Best setup and pinout for 6-DOF IMU

Hi all,I am designing a small 6-DOF IMU with digital outputs that uses the newest MEMs devices on the market (some of which haven't been released yet) to keep the footprint small and the cost low. I'm hoping to make a bunch of them and sell them at low margins so that DIY'ers like us can afford to tinker without breaking the bank. If they sell well enough, I'll be able to keep the cost on the order of $100 for the full 6-DOF with digital outputs. :-)If you had the choice, what do you all think the "best" pinout would be?My current design has two .1" headers mounted on opposite ends of the board, so that prototyping and mounting is easy.Alternatively, I could add mounting holes, and then put little shrouded headers that you'd plug into; then, you wouldn't have to mount the IMU on a PCB - you could put it anywhere on the airframe.Another option would be to use low-profile board-to-board connectors, but they wouldn't be easy to use (have really fine pitch).What do you think?

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  • Hi Mike,

    I am Tejeshwi from India. I have just completed my B.Tech in mechanical engineering at IIT Delhi. Currently, i am working on a project at LEC, ETH Zurich. The objective of the project is to simulate a Funjet which works with an electric pusher-prop engine. I am using JSBSim to simulate the flight dynamics. Now, since electric engine engine.xml files do not come as a template when you download JSBSim, i was wondering how to author this file. As i see from your posts, you seem to have tried your hands at it, i am sure, you must have had some experiences with the electric engine.xml file. could you kindly share your experience and enlighten me a bit on authoring the engine file for an electric engine? You can reach me at tejeshwi007@gmail.com. I hope you shall oblige me by doing the necessary.

    Cheers,
    tejeshwi

    Cheers,
    Tejeshwi
  • I am finally finished with the IMU. For anyone who cares, it can be seen at http://www.chrobotics.com.
  • For anyone who cares, I wrote some software so that the IMU data can be plotted on a PC in real-time. I uploaded a video to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaGedsFiYN4

    It demonstrates the software and explains some of what you can do with the IMU.
  • just take a look at Invensense website and find out they introduce new IMU 6-dof name IHU-500 and IHU-650
    This sounds great in 7x7mm package but not sure when they will release it to market. Any idea about this product?
    http://www.invensense.com/products/6axis.html
  • Ok, finish the first batch and sell it. I will buy 1 for testing.
    I hope this is not the last batch you are planning to manufacture. In the next one you may use suggestions from guys from this forum.
  • So, actually what sensors are you using ?

    regards

    -doni-
  • Can you make something like this ?
    http://vectornav.com/products/74-vn-100
    It looks really impressive. If you can make the price around 100$ I will by two :)
    (Their BOM is definitely less)
    ... or just copycat :))


    "The VN-100 combines a 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyro, 3-axis magnetometer, and a 32-bit processor onto a single surface mountable chip-sized module to create a high performance orientation sensor. Fully calibrated for bias, gain, and misalignment, the VN-100 accurately calculates orientation over the entire 360° range at 200 Hz. Filtered orientation data and inertial measurements are assessible via either a SPI or serial interface."
  • Caleb,

    Personally, I would like to see a 6DOF board that has outputs for the raw sensor volatages. That way the MCU, sampling, digital filtering, etc. would be left up to the user. This could also reduce the price somewhat.

    As far as free texts on A/D conversion, I don't know of any that are better than this:

    http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/archives/39-06/data_co...

    I used it so much I bought the the book.

    Mike
  • Would your board handle sampling and filtering? What data rates would you use? Or would it simply provide access to the chips for offboard processing?

    Tom
  • Alignment is important with IMU's, so I'd be in favor of having mounting holes available, independent of what pinout arrangment and connectors you choose.

    Curt.
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