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TrackWeight: Turn your MacBook's trackpad into a digital weighing scale

github.com

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Re: TrackWeight: Turn your MacBook's trackpad into a digital weighing scale

#61

Post by cryptoz »

benoau wrote: post #3

There used to be iPhone apps that did something similar - https://www.theverge.com/2015/10/28/9625340/iphone-6s-gravit...

You can use any phone with a barometer to make a scale. All iPhones since the 6, and all the Pixels, and Samsung flagships have one. You get a zip loc bag, blow some air into it, put your phone in running an app that shows the pressure in a big font (so you can see it through the ziploc). Then you put an object of known weight on it like a quarter (balanced carefully on top of the air-filled ziploc) and note the pressure change on the display. With that, I think the weight / pressure change scales linearly, so you can now weigh anything small that you can balance on the ziploc.

Re: TrackWeight: Turn your MacBook's trackpad into a digital weighing scale

#62

Post by svnt »

namdnay wrote: post #17
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #8

I think this is neat, but only in a Rube Goldberg machine sort of way. The instructions are: 1. Open the scale 2. Rest your finger on the trackpad 3. While mainting finger contact, put your object on the trackpad 4. Try and put as little pressure on the trackpad while still maintaining contact. This is the weight of your object That is, the pressure sensors only work if it detects capacitance, so you need to be touch…

Could a small piece of conductive foam or some cleverly layered tin foil+paper work? So put the object on the shim (which has a known or even negligeable weight)

No, you need roughly a small human's worth of ground mass for most capacitive touch sensors to register a touch.

Re: TrackWeight: Turn your MacBook's trackpad into a digital weighing scale

#63

Post by gxs »

cluckindan wrote: post #56
05 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardware cost+extra weight (need to make the glass thicker to be able to handle extra force and not push on the display). Turns out nobody was really using it because discoverability sucked..

Nobody? Really? It’s definitely the UX feature I miss most on modern iPhones. Long press feels janky in comparison.

Really? For me it’s the “open image in new tab” option in safari

Have no idea why you’d go out of your way to do that other than placating image sharing services

Re: TrackWeight: Turn your MacBook's trackpad into a digital weighing scale

#66

Post by dotancohen »

doubled112 wrote: post #40
dotancohen wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used carrots and cucumbers as a capacitive stylus while wearing gloves. It's the reason why I love Note and S Ultra phones - the stylus. I'm using it now.

The recipe was on your phone/tablet and there was no way you were taking your gloves off?

Nice. No, I preemptively armed myself with a carrot before taking the dog for a walk in cold weather.

I only had a non-stylus smartphone for a year and a half before whimpering back to the Note series. It's what keeps me in the Samsung sphere of influence.

Re: TrackWeight: Turn your MacBook's trackpad into a digital weighing scale

#67

Post by throwanem »

doubled112 wrote: post #40
dotancohen wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used carrots and cucumbers as a capacitive stylus while wearing gloves. It's the reason why I love Note and S Ultra phones - the stylus. I'm using it now.

The recipe was on your phone/tablet and there was no way you were taking your gloves off?

Ever try putting gloves back on when your hands and the gloves are both wet? This is why I print recipes on the laser, and just take the paper version downstairs.

Re: TrackWeight: Turn your MacBook's trackpad into a digital weighing scale

#69

Post by volemo »

jordanmorgan10 wrote: post #64

Back when we had 3D Touch, there was UIForce which did this. I still lament the loss of 3D Touch to this day :-(

It was such a useful feature! I mourn it every time I try to save a picture from Google and iOS selects nonexistent text around it. :(
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