ADXL 355 Accelerometer

A few days ago I went to get components for a project I was building. and came across a 3-axis accelerometer. So I decided to test it and make a post to give you an idea of things work and how you can use it.

ADXL 355

                 

The accelerometer I have is ADXL 355 v2.0 board. there is are 5 headder pins, ground, 5V supply, X-axis output,Y-axis output and Z-axis output. It is quite compact. The one I have measured around 15mm x 15mm. These sensors are low cost. And can be incorporated in Projects or robots we build. The ADXL 355 board I have has an onboard Red led (smd) for the indication of power. The accelerometer has a wide range of applications. ADXL 355 is a basic accelerometer which gives analog values for all the three axis depending upon the position of the IC. ADXL 345 is an advanced accelerometr which can detect free-fall,activity,tap,double tap and communicates via I2C. The ADXL is a a ultra-lowpower as it consumes only 25 uA in measurement mode. the ADXL 355 IC alone requires an iput between the range 1.8 V - 3.6 V only. I hooked up the ADXL 355 to the ARDUINO to read those analog values.

Code:

/*

 ADXL355/3xx

 Reads an Analog Devices ADXL355/xx accelerometer and communicates the

 acceleration to the computer

The pin connectioms:

 analog 0: accelerometer self test pin

 analog 1: z-axis

 analog 2: y-axis

 analog 3: x-axis

 analog 4: Vcc

 analog 5: ground

*/

const int vcc = 18;          

const int gnd = 19;              

const int x = A3;                

const int y = A2;                  

const int z= A1;                

void setup()

{

  Serial.begin(9600);

  pinMode(vcc, OUTPUT);

  pinMode(gnd, OUTPUT);

  digitalWrite(gnd, LOW); 

  digitalWrite(vcc, HIGH);

}

void loop()

{

  Serial.print(analogRead(x)); 

  Serial.print("\t");

  Serial.print(analogRead(y));

  Serial.print("\t");

  Serial.print(analogRead(z));

  Serial.println();

  delay(200);

}

upload the code to the arduino.

now open the serial monitor and read the analog values.

you can connect the sensor to the rasperry pi also. I am planning to interface the accelerometer to the rasperry pi and make the screen rotate depending upon the direction the board is placed. We can make sensors to measure angle, inclination etc. Your imagination is the limit to the possibilities you can do with this.I am working on a new project using the accelerometer, come back again and check for new posts to see the developments and get an idea for your next project.