I'm trying to make a simple angle measurement with an arduino uno. Pretty much exactly what a construction workers level would do I want to receive an analog signal or something that gives me a simple inclination reading. It only needs to be one axis and I don't need the measurement over time or acceleration. I DO NOT want to use a gyro and accelerometer. Any suggestions?
How accurate does it have to be?
Not very. It only needs a 180 degree span accurate to maybe 5-10 degrees
It is not as easy as you might think but you can make something with an absolute shaft encoder AS5040
potmeter 180 degrees is 2/3 of its typical range
2/3 of 1024 possible values => 682 values 2 bit noise (== /4) ==> 170 values => should work
There wont be any reference point in which I can attach the base or the pot. It will just be a floating surface that moves on one axis, I don't think a pot will work. If it boils down to absolutely HAVING to have to use a gyro, I do have a PmodGYRO L3G4200D and a LPR503AL at my disposal, however all the codes I can find are long and gives all 3 axis' and acceleration as well. I'm not an arduino expert so I dont know what I can delete out of the code to just give me 1 axis with no acceleration without screwing the program up. If one of you guys would be so kind as to provide something for me it would be great, but I'd like to do it without using those.
Can you produce a diagram, your words are a bit hard to understand.
Due to a non-disclosure agreement, I can't provide a whole lot of details about it. Picture a neutrally buoyant balloon, floating at a fixed point in the air. I want to measure its roll angle as it drifts from side to side. I don't really care about its y or z axis', or its acceleration. I just want to theoretically take a construction level, place it on the balloon and see how much it's deviated from a level position. There will be no fixed point on the balloon as it is floating, so nothing will be able to spin the pot as it rotates.
I can't see how that is possible without some sort of image processing that measures side to side movement which is way out of the league of an Arduino project.
I didn't mean it moves side to side. Just the x axis roll angle. no movement, no acceleration, no y axis, no z axis. just a simple inclination reading. Exactly what a bubble stick level would give you, only I want a physical numbered degree or angle, instead of a visual bubble in a tube of liquid.
Sorry still can not understand.
Do you want a none contact method of measuring something like a bubble?
Due to a non-disclosure agreement, I can't provide a whole lot of details about it
So that means I can't provide a whole lot of information about how to solve a problem I can't envisage.
Alright let me try again. ( see picture)
Picture a flat piece of wood magically floating in the air. There is no fixed point, it is just floating there. I want to measure its roll angle with respect to the x axis. It's maximum points will be in the vertical position, both ways, effectively making it have 180 degrees of rotation. I want a way of measuring that angle. There will be no fixed point in which to attach a pot that will cause it to spin as the piece of wood rotates. The sensor can be attached to the piece of wood, but I don't see a way to spin the knob on the pot with no fixed point.
Have you thought about using a capacitive tilt sensor?
They used to use these back in the day (80's/90's) for 3DOF head tracking sensors (pitch/roll mainly - yaw was done with a compass) before gyros/accelerometers became cheap.
Basically the sensor had a liquid electrolyte and some terminals; one set of terminals was excited using an AC signal, and the other set could read the signal which would change based on the tilt level (which would alter the capacitance). At least, I think that is how they worked (?).
They suffered from "settling" issues - in which if tilted too fast, the liquid would take a while to settle - so that limited read rate (plus they had a limit as to how far they could be tilted, of course).
I'm not sure if they are still available (as a component) or not...
Samodonnell5:
I DO NOT want to use a gyro and accelerometer. Any suggestions?
The only thing I can think of in that case is some sort of image processing solution.
Why not just a 2- axis accelerometer?
Otherwise, how about a pendulum and a pot?
You'd have to process the signal, but with a bit
of fussing, I bet it would be pretty accurate.
t
Why not just a 2- axis accelerometer?
Because he said:-
Samodonnell5:
I DO NOT want to use a gyro and accelerometer. Any suggestions?
Otherwise, how about a pendulum and a pot?
Because he said:-
There wont be any reference point in which I can attach the base or the pot
Put a camera in the thing, aimed out at the horizon, and radio back an image. Or, do the image processing in the thing and send back the horizon angle.
Because he said:-
arg. Apparently I couldn't read yesterday.
Skyhook, then.
t
Thanks guys, Looks like I'll just Suck it up and figure out how to use the gyro I have. I'll let you know how it goes.
So you can't attach anything to the balloon?
If you can, why not a pendulum and optical encoder? Gravity provides the reference, then.