Vibration characteristics study on observatory using accelerometer ADXL345 sensor and Arduino

Abstract

Observatory of Universitas Ahmad Dahlan (UAD) is located on the top of the 10th-floor building. The activities at the observatory dome generate vibration to the building. The vibration may propagate to the main telescope inside the dome. Therefore, the measurement of vibration is needed. The vibration sensor of ADXL345 can be controlled by the Arduino Uno. Arduino Uno is a series which is developed from the ATmega328-based microcontrollers. Arduino Uno has 14 pins of input/output, digital pins of which 6 pins can be used as PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) signals. The ADXL345 is a small and very thin accelerometer with low power required to be operated. The 3-axis accelerometer has a high (13-bit) resistance. Digital output data is formatted as 16-bit complete and accessible via an SPI (3 or 4 wire) digital interface ICs. The ADXL345 is employed to measure the gravitational acceleration in tilt-sensing applications and dynamic acceleration observatory. The vibration characteristics of the observatory are 0.2356m/s2, 0.2707m/s2, and 0.3056m/s2. These were generated while moving the dome to locate the celestial object.