Application note from Analog Devices to calculate for inclination angle from a single, dual or triple-axis accelerometers. Link here (PDF) One common method for determining the tilt or inclination of a system is to integrate the output of a gyroscope. Although this method is straightforward, error associated with null bias stability can quickly compound as […]
Tag Archives: accelerometer
App note: Utilizing the power shutdown capabilities of the Kionix tri-axis accelerometers
Conserve power on using accelerometers with the help of this app note from Kionix by shutting it down on specific operating duty cycle. Link here (PDF) Kionix tri-axis accelerometers feature a power shutdown capability. Even with their typically low current draw, there are still applications that may require even less power consumption. For these applications, […]
App note: Multiplexing Tri-Axis accelerometer outputs
App note from Kionix on reading multiple accelerometer by a single ADC using off the shelf chip or accelerometer built-in multiplexer. Link here (PDF) A Kionix tri-axis accelerometer with analog outputs provides three output voltages (Xout,Yout, Zout) which are proportional to the respective accelerations in those directions. However, with three analog outputs to digitize, it […]
App note: Tilt-Sensing with Kionix MEMS accelerometers
Kionix low-g acceloreometers used as tilt-sensor. Link here (PDF) Accelerometers have countless potential tilt-sense applications in today’s motion-enabled world. Tilt-sensing opportunities exist in a variety of industries, such as automotive, consumer electronics and military/aerospace, and include: • Vehicle stability systems • Inclinometers • Cell phone/PDA screen navigation • Motion-enabled game play • Tilt-enabled computer mouse/pointer […]
App note: Orientations and Rotations
App note from Kionix on the introduction of most common method in determining orientation and rotations in an accelerometer. Link here (PDF) The fact that accelerometers are sensitive to the gravitational force on the device allows them to be used to determine the attitude of the sensor with respect to the reference gravitational vector. This […]
App note: Using two tri-axis accelerometers for rotational measurements
App note from Kionix on utilizing 2 linear accelerometers to determine angular rotational rates. Link here (PDF) In many applications, customers would like to measure rotational motions (angular velocity, angular acceleration) in addition to linear motions. Most often, gyroscopes are added to their end product to obtain the rotational information. In some instances, customers already […]
App note: Embedded orientation detection using the MMA8450Q
NXP’s accelerometer chip MMA8450Q, provides orientation detection on handheld devices. Link here (PDF) This application note targets the portrait/landscape orientation detection feature which has become standard in many hand-held electronic devices. Additionally, this application note aims to explain uses as well as highlight some of the challenges of designing an embedded algorithm into the sensor. […]
Arduino Library for Freescale’s MMA7361 3 axis accelerometer
Rohit Gupta wrote a basic library for using MMA7361 3axis Accelerometer with Arduino, that is available at Github: This library helps you to easily play with the almost universal 3 axis accelerometer available in most Hobby markets that is based on Freescale’s MMA7361. In order to get in working you have to pull-up the sleep […]
App note: Free-fall sensing for drop-force modeling using a Kionix MEMS tri-axis accelerometer
Here’s another app note (PDF) from Kionix on their tri-axis accelerometer applications. An earlier set-up was used in the application note’s experiment. This application note describes how to use a Kionix MEMS tri-axis accelerometer as a free-fall sensor for drop force modeling applications. Required theory, equations, and sample event signatures are provided with this note […]
App note: Interfacing the KXP94 or KXR94 tri-axis accelerometer with the Texas Instruments MSP430F149 microprocessor to measure tilt and other motions
Capture motions with Kionix’ Tri-Axis Accelerometers and a TI’s MSP430F149. App note here (PDF) Kionix linear accelerometers function on the principle of differential capacitance. Acceleration causes displacement of a silicon structure resulting in a change in capacitance. A signal-conditioning CMOS technology ASIC detects and transforms changes in capacitance into an analog output voltage which is […]
App note: Accelerometer Errors
Temperature dependence, Sensor bias, Ratiometric error due to supply voltage variation and etc. These are some of the errors made by accelerometers, here’s an app note from Kionix to help you deal with it. Although everyone would like them to be, sensors are not perfect. Understanding the accelerometer’s errors is just as important as understanding […]
App note: Warranty Protection Using a Kionix MEMS Tri- Axis Accelerometer
Shock and vibration detection as part of product warranty protection, these sensors can be part of any drop sensitive devices i.e. Hard disk drives to record shock instances for warranty claims. Here’s an interesting app note (PDF) from Kionix. This application note describes how to use a Kionix MEMS tri-axis accelerometer as part of a […]
OLED watch is alive!
Jared Sanson posted an update on his OLED watch. He writes: Here’s a few features of my firmware: USB HID Communication (No PC drivers required!) Watch face for telling the time (Kind of required…) Date & Upcoming events Accelerometer reading RTOS Kernel debug info And some features planned for the future: Bluetooth 4.0 (Still need to […]
DIY MMA7455L 3-axis accelerometer breakout
Here is a DIY breakout board for the MMA7455L, an inexpensive three-axis accelerometer. It’s got all the decoupling capacitors and pull-up resistors specified by the accelerometer datasheet.There’s also an interfacing tutorial for the Arduino. We like this chip because it’s cheap, but the LGA package is difficult to solder. If you’re not up for soldering […]
uPOV persistence of vision with an accelerometer
uPOV is a persistence of vision device with an accelerometer. This is the same concept we’re trying for with the USB POV Toy. The problem I had with most of the current POV units is that they required skill to use effectively, timing your swings so that the message only goes in the one direction, […]
A guide for using IMU devices
Starlino has a great article on using gyroscopes and accelerometers. I’ll try try to cover few basic but important topics in this article: – what does an accelerometer measure – what does a gyroscope (aka gyro) measure – how to convert analog-to-digital (ADC) readings that you get from these sensor to physical units (those would […]
Dice Puzzle Box
Deddies Lab has a puzzle box project based on the an Atmega328, an accelerometer and a servo controlled locking system. The object is to get inside a dice-labeled box by tilting it in the correct sequence thereby entering the secret code. When the correct code has been detected by the accelerometer a servo unlocks the […]
Explore I2C/SPI accelerometer (MMA7456L) with Bus Pirate
Starlino demos the Freescale MMA7456L accelerometer with an I2C/SPI interface with the Bus Pirate. Get a Bus Pirate v3b for $30, including worldwide shipping at Seeed Studio. Adafruit also has the Bus Pirate and probe cables in stock and ready to ship.
Bus Pirate: Wii Nunchuck quick guide
See the latest version in the documentation wiki. Scorpia shared his experience interfacing a Wii Nunchuck with the Bus Pirate I2C library. He used Seeed Studio’s breakout board that brings all the Nunchuck signals to an easy-to-tap header. Here’s some alternatives to the breakout board. Bus Pirate Wii Nunchuck breakout MOSI/SDA D (SDA) CLOCK/SCL C […]