PASCO CI-6558 Rev A ACCELERATION SENSOR User Manual
Acceleration sensor, Introduction, Equipment
Instruction Sheet
for the PASCO
Model CI-6558 Rev A
ACCELERATION SENSOR
012-06361C
11/03
Introduction
The PASCO CI-6558 Rev A Acceleration Sensor is
designed for use with any PASCO computer interface
and Data Studio to measure accelerations ranging up to 5
times the earth's gravitational field with an accuracy of
0.01 g (g = acceleration of gravity, 9.8 m/s
2
). The sensor
produces a bipolar output that may vary from +5 g to -5
g, depending on the direction of acceleration. The
Acceleration Sensor is capable of resolving changes in
acceleration on the order of 1 milli-g when a gain of 10 is
applied in Data Studio.
The Acceleration Sensor has two built-in features for
configuring it to a particular application: (1) a tare button,
used to set the output of the sensor to 0 regardless of the
acceleration being applied (allows the effect of the
earth's gravitational field to be nulled); (2) a filter with
two settings—"slow" or "fast", setting the frequency
response of the Acceleration Sensor to a range suitable
for the application.
For experiments such as measuring the acceleration of
elevators, roller coasters, and automobiles, select the
"slow" setting. The slow filter reduces errors due to high
frequency vibrations and noise. For applications
Equipment
Equipment Included:
• Acceleration Sensor
• 6-foot cable with 8-pin DIN connectors
• bracket, thumbscrew, and bolt for attaching
Acceleration Sensor to a Dynamics Cart
Additional Equipment Required:
• Any PASCO Data Studio computer
interface (300, 500, 700 or 750 series for Macintosh
or Windows)
Additional Equipment Suggested:
• Dynamics Cart (ME-9430 or ME-9454)
• Dynamics Track (ME-9429A or ME-9452)
© 1997 PASCO scientific
involving mechanical systems, such as cart collision
experiments, select the fast setting.
The Data Studio software will display the output of the
Acceleration Sensor in units of m/s
2
, or in terms of g.
Very small values of acceleration can be measured by
taring the sensor and adding gain in Data Studio.
better
teach science
ways to
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Acceleration
Sensor
DIN connector
to computer interface
bracket for
attaching to
Dynamics Cart
interface cable
with 8-pin DIN
connectors