Hi everyone.
I am new to the SPARKFUN products and forum.
I want to build an impact sensing circuit and use the Piezo Vibration Sensor SEN-09196.
Does that seem reasonable?
If yes, what components should I use?
Can you provide assistance and information?
Thank you,
Newbee
arshakh:
Does that seem reasonable?If yes, what components should I use?
Can you provide assistance and information?
It does seem reasonable. However, we may need further information from you before we could point you in the right direction.
Do you plan to use a microcontroller?
Do you plan to do additional processing on the signal (ie filtering or what not)?
Do you plan to display it? If so what kind of display?
Try to be as specific as you can so that we could help you better. Thanks!
PS Welcome to the forums!
Appreciate the reply.
Yes, I would like to both process and display the signal.
I am thinking about attaching a sensor to a pad that can sense the impact of a force and turn series of LEDs based on the level of impact. For example, yellow for low, green for medium, and red for high impact force. It’ll be nice to sound a buzer too.
Another option may be to condition the signal on a small board and transmit the data to a PC. The software on PC then can display a number between 1 and 10 on a monitor or do many other things.
Again, thank you for your help.
In both cases, I think interfacing the sensor to a microcontroller would be the way to go, as it could do the processing and displaying that you speak of. Some things that you may need to read up on is converting the analog signal coming from the sensor to a digital signal that can be processed by the microcontroller. Most microcontroller nowadays have analog to digital converters (ADC) so you have quite a lot of choices to choose from. Plus there are tons of tutorials about using ADCs. Once the signal has been converted and sent to the microcontroller, you can do whatever processing you have in mind using the microcontroller. As for displaying the results to the PC, you can do this through a serial connection using the UART of the microcontroller. In addition, this connection can be done wired or wirelessly, your choice. This also something that has a lot of resources floating around the net.
Let us know if anything wasn’t clear or if you need more guidance.
Can you direct me to sample circuit diagrams I could use?
Thanks,
Here is a good starter.
http://www.circuitstoday.com/shock-alarm-circuit
you can replace the buzzer with whatever you want to trigger.
FANTASTIC!
Thank you much.
No problem, it didn’t look like anyone else was about to be of any help. :mrgreen: