Accelerometer specification for impact testing.

[RollingCamel]

Hello all,

We are currently in contact with a couple of accelerometer companies to get the equipment. However, we are in confusion about the specifications needed.

Memsic contact told us that airbag sensors work at 400HZ while they have 30Hz and is asking us if it is ok with us and frankly we have no idea.

[RollingCamel]

Hello all,

We are currently in contact with a couple of accelerometer companies to get the equipment. However, we are in confusion about the specifications needed.

Memsic contact told us that airbag sensors work at 400HZ while they have 30Hz and is asking us if it is ok with us and frankly we have no idea.

[Brian S]

I haven't looked into what's needed for an impact test, but...

How long is the impact going to take? From the acceleration numbers given in the rules and the initial speed you should be able to get a rough idea. How many data points do you want? From those you should be able to get a decent idea on what frequency you need to gather data at.

[ibanezplayer]

We used the ADXL78 from Analog Devices connected to a National Instruments USB-6009. We recorded at 15khz.

Worked good enough. The sensor isn't expensive at all either.

[RollingCamel]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by ibanezplayer:
We used the ADXL78 from Analog Devices connected to a National Instruments USB-6009. We recorded at 15khz.

Worked good enough. The sensor isn't expensive at all either. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Thank you. We are going to get the sensor and build the data acquisition system ourselves.

[Felippe Vieira - Fórmula FEI]

we use in our aquisition a PCB 338c24 accelerometer and a frequency of 600 Hz. but we do not crash with 300kg, but with 1000kg and a slower speed, so for the rules situation 2000 Hz may be enough.