Vernier Tech Info Library TIL #2035

Question

Do you sell a Goniometer or Tilt Angle Sensor?

Answer

Vernier does not sell a goniometer, but our Low-g Accelerometer, order code LGA-BTA, $89.00, can be modified to give joint angle or tilt angle using Logger Pro. This is a much more cost effective solution that buying a digital goniometer.

The JointAngleSensorLowG.cmbl Logger Pro experiment file is already configured to use the accelerometer in this way. Using this file, LoggerPro will report an angle of 90 degrees when the LG-BTA is resting flat. As the low G accelerometer is tilted is will report a decrease in angle.

To create your own file in Logger Pro, you need to create a calculated column that takes the ArcCos of Acceleration / the force of gravity. Make sure that Logger Pro is using degrees for all trigonometric calculations. The default condition is radians. See 'settings for file' under the the FILE drop down menu. Sampling at 10 samples a second works fine and some smoothing should be used as well.

Created by: jmelville on July 13 2009
Last updated by: jhopkins on August 17 2009