Accelerometer

MEMS Accelerometers

I recently messed with some accelerometers in order to cancel out dead weight in a load cell application. These MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) devices are really handy. They are incredibly small, they have very modest power requirements, and are typically in a standard IC package. The device that I ended up using was a Freescale MMA1220EG. It offers an on-board amplified output and only requires three external components. It uses 5VDC at 5mA, and has a +/- 8g range. The 0g offset is 2.5V and moves from that point at 250mV/g.
I built a simple PCB that mounted the accelerometer and a filter along with an op-amp as a buffer to drive the output and send it down a run of wire. It worked so well I’ve been trying to think up something else to put one on.

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