I am new to all of this, so bear with me on this question. Coding doesn't scare me. Neither does soldering. But I lack a rock solid foundation in electrical engineering. I have a decimilia on it's way (couldn't get my lilypad working), and i already have an adxl320 accelerometer. This is what I want to do:
I want to measure the acceleration of a cell phone (in your pocket while walking or in a car) AND when it stops, i need to shut it off. I took it apart and looked at the on/off button, which turns out is some kind of a funky looking push button switch of sorts (round disc that caves in when pushed and closes a connection between two contacts). It closes a circuit, that to the best of my ability is measuring .5V (I just bought a digital multimeter today and am going to verify what my analog meter says). I need to control this switch with another switch. I have been studying up on relays / transistors / gates and such, but i cant figure what i should use to close this connection for 2-3 seconds when the phone stops and then again when it starts moving.
Any ideas or suggestions or if someone can point me in the right directions, I would be gratefull.