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Understanding Accelerometers — Parallax Forums

Understanding Accelerometers

sjonesysjonesy Posts: 4
edited 2011-01-02 09:49 in Accessories
Hello everyone, this is probably a very novice question but i wanted to know what the ±3 g means when referring to an accelerometers sensitivity. Also, what are the limits on the accelerometers like the ones here at parallax, can they be used to record very quick acceleration for example. Any and all help would be much appreciated.
Thank you

Comments

  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2011-01-01 18:55
    'g' refers to gravitational acceleration - 9.80665 m/s^2 or so.

    What do you mean by "can they be used to record very quick acceleration for example."?
  • sjonesysjonesy Posts: 4
    edited 2011-01-01 19:08
    Thank you very much for your quick response, (insert your own accelerometer joke here lol) i wanted to add some sensors to a model rocket i got at christmas, acceleration being one of the things i wanted to record. do you think any of the ones here would be suitable for the task?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2011-01-01 20:37
    Do you just want to measure the acceleration of the rocket, or do you want to control things like roll, pitch and yaw? I think that you need a gyro for the latter.
  • FranklinFranklin Posts: 4,747
    edited 2011-01-01 22:34
    i wanted to add some sensors to a model rocket i got at christmas
    A 3g accelerometer will record 0 to 3g then flatline until the acceleration drops below that again. for a rocket this would not be a good choice.
  • sjonesysjonesy Posts: 4
    edited 2011-01-02 06:42
    Thank you both, control was going to be for later projects and it was a gyro that i had in mind.
    Do you know of any that would be able to handle a maximum of 50g? I've a feeling this is way more than i need as this is the g force a missile (military) might encounter but i'm going with this because manned rockets are limited to 9g. i'll do some research and see if i can find a calculation for working out the expected g force or at least get a good estimate. Either way i'm going to need more than the 8g unit featured here at parallax.com. Again any help would be very much appreciated
    Thank you
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2011-01-02 09:14
    A piezo sensor could handle 9g; you would get a voltage output during acceleration that would require some signal processing to monitor and record.
  • sjonesysjonesy Posts: 4
    edited 2011-01-02 09:49
    piezo looks well up to the job, i've found one at rs components that will do 50g but its the only one they have and its £157.50. do you know of any other suppliers that may sell them for less?
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