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Have a good idea for a new product for SFE or Olimex? Let us know!
By kwan3217
#108621
I would like a board similar to the IMU Razor 6DOF, except with digital sensors. I already have a BMA180 accelerometer, ITG-3200 gyro, and HMC5843 compass, but on three separate boards which are difficult to keep aligned with each other, and they have too many redundant pins, like a VCC and GND for each board. Basically I want these three sensors with their breakouts attached on a single board.

Make one common VCC and GND, hook together the VCC and VIO lines that need it on the ITG and BMA, expose the I2C interface and interrupt pins, skip the SPI interface, and put the 10k pullup resistors on the I2C lines. The terminal should have a single VCC and GND, a single SDA and SCL, and two lines for the interrupts on the ITG and BMA.

Make sure that the sensor axes are aligned, and make it as small as is reasonable. Long and narrow is ok, but the narrower the better, so it can fit into a small rocket tube.
By rbrockman
#109991
All of the existing analog IMU boards require too many A/D inputs. Digital is the way forward here. All of these IMU signals can be combined on just two wires. ITG-3200 + BMA180. I'd buy it.
By pthartmann
#111275
agreed.

I would suggest using the IMU-3000 with an accelerometer, however, as it provides some form of filtering.

While we're at it, why not drop on an atmel chip. I mean the majority of users are going to interface with Arduino anyway.

-oh look... a complete schematic to do just this, with support for a compass and other sensors.

http://invensense.com/mems/gyro/documen ... 00-01B.pdf (PAGE 7)
By Inopia
#111463
I second the IMU-3000. The only downside is that their software is a bit crappy and their datasheets seem to downplay the integrated sensor fusion. I have bought their evaluation board and it's really quite cool and accurate.

In fact, why not an just design an integrated autopilot? Give me an stm32 plus imu3k, accelerometer, servo control (including some level converters and leeching power from the BEC), and I'm happy. An easy way to connect telemetry (xbee?) and GPS would be a big plus.