Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 4 replies
  • Subscribers 288 subscribers
  • Views 1846 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related
See a helpful answer?

Be sure to click 'more' and select 'suggest as answer'!

If you're the thread creator, be sure to click 'more' then 'Verify as Answer'!

inclinometer or accelerometer

Former Member

Hi,

you are selling this element as an inclinometer:

http://fr.farnell.com/murata/sca103t-d04/inclinometre/dp/2381835

But the datasheet says that it measure acceleration. Is it a true inclinometer which can measure static angle or an accelerometer which can measure only variation?

 

Thanks,

Bruno

Parents
  • Former Member
    Former Member

    They are almost one and the same thing.

     

    Accelerometers not only measure motion but the constant effects of gravity causes them to sense acceleration. The inclinometer is measuring the acceleration of gravity on the Y axis. If its tilted 45 degrees only half of the y axis will be feel the gravitational effects hence this change allows you to calculate the incline of the device.

     

    Because it only measure one axis, more attention has been put into the accuracy etc...

Reply
  • Former Member
    Former Member

    They are almost one and the same thing.

     

    Accelerometers not only measure motion but the constant effects of gravity causes them to sense acceleration. The inclinometer is measuring the acceleration of gravity on the Y axis. If its tilted 45 degrees only half of the y axis will be feel the gravitational effects hence this change allows you to calculate the incline of the device.

     

    Because it only measure one axis, more attention has been put into the accuracy etc...

Children
  • in reply to Former Member

    Actually if you tilt by 45 degrees you'll see sine(45)g which is 0.707 of the signal with perfect alignment.

     

    @Bruno,

     

    For rough and ready purposes accelerometers can be used as inclinometers - dual or tri-axial accelerometers can resolve the angle to gravity (ie from the point of measurement to the centre of the earth) over a full 360 degrees rotated in any direction. Inclinometers designed for high accuracy do not use normal accelerometers to detect the alignment (although they will be affected by acceleration) and usually operate over much more limited ranges but with much better accuracy and resolution.

     

    So the best approach depends on the application - if you want to know which way up a phone is then accelerometers are probably the best approach, if you want to set a up  a plane table for surveying then a true inclinimeter will do better. You have to keep them still - an inclinometer in a car going round  a corner can't tell the difference between gravity and centrifugal/centripetal acceleration.

     

    MK