Society of Robots - Robot Forum
Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: strat321 on May 20, 2013, 08:21:54 AM
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I am looking into using a vibration sensor a source of input, much like a vrbot. Does such a device exist? Could it be used with the axon ii?
Thanks!
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Assemtech make some excellent non-directional vibration sensors in both nornally closed and normally open configurations. They're very small and quite cheap. Just hook them up and away you go. They'll take TTL levels.
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Another kind of sensor that works well for vibrations in the 10 Hz and below range is accelerometers, available as I2C chips in fairly affordable carriers.
Note that every smart phone for the last few years have been using these as input, so I'd say it's proven to work OK :-) The main thing to watch out for is telling "normal" vibrations of movement from the kinds of vibrations you want to detect.
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I appreciate these responses and will investigate. However with the I2C, I believe this would not work because i will use it to detect and analyze low level surface vibrations
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Before you say "it won't work," you need to specify the parameters you need.
What sensitivity (in gs) do you need? Is 1/100th of a g sufficient? 1/1000th of a g?
What frequency of vibrations do you need to detect? 1 Hz? 10 Hz? 10 kHz?
Once you know this, you can look at the data sheets for the various sensors and accelerometers available.
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Some accelerators have analog voltage outputs, instead of I²C, such as this one http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1246 (http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1246)
But there are a little more expensive than piezo devices such as this one http://www.robotshop.com/sfe-piezo-element-2.html (http://www.robotshop.com/sfe-piezo-element-2.html) or that one https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9198 (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9198)
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What if I wanted to hook it up to a device such as an easy vr bot, in place of a microphone perhaps. Would a piezo element sensor with analog stereo leads fit this bill?