Patent ID: 8032313

Claim:
A method of determining the force and angle of a rope wrapped over a rod, the rod having a central bore there through, with at least two strain gauges mounted therein and angled relative to each other, the method comprising the steps of creating a calibration table of a plurality of outputs from each of said at least two strain gauges, given various rope tensions and rope angles, then, when encountering an unknown rope tension and rope angle, taking the output from one strain gauge and creating a set of data point angle and tension pairs from said plurality of calibration outputs that correspond to said one output from said one strain gauge, taking the output from the other strain gauge and creating a set of data point angle and tension pairs from said plurality of calibration outputs that correspond to said one output from said other strain gauge, and determining, based on where said two sets of data points intersect, the rope tension and rope angle.