practical today, but it will be eventually. I've strayed off topic enough. Apologies to the OP.

I was not being a wise @$$ just pointing out what you stated in that bluetooth transmitting eats a battery in quick order so i do not see battery powered as an option.