Cool toy (Accelerometer)
Road Captain
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 532
Likes: 15
From: Shelton, WA
I'm sorta into that type of thing too. I run a tweecer on my mustang. I datalog straight to my laptop, and I've added DataQ so I can add in several 0~5 volt sensors. I use a PLX wideband 02 to monitor a/f and a GM 3 bar map sensor to monitor boost. PLX also has an addon accelerometer also that you can add to that datalogging so you could get a pretty good guess at HP and TQ numbers. Pretty cool stuff but I'm nut sure I want to go that route with the bike. http://www.plxdevices.com/
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Road Warrior
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 1,691
Likes: 3
An accelerometer does two basic things. It measures acceleration due to gravity and due to motion. At rest a 3-axis accelerometer gives a 1g vector pointing straight down. So you can use it as a level or to tell how a device is oriented. The iPhone uses it to tell if you're holding the phone horizontally or vertically and rotates the screen appropriately. If you can isolate the acceleration due to motion then you can track speed and position. How accurately you can do that doesn't just depend upon the sensitivity of the device, but the resolution of the samples as well since you're guessing what happened between samples.
Acceleration can be steady acceleration such as running a quarter mile, but it can also be from vibrations or impacts. They are used in cars for air bags and traction control systems. They are used industrially for monitoring vibrations on machines to detect bearings going bad. They are used commercially to detect if a shipping container has been mishandled. They are used professionally in racing combined with gps to more accurately track a cars position, speed and path.
It seems to me there is a lot of potential on a motorcycle. Perhaps nothing widely popular, but things like evaluating the impact of a mod or riding techniques. Riding a motorcycle is much like walking in that you don't think about balance but it's a very important part of it. Think about it too much and you may well wreck. Did changing the suspension really smooth out the ride or is it mostly your imagination?
It remains to be seen if I find a practical use. At $90 I get my entertainment value out of it relatively quickly. Overall I expect accelerometers to become ever more common in consumer electronics. So I figure as a programmer I'm going to need to know how to use one. Maybe it doesn't prove that useful on a bike, but $90 is a cheap entry price for learning how to use one.
I well understand most aren't much interested in figuring out how to make pratical use of a log. I'm a programmer, my livelyhood is largely dependant upon that being true. That and there being information people are interested in buried in that log. All kinds of people ride bikes though. Engineers, doctors, lawyers, housewives and the list goes on. I thought there might be some interested in an easily accessible accelerometer in a relatively inexpensive device.
I also thought there might be a few that already played around with an accelerometer. Maybe some insight into the limitations of what you can do. Some have mentioned the apps you can get for an iPhone. Maybe some input from those that had used those apps as to what liked, what they didn't like, what they wish it could do. Maybe some ideas on things to try.
I'm not trying to sell these devices. If anything I would be trying to sell apps that use data from such a device. Even there though I would give it away for free. It's advertising. Get an app widely enough used and you can leverage that into a job, maybe even a whole business.
Acceleration can be steady acceleration such as running a quarter mile, but it can also be from vibrations or impacts. They are used in cars for air bags and traction control systems. They are used industrially for monitoring vibrations on machines to detect bearings going bad. They are used commercially to detect if a shipping container has been mishandled. They are used professionally in racing combined with gps to more accurately track a cars position, speed and path.
It seems to me there is a lot of potential on a motorcycle. Perhaps nothing widely popular, but things like evaluating the impact of a mod or riding techniques. Riding a motorcycle is much like walking in that you don't think about balance but it's a very important part of it. Think about it too much and you may well wreck. Did changing the suspension really smooth out the ride or is it mostly your imagination?
It remains to be seen if I find a practical use. At $90 I get my entertainment value out of it relatively quickly. Overall I expect accelerometers to become ever more common in consumer electronics. So I figure as a programmer I'm going to need to know how to use one. Maybe it doesn't prove that useful on a bike, but $90 is a cheap entry price for learning how to use one.
I well understand most aren't much interested in figuring out how to make pratical use of a log. I'm a programmer, my livelyhood is largely dependant upon that being true. That and there being information people are interested in buried in that log. All kinds of people ride bikes though. Engineers, doctors, lawyers, housewives and the list goes on. I thought there might be some interested in an easily accessible accelerometer in a relatively inexpensive device.
I also thought there might be a few that already played around with an accelerometer. Maybe some insight into the limitations of what you can do. Some have mentioned the apps you can get for an iPhone. Maybe some input from those that had used those apps as to what liked, what they didn't like, what they wish it could do. Maybe some ideas on things to try.
I'm not trying to sell these devices. If anything I would be trying to sell apps that use data from such a device. Even there though I would give it away for free. It's advertising. Get an app widely enough used and you can leverage that into a job, maybe even a whole business.
Road Master
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 1,021
Likes: 2
Since I put a supercharger on my car I needed to add a few more sensors. One was a wideband o2 sensor that reads true a/f ratio, and the second it a 3 bar map sensor. This is a sensor that reads air pressure in the intake manifold. A dataQ is a device lets the extra sensors talk to the Tweecer software so the can all be viewed or logged. Hope that makes a little more sense
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Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 46,845
Likes: 22,534
From: Land of the Free, Home of Jack Daniel's
www.gcdataconcepts.com
I've been wanting to play with an accelerometer on a bike. I've been looking, but haven't really liked the options. I could buy an iPhone and get into writing applications for iPhones. I could buy a $900 device. This is just a hobbiest interest. I just want to understand the dynamics of cornering a motorcycle better. Particularly something that would give me lean angles.
I ran across this the other day. Just $90. It can log up to 128hz onto a 1GB micoSD card and then you download data off of it by sticking it in a usb slot like a memory stick. It can run up to 7 days on a single AA battery. It doesn't actually do anything with the data though, just logs it. They have a little application that will let you view the data. So it isn't really much use unless you can write a program or are into building spreadsheets.
I'm a computer programmer with an interest in mathematics and physics. Logging data off the ecm and gps tracks give me a way to combine those interests. This adds to the picture. At 128hz it ought to make for a better street dyno. Beyond that though you can actually measure what the chassis and suspension is doing. Particularly if you combine two of them. Certainly not for everyone, but it seems a cheap alternative to some very expensive toys.
I've been wanting to play with an accelerometer on a bike. I've been looking, but haven't really liked the options. I could buy an iPhone and get into writing applications for iPhones. I could buy a $900 device. This is just a hobbiest interest. I just want to understand the dynamics of cornering a motorcycle better. Particularly something that would give me lean angles.
I ran across this the other day. Just $90. It can log up to 128hz onto a 1GB micoSD card and then you download data off of it by sticking it in a usb slot like a memory stick. It can run up to 7 days on a single AA battery. It doesn't actually do anything with the data though, just logs it. They have a little application that will let you view the data. So it isn't really much use unless you can write a program or are into building spreadsheets.
I'm a computer programmer with an interest in mathematics and physics. Logging data off the ecm and gps tracks give me a way to combine those interests. This adds to the picture. At 128hz it ought to make for a better street dyno. Beyond that though you can actually measure what the chassis and suspension is doing. Particularly if you combine two of them. Certainly not for everyone, but it seems a cheap alternative to some very expensive toys.
Last edited by JW1200; Apr 3, 2009 at 05:51 PM.