Rebound Measurement Device

Hi All,

I am working on a project where I would like to measure the rebound height of an object dropped from a fixed height onto various surfaces. I am planning on using a microphone at the surface level to capture two impacts of the object. It is possible to use an Arduino to capture the two impacts and measure the time interval between the two peaks from the microphone and output onto a display? any help or ideas of sample code would be greatly appreciated.

That is certainly possible, but the hard part is recognizing the "peaks" of the microphone input, especially in a noisy environment.

That depends on your particular setup, so get that working before you worry about the timing.

If you use the analog input, keep in mind that it takes about 100 microseconds to make a single measurement.

Are you planning to calculate the height from the interval between the contacts?

...R

Thanks for the replies, Yes I would be calculating height from the interval between the two contacts. Assuming the background noise is low and the peaks are detectable how would I go about recording the timing?

Hi,
Depending on how physically hard the impacts are, have you tried a Piezo pickup as your sensing element for shock rather than sound?

Tom.... :slight_smile:

how would I go about recording the timing?

   unsigned long event_time;
   ...
   if (event) event_time = millis(); //or micros()