Raspberry-Pi-powered-Tensile-Machine

💡 Tensile Test Machine powered by a Raspberry Pi!

A low-cost, open-source tensile testing machine designed to measure the Young’s modulus of soft materials — perfect for classrooms, underfunded labs, or makerspaces. It uses a Raspberry Pi for data acquisition and offers a hands-on introduction to electronics, programming, and materials science.

🔧 Features

Measures force and displacement to calculate Young’s modulus
Raspberry Pi-powered for real-time data acquisition
Designed for educational and experimental use
Budget-friendly and easy to build

📚 Background

Young’s modulus (elasticity modulus) describes how a material stretches or deforms under stress. It’s a fundamental property used in engineering and science — from construction to biomedical devices. Measuring it helps us understand how materials behave under force.

Professional-grade tensile testing machines are expensive and inaccessible for many schools and labs. That’s why we built this simplified, affordable version using commonly available parts — including a Raspberry Pi.

This project introduces students and makers to:

Hands-on mechanical testing
Basic electronics
Python programming
Data collection and analysis

🚀 Ready to Get Started?

👉 Full Guide: Setting up the Raspberry Pi

🔌 Step 1: Update your Raspberry Pi

Before installing anything, make sure your Pi is fully updated:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo reboot

🧰 Step 2: Install Required Libraries for the GUI

Use pip and apt to install all the dependencies:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-pyqt5
pip install RPi.GPIO matplotlib hx711
sudo apt-get install python3-rpi.gpio

📥 Step 3: Download the GUI Files

If you’d like to save the GUI in your Documents folder:

cd ~/Documents
git clone https://github.com/YarelisAcevedo/Raspberry-Pi-powered-Tensile-Machine.git

▶️ Step 4: Run the GUI

Navigate into the GUI folder and start the program:

cd Raspberry-Pi-powered-Tensile-Machine/GUI
python3 main.py