Hello, I am an assistant researcher at the Univ. of Mass. Dartmouth and I'm currently using the ADXL001-250 accelerometer. The accelerometer is used on a Guided Weight Drop machine that is used to test the energy absorption and energy loss of different padding material. One accelerometer is attached to the weight that is dropped from a height of 56cm and hits the sample of padding material which is placed on a plate containing the second accelerometer on the opposite side. the data is then sent through a MeasurementComputing module and then to DASYLAB and then to matlab to get a energy absorption factor. attached are pictures of the machine, and both sides of the current circuit(one of the pictures can be accessed by clicking on the link because it was too large to upload). usually, the EAF% I should be getting are anywhere between 30%-96% but recently, every sample i test is 85%-100% and I'm curious if this could have anything to do with the accelerometer. now, I've changed the accelerometer on the top and still nothing has gotten better, I do not think there is a point to change the bottom because the bottom accelerometer barely suffers any force since it is under a plate with pad sample on top. my question is, now that i know its not the accelerometer, I'm going to move on to change the entire circuit itself. The accelerometer is currently soldered onto a simple circuit that was made by someone(not ANALOG DEVICES) and I'm thinking of using the Evaluation board. I'm curious to know if its worth it to get the Evaluation board and if so, is the EVAL-ADXL001-250Z the best option, or should i be using a completely different sensor/board all together? In advance, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
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