Which accelerometers can detect vibration?

Accelerometers measure motion, vibration, and mechanical shock. Inside of an accelerometer is an internal mass that is static until it experiences a change in velocity. This acceleration causes the mass to press to move, and it will press upon either a piezoelectric material or a capacitive sensor. In this way, a mechanical force is transmitted to an electrical signal, and the acceleration can be deduced. Most cell phones use a capacitive sensor.

 

I used: 

ADXL345 3-axis accelerometer (+/- 2,4,6,8, or 16g)

image.png

ADXL_400Hz.gif

I found that 100Hz was sufficient to capture a phone vibration (shown above). 

You can set the range of the frequency response from 10 Hz to 3.2kHz, but "rates above 100Hz will exhibit increased noise". I found that 100Hz was the minimum to detect a phone vibration, with phone laying on my desk, and accelerometer in a breadboard which was also sitting on my desk, separated from each other by a few inches. I did not observe egregious noise (see gif above). 

I found this library to be quite useful: https://learn.adafruit.com/adxl345-digital-accelerometer/library-reference . 

 


Revision #1
Created 2026-09-21 08:59:06 MDT by Claire
Updated 2026-09-21 12:25:04 MDT by Claire