Building a vibration sensor 1

[mmilbury]

I'm building an acceleration sensor for a project with low g's. (.05<g<1.0 max g = 2.0) I've researched several sensors on the web and have selected a sensor with a sensitivity of 120 pV/g.

My understanding is there is a known mass that reacts to the vibration. This reaction is output as a certain voltage. What I am attempting to do is interface my accelerometer with a circuit board.

Would anybody know how I would do this? I would like to make a direct connection to the ADC without using an amplifier circuit. With this in mind, what would be the best way to do this? If I go as high as 2.0g's would you know how I could limit this voltage to keep it from overloading the processor?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GregLocock]

I think you are going to have to tell us what sensor you have selected. If your stated sensitivity of 120 pV/g is correct it will give 2.40E-10 V into your A/D at 2g, which (politely) is unlikely to overload any A/D ever seen.

if the sensitivity is 120pC/g, which is more likely, then you need to have a charge amplifier in the circuit, you can't just plug the accelerometer into an A/D.

Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[IRstuff]

Most commercial A/D converter boards have input voltage ranges like 2V, 5V, 10V, so you'll need an amplifier in any case to get your accel's output into the dynamic range of the A/D


TTFN