An Overview Of The TTL Tilt Sensor
This tilt sensor only gives us 3 distinct notifications of tilt magnitude in any direction, but it works reliably and is a fun design given that there's no software involved. The design is not overly complex, but it could definitely be simplified. The TTL nature of this project meant that a lot of wire-wrapping would be involved, but if you can get past that work, you create a very cool little sensor.
What To Do Now
You can definitely expand the main idea of this project to make the tilt sensor more accurate by adding more comparators, or implementing the project using a microcontroller or FPGA, which would greatly reduce the part count. If you choose the microcontroller direction, you'll want to read my PIC accelerometer tutorial as it shows you how to use accelerometer input in a similar way.
Conclusion
Once again, another project has been successfully completed with the results being acceptable. The tilt sensor created in this article works as we laid out in the purpose and it leaves many doors open for expansion and improvement. Accelerometers are fun little sensors, so go get one and start seeing what you can do with it!
If you have any further questions, I implore you...don't be shy, take a look at the forums or ask a question there. I check them out regularly and love getting comments & questions.
This tilt sensor only gives us 3 distinct notifications of tilt magnitude in any direction, but it works reliably and is a fun design given that there's no software involved. The design is not overly complex, but it could definitely be simplified. The TTL nature of this project meant that a lot of wire-wrapping would be involved, but if you can get past that work, you create a very cool little sensor.
What To Do Now
You can definitely expand the main idea of this project to make the tilt sensor more accurate by adding more comparators, or implementing the project using a microcontroller or FPGA, which would greatly reduce the part count. If you choose the microcontroller direction, you'll want to read my PIC accelerometer tutorial as it shows you how to use accelerometer input in a similar way.
Conclusion
Once again, another project has been successfully completed with the results being acceptable. The tilt sensor created in this article works as we laid out in the purpose and it leaves many doors open for expansion and improvement. Accelerometers are fun little sensors, so go get one and start seeing what you can do with it!
If you have any further questions, I implore you...don't be shy, take a look at the forums or ask a question there. I check them out regularly and love getting comments & questions.