Cables & Accessories

Repair orders and specification orders behave differently, and mixing them up is where most of the friction on this category comes from. If something failed, the old part carries its own answer: an adapter's label states voltage, current and polarity; a cable assembly's connector states pin count; an option card is printed with the models it fits. Photographing that label before ordering saves more time than any filter on this page.

If you are specifying instead, the constraint runs the other way. Start from the indicator model, because it decides which interface modules exist for the instrument at all, and from the load cell, because it decides the cable, the fixture and the foot thread.

Three items in this catalog are model-locked in a way that is easy to miss. The option modules are built for named groups of indicators and are not interchangeable across the range. The NP3-6 battery fits only the rechargeable models, not the ones that run on AA alkalines. And the DBSL load buttons and tension bases are sized by the load cell's capacity band, so a 1t to 5t button will not serve a 30t load cell.

A strain-gauge load cell is a four-wire device at heart: two conductors carry excitation out to the bridge, two carry the millivolt signal back. Our bulk replacement cable is 4-conductor, 24 AWG, on a 500-foot spool, which covers standard installations and is what most platform scales are built with.

Six-wire cable adds a sense pair, and it exists for one reason: copper has resistance. Over a long run, the current the bridge draws produces a voltage drop in the excitation conductors, so the load cell sees less than the indicator thinks it is supplying. Since the load cell's output is proportional to its excitation, that drop reads as a span error, and it moves with temperature because copper resistance moves with temperature. Sense lines let the indicator measure the voltage actually arriving at the load cell and correct for it. Long runs, outdoor runs and installations where the cable is spliced at a junction box are the cases that need them.

Two practical rules follow from that. Do not cut and splice a factory load cell cable to shorten it unless the system is recalibrated afterwards, because on a 4-wire installation the cable resistance is part of the calibration. And do not add length by joining two runs in a wiring box without a proper terminal and strain relief; a corroding splice in a wet room is the classic intermittent fault.

Where a cable has to be disconnected routinely, buy the connector rather than making one. The 5-pin quick disconnect cable is 18 feet total, a one-foot pigtail on the instrument side and 17 feet on the other, and it exists so a stainless indicator can be lifted off the scale base for cleaning without disturbing the wiring.

This is the short version. The Cables page carries the full treatment: the five-step signal path, when a run genuinely needs six wires, the routing and single-point grounding rules, and all six cables side by side.

This is the largest group in the catalog and the one with the most expensive mistakes in it, because the modules look interchangeable and are not. Order by indicator model first, protocol second. RS-485 half duplex is built for the TI-500E Plus, TI-500E SS and TI-1520; RS-485 isolated is a different part for the TI-700K and TI-1680. USB and Ethernet are for the TI-500 RF-SS and TI-1680. Even Bluetooth at the same range splits into two part numbers, one for the TI-500 RF-SS and TI-1680 and another for the TI-500 RF, FDI and TI-700K.

Once the model is fixed, the protocol follows what is on the other end. A ticket printer, a remote display or a PC log needs nothing extra, because RS-232C is standard across the range; add the isolated RS-232 module only where ground potential differs between the two ends, which is common between buildings and around large drives.

A PLC or a process controller wants analog. The active card sources its own signal; the loop-powered card is fed by the receiving device, which is what a lot of installed 4-20 mA loops expect. A SCADA system or several instruments on one run wants RS-485 Modbus RTU, which multi-drops and survives electrical noise far better than RS-232.

Two options are not communications at all. Relay outputs switch a feeder or a valve at a target weight, which is how simple batching gets done without a PLC in the loop. And Time/Date/Print Formats is a firmware option for the TI-500E Plus and TI-500E SS, which matters when the ticket has to carry a timestamp for records rather than just a number.

Voltage has to be exact. Transcell instruments run at 6, 9 or 12 V DC depending on the model, and an adapter one step up is not a safe approximation. Current is a ceiling, not a target, so a 9 V 3 A adapter will happily run a device that draws 500 mA, while a 9 V 100 mA adapter feeding a 500 mA load will run hot, sag under load and produce readings that drift as it warms.

Barrel gender is the detail most often ordered wrong. We stock both: adapters described as female barrel and adapters described as male connector are not substitutes for each other. Check the plug on the instrument before ordering, or read the description on the old adapter.

Instruments with an internal supply take a mains cord instead, which is why the catalog carries four: NEMA 5-15 for standard grounded US outlets, NEMA 1-15 for ungrounded two-pin, CEE 7/16 for continental Europe and BS 1363 for the UK. Shipping an instrument abroad usually means shipping the right cord with it, not an adapter on the end of a US one.

Battery-powered models split into two families. The AA-alkaline models, such as the TI-500 and TI-500 RF, take no accessory from us at all. The rechargeable models take the NP3-6 sealed 6 V, 3 Ah pack, which fits the TI-500 SL, TI-500 BWL and WB5040-SWP, plus the legacy TI-500BW, TI-1510, TI-1200, TI-1000 and TI-1001. A sealed pack that has been left flat for months rarely comes back, so on a scale that is used seasonally the spare is worth stocking.

A load cell measures the force that reaches it, so anything in the load path is part of the measurement. Feet are specified by thread, diameter and material. Most of the range is 1/2-20 UNF with a 2 inch stem; the 3-1/4 inch polyurethane foot for 10K load cells is 3/4-16 UNF. Polyurethane grips and damps, which suits benches and portable platforms. Captured ball feet, in alloy steel or stainless, let the platform settle and self-align on an uneven floor instead of loading one corner, which is what a floor scale in an older building normally needs. The 2-3/8 inch stainless captured ball foot is NTEP certified, which is the one to specify when the finished scale has to be legal for trade.

Fixtures do the same job at the load cell. The DBSL load button is a radiused dome that threads into the centreline of the load cell on an M16 x 1.5 thread, and it exists to force a compression load down the loading axis rather than at a slight angle, which is a real and repeatable source of error on pancake load cells. Three capacity bands are stocked: 1t to 5t, 10t to 20t, and 30t.

The DBSL tension base converts the same compression load cell into a bidirectional one. The load cell bolts to the base through the M6 bolt circle on its circumference, and the base then carries a central M24 x 1.5 thread, so the assembly can be fixtured and loaded in tension as well as compression.

One more item lives in this group and belongs in every service kit. A load cell simulator substitutes a known, stable bridge signal for the real load cell. If the indicator reads correctly on the simulator, the instrument is good and the fault is in the load cell, the cable or the junction box. That single test removes most of the guesswork from a service call, and ours ships with its cable.