Accelerometer recommendation wanted

D

dennis

Member
Can anyone recommend a low cost accelerometer that is easy to interface to a picaxe ? The application is that I want to make a set up to balance my milling machine plus generally experiment. Single axis would be fine and a range of 2g should be plenty. There is plenty of mounting space and maybe there is something mounted on a breakout board that could be used.
Thanks Dennis
 
ADXL345 is very easy to interface.

Here is a demo I wrote a while back ....

Buzby

Post in thread 'GY-521/MPU6050'

Here is a short video showing the effect on the X and Y accelerometers when the device is tilted +/- 90' on each axis.

When the board is level both traces are at zero.

The board is first tilted 90' left, so the blue trace (rotation around Y axis) drops to -2047. The board is then returned to level, then to 90' right, and the blue trace moves to +2047. The board is then returned to level.

After that, the board is tilted forward and backward 90' each way (rotation around the X axis) and the red trace shows a similiar effect.

These effects could be used to build a spirit level, or a...
 
I did some experiments with ADXL335 (3.3V working, X, Y and Z axis analogue outputs). They work well.

I have over 100 of these if you want some - they were originally bought for a project that did not go ahead. (They were paid for by the project, so did not cost me anything.)
 
Thanks Buzby and inglewoodpete the ADXL345 looks a lot easier for me to attempt than the GY-521/MPU6050 I downloaded the data sheet and (as usual) partially understand it. I plan to mount the chip horizontally and just use the Z axis to measure acceleration vertically.
Is this a correct interpretation of the datasheet which states- the SENSITIVITY (RATIOMETRIC) Zoutput sensitivity is typ 300mV/g and the "ZERO g BIAS LEVEL(RATIOMETRIC) is 1.5V
Does that mean on a fixed Hz surface I can expect 1.5 V at rest and if acceleration is upwards at 2g about 2.1V and if downwards at 2g about 0.9V ?
If that is the case it would simplify processing.
inglewoodpete thanks very much for the offer. I have never worked with LFCSP before and think it might be better if I got a couple of breakout boards to simplify the soldering.
 

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I'm not sure if the mV/g readings are useful, as the device just returns numbers over the I2C connection.

It's been a while since I last used ADXL345, but I seem to remember it returned +/- 2047 for a rotation of +/- 90', with a value of 0 being horizontal'.

Breakout boards are available on all the usual sites !
 
Buzby said:
I'm not sure if the mV/g readings are useful, as the device just returns numbers over the I2C connection.

It's been a while since I last used ADXL345, but I seem to remember it returned +/- 2047 for a rotation of +/- 90', with a value of 0 being horizontal'.

Breakout boards are available on all the usual sites !
Click to expand...
Sorry I made a typo and intend to use the ADXL335 as suggested by inglewoodpete since it looked simpler to use with analogue outputs available.
 
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