Imagine a sensor sitting on a small float bobbing about on a pond like this.
Would any of today's low cost accelerometers be able to detect such motion or would the signal be buried in the noise floor?
Interesting. However I see some problems.
1: Your float would need to be very small - look how the leaf is not affected by the ripples. A tiny float would not have enough bouyancy to support a (relatively) massive sensor.
2: An accelerometer is no good on its own - you would need to receive and process the signal. So you either need a wireless sender - adding weight; or a wired sender, adding stiffness.
You need to find a solution where the system used to make the measurement does not significantly affect the value being measured. Looking at the video, perhaps an optical system would be a better solution?
Lets say they are about 1mm in amplitude, coming in at say 10 Hz. That's an acceleration of (102pi)^2*0.001 = 3.9m/s/s, or about 0.4 g (g being the acceleration due to gravity, which is commonly used in accelerometer datasheets).
Seems well within capabilities, if you can mount one in a small/light enough float, and run flexible enough wires to the main circuit. Conceivably a flex pcb might be possible to both mount the accelerometer chip and provide suspension, but might be too stiff.
This topic was automatically closed 120 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.