Bonneville LSR datalogging on the cheap: single axis gyro q

Help & Support Robot Parts
1

I am designing a 2 litre car for Bonneville and want to measure lift or squat of the body as a result of aero effects during testing. I have very limited electronics expertise.

Although linear potentiometers and dataloggers are available in motorsport they are expensive and typically the data is retrospective being a download from he logger to a PC - its too late if its gone airborne already!. I want to build an instrument so I can see it on dash in real time; I started thinking a single axis gyro (I will be measuring +/- 2 - 3 degrees at each end) linked to a linear servo motor with a pointer on a bespoke gauge - pointer moves up and down in response to gyro offset from horizontal. However, I fear that the narrow movement range and the fact that front end lift might be hard to differentiate from rear as both will ‘angle’ when one end moves up or down.

I was wondering if a range finding sensor could be mounted at each end pointing at the salt (detecting plus or minus 0.5 - 2cm movement, damped in some way from suspension shock as I really want to measure positive or negative trends towards burrowing like the Thunderbird twos mole and taking off like Thunderbird One and could that drive the linear servo motor / home made gauge?

What parts do I need? Many thanks. John

2

All good ideas. An IMU would be best and still inexpensive; most have a three axis accelerometer and three axis gyro: robotshop.com/en/sensors-imu.html
Ex: robotshop.com/en/bno055-9-do … board.html
USB output: robotshop.com/en/variense-co … u931b.html

Make a few educated guesses about the maximum values for acceleration in order to determine which chip is best.
Once you have selected a range, check the method of communication (serial, I2C etc.) and existing documentation.

It will be up to you to determine if you want a computer onboard (like a single board Raspberry Pi) or a microcontroller like an Arduino.
An Arduino would likely be the best approach but would require that you learn to program (or find someone capable).
You might need to experiment a bit with where to place the sensor and how to securely mount it to the body / frame.
The accelerometer can detect the orientation of gravity and using that, give you the absolute orientation of the vehicle.
You can use as many as you like and interpret the data however you want.

Last, you will need to figure out how you want to display the information.
Wiring the sensor to a display on the dashboard is best, but if you want to also know the values from the pit, you’ll need a wireless system.