Detect Vibrations In Your Surroundings

Many amateur scientists, engineers, and researchers are interested in detecting the movement and vibration of objects around them. From detecting earthquakes to measuring the vibration of moving components on a vehicle, vibration sensors can measure across a wide range of forces, from as little as milli-Gs to well over 10G (which is very extreme for humans, but not uncommon for mechanical components). The PicoQuake USB is a low-cost design using a really powerful chip from TDK InvenSense — the ICM-42688-P — which can deliver 18/19-bit motion data and has programmable digital filters to help isolate particular data you are searching for.

The device is housed in a very nicely made, compact case and includes a zip-tie as well as a holder for the zip-tie to tension against. This keeps it well in place and ties it to whatever item you want to measure. Keep in mind that how you mount devices like these can be very important — certain mounting methods might dampen certain frequencies or exacerbate others. Of course, observing a system will always change it, but this can be reduced to acceptable levels with testing and modelling.

If you want to detect the P- and S-waves that precede earthquakes or want to see if your device’s mounting hardware can meet a certain vibration spec, a sensor like this can make the job much easier. Having high-accuracy, low-noise data logged can allow you to refine physical models, or you can analyze the data using open-source tools like Octave.

source https://blog.tindie.com/2024/05/detect-vibrations-in-your-surroundings/