Advice on best sensor to measure see-saw application

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1

Hi All,

I’m relatively new to working with sensors. I’m using an Ardiuno Uno and have played around with the L3GD20H gyro and have gotten the data it can give me successfully. However, I don’t think it’s going to work for this application and I need your advice.

I need to be able to tell which end of a see-saw is up or down, and how fast it is moving in a given direction.Y-axis pitch but I need to always know from a reference point where it is.

We’re building a rocking pirate ship and I want to control bands of Neopixel LEDs so that it appears that a light moves like a wave as the pirate ship rocks back and forth. :slight_smile:

What sensor (that has an Arduino library) would you recommend? Any advice or ideas would be certainly welcome.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts!

Dennis

2

Any 2D or 3D accelerometer can be used to create a tilt sensor. Here is a comprehensive introduction to the technique for 3D accelerometers: cache.freescale.com/files/senso … AN3461.pdf

For the case with the accelerometer oriented such that z is (more or less) down and x is parallel to the seesaw, it is simpler just to use:

tilt angle in radians = atan2(accelx, accelz)

3

Hello, Dennis.

I agree with Jim; it seems like using an accelerometer for that is a good way to go. You might consider using our LSM303D carrier board.

-Nathan