GTI Spindle Technology has succeeded in using today’s accelerometers to measure vibration on Apples new iPad tablet. Converting the Analog signal to digital without the use of an additional battery was our biggest challenge. We knew that to succeed from the portability of the iPad we needed to keep things streamlined.
Our original prototype ran on MEMS sensor chips vs a standard accelerometer. The low power consumption of the MEMs chips worked well with the power constraints of the iPad. MEMS sensors did reveal other challenges of their own in regard to background noise and some inaccuracy’s. We intend to continue to improve these sensors going forward as part of our design improvement as well as develop a complete wireless solution for our customers.
In the meantime IMI Sensor, one of the leading brands of vibration accelerometers has developed a low power 100mv/G sensor to work with our iPad analyzer. It allows us to run two channels of vibration acquisition at one time without power issues. (IMI sensor specs can be found at gtispindle.com) These sensors provide a clean calibrated signal for the iPad with no unwanted frequency spikes or disturbance from a trusted name in sensors.
To read more about our iPad based Vibration Analyzer go here.
