Welcome to the AV3 IMU page
The AV3 IMU is in the early design phase. Several years have passed since the last IMU design, hence it is prudent to preform a new component survey. The top criteria are accuracy, price, and bandwidth. The last exploration into the accelerometer/gyroscope market reviled a decidedly bimodal distribution. Either components were very accurate and very expensive (beyond the means of PSAS) or inexpensive and low accuracy. The specifications for the accelerometers listed on sensorportal.com are being summered on the google docs spread sheet. This summary should be complete by mid June. Data sheets will be posted as soon as I can figure out how to attach files to this wiki.
Board Design
Component list
Accelerometers:
Gyroscope:
Magnetometer:
All these sensors have digital output, which is a good thing because it simplifies the design and lowers cost but the trade off is a somewhat higher noise floor, slower sampling rates and less resolution. The selected sensors should perform well enough for our use on the rocket. I also get the feeling that a bunch of other cheap digital output sensors will be appearing in the next year or so, so we should keep our eyes open.