August 2021

Feather IoT Vibration Measurement System

The objective of this project was to provide a system that would generate vibration over a frequency range, and measure the peak vibration values so that A vs. B etc. comparisons of the vibration amplitude at various points along a large structure could be assessed.

A vibration generator was identified to create a consistent vibration amplitude over a variable frequency range. It is a 110 VAC single phase 100 W motor with eccentric weights mounted to each end of the motor shaft to create the vibration. Adjusting the weights adjusts the amplitude. A 110 V AC motor speed controller (variac) provided adjustment of the motor speed, causing a variable vibration frequency.

A Feather HUZZA 8266 with built-in WiFi module was chosen for the microcontroller. The WiFi capability permitted the device to send the maximum acceleration measured every second to a Blynk mobile app so that the acceleration measured could be viewed remotely and plotted to a chart. The accelerometer employed was the Adafruit ADXL343 + ADT7410 Sensor FeatherWing. This triaxial accelerometer measures up to +/- 16 G of acceleration. The microcontroller was programmed to sample the Z acceleration when the device is turned on, and then remove that offset from all subsequent measurements to make it easier to study the vibration. An Adafruit 0.54" Quad Alphanumeric FeatherWing Display showed the maximum acceleration measured.

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