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Please recommend a MEMS for small angle tilt measurement

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deephaven:
Various people like Freescale and Analog Devices make MEMS accelerometers, but I wondered if anyone has had any first hand experience of using them? I am looking for one which will allow me to measure tilt angle over the range of, say, 10 degrees. At this moment, I'm not too bothered about what interface it has, could be analogue or digital like I2C or SPI.

slashguitar:
You could try ADXL345. It has both SPI and I2C interfaces and some nice features like freefall detection. There are a lot of sample programs available on the web. The only
disadvantage I see is the small package but you could buy a board like this

deephaven:

--- Quote from: slashguitar on February 23, 2012, 05:23:01 pm ---You could try ADXL345. It has both SPI and I2C interfaces and some nice features like freefall detection. There are a lot of sample programs available on the web. The only
disadvantage I see is the small package but you could buy a board like this

--- End quote ---

Thanks slashguitar, looks like it could be what I'm looking for.

tecman:
We have been using the Analog Devices ADIS16209.  Not real cheap, but quite accurate.

If you need high accuracy (~0.1 deg) look at this unit.

paul

LukeW:
Do you want digital output (I2C or SPI) or do you want analog output where you have to do the ADC externally?

If you only want to measure angles (inclinometry) then an accelerometer with a maximum range of +/- 1g or 3g will give you the best angle resolution. You don't need one with a high acceleration measurement range.

The LIS331D is a very cheap 3-axis MEMS accelerometer with digital output... it's the accelerometer used in a certain very popular brand of smartphone, so you know they'll always be widely available in large quantities at a relatively low price.

In single quantities from Digi-Key (497-8327-1-ND) they're USD$3.12.

The ADXL345 is a relatively high-priced device.

It's also worth pointing out here that pretty much every MEMS accelerometer chip in existence comes in a pain-in-the-arse tiny leadless SMD package.

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