Hi all, I am a complete noob when it comes to Arduino but have other experience in electronics and IT. I was asked to look into a project for the chemical plant I work for. They want to be able to connect 4 (four) accelerometers to one Arduino board to read the vibrations coming off of the four corners of a dropping head, used in the production of chemical products. We would like to be able to monitor the output vibrations to see if we can foreshadow if there is going to be a problem with the dropping head. We think that it starts vibrating differently before it fails. I am looking into some information on if I can use four accelerometers at once on an Arduino and also read the four different sets of data separately. Also if there is any recommendations on Arduino boards, breadboards, and sensors to look into, that would be greatly appreciated. This project would help me get into a Process Control position within the company. Go easy on me as I am just learning the ins and outs of Arduino. Thank you for any information!
Photos and drawings might help.
If this is to an industrial environment you need to check that what you install is up to the job - you need industrial quality robust sensors , you need to be electrically safe ( hazardous areas etc ) .
If you are new to Arduino this is not a good first project; to determine what a faulty unit looks like in terms of its vibration characteristic is a complex ask ( check out condition monitoring ) and needs to be worked out before jumping into hardware .
You need to also look at the industrial versions of Arduino .
Can you provide a diagram to show the mechanical arrangement?
"Hobby" accelerometers tend to be 3 axis, and may include a gyroscope.
You will also need to think about the signals you will want to process. Is it enough to know the SIZE of the vibrations, or do you need to know the SHAPE of the signal.
Does the head have any vibration sensors at present and if so can you observe (with an oscilloscope) the signal?
If not, for some simple experimenation you could get a cheap arduino board and a couple of accelerometers
https://docs.arduino.cc/built-in-examples/sensors/ADXL3xx/
Ill have some more info and some photos on Monday. Ill return then and share what I have. Thanks for the reply!
Awesome, thank you for the info and where to start looking. I was just asked to look into the project today. I am meeting with the R&D Chemist and the plant manager on Monday to get more info and to take pics of the feeder heads in question. I will look into what youve given me already and I will have some pictures and better info on Monday. Ill come back and post it all then. I do not believe there are any vibration sensors in play yet. Thanks again!
Ya, its a big ask, but I am up for the challenge. Ill have other people helping me on the project, I just wanted to reach out to people more knowledgeable on the subject of Arduino and see what they had to say. Thanks for the reply and Ill look into condition monitoring right now. Ill be back on Monday with more specifics and some photos of the dropping heads in question. Thanks again!
You may find this introductory info useful
Thank you so much! Ill look into that now.
Short answer: yes, it's possible.
Slightly longer answer: you need to know the approximate frequency of the vibrations (is it 10Hz, 100Hz, 10,000Hz) and amplitude (5g? 10g? 50g?). And you'd want to know how much data you need to supply. e.g., sample continuously and report to a PC or grab 1000 samples once per minute?
With that info, you can select an appropriate accelerometer and Arduino. These days I like to start projects with something in the ESP32 series. They're cheap, very fast, and have lots of memory.
Once you have that basic info, you can come back here and ask more detailed questions. Or you can PM me if your company wants me to consult.
TBF: there's lots of existing systems for condition monitoring and unless the company is tight on cash, it might cost less to buy something off the shelf than to pay an employee to develop it from scratch.
And if you spend cash then fail it might not look so good for you
Can you tell us why you think you need 4 accelerometers. Are the parts of the device NOT connected together?
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.