I am looking at a device to record strikes from a blunted sword tip, sort of like fencing foil and epee. I am interested in both the max force of such a strike, and in plotting the force curve during the strike as the hit comes in. Measurements with analog devices show that the peak forces vary between about 8lbs and 90lbs (depending on various factors such as the person doing the strike, the weapon used, the stance, etc.).
The striking surface is a 3/4" diameter rubber tip, and targeting is variable, based on the individual, so a large target area on the sensor would be great. Otherwise some sort of mechanism with a larger striking surface will need to be created.
Are any of the force sensitive resistors Sparkfun carries suitable for this? https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9376 looks good because of the large target area (making it easier to hit), but I’m not sure how it’ll work with the significantly smaller strike area.
I am also concerned about speed of response - how quickly do these sensors change value? The duration of the hit is very short - milliseconds? Microseconds? Will they respond fast enough to allow a graph of the force curve to be plotted and the total energy (integral of the force curve) to be measured?
Finally, will a normal Arduino be fast enough (in terms of time between measurements) to measure this data using either it’s A/D converter or a separate, more sensitive converter? If not, is there a similair device that can do it?
Thanks.