Conclusion
The final product of our accelerometer turned out different than we had originally set out but proved to be an effective device for measuring the acceleration of an object in one dimension. The circuit design worked with little hiccups and only required slight adjustments from the original design. Overall, the quality of the electronics helped out quite a deal, such as using multi-layer ceramic capacitors over electrolytic, and ensuring the wiring was reduced in the final product. An additional improvement could have been made by using a more precise capacitance measuring device than the Arduino. While great at measuring a change in capacitance, there are variations in its accuracy which make it difficult to get a constant reading which is required for any deal of precision. Given more time, we would have used a more accurate, special made sensor which was provided to us.
The construction of the outer housing and oscillating system exceeded our expectations. The end product was larger than we set out for it to be, but this was a necessary trade-off for the time given for the project, and for our resources/abilities. Using PVC and solid brass rather than miniaturizing the system allowed for us to experiment with how we wanted to set up the sensors, and with the starting compression of the system, as well as give us a macro-scale representation of how the micro-scale accelerometers used commonly in circuits function. The quality of our end sensors and known mass charged plate also exceeded expectations, as we were able to use pure copper and pure brass respectively.
If given the chance to work on the project from scratch, I would spend less time on testing and more time on building the system with the parts that will be in the final product. With this, we could spend less time making sure the circuit operated correctly, and more time gaining data on the final product, as well as having more time to perform calibrations, which we did not get to do before the writing of this paper. Additionally, many of the issues we had with the circuit from the beginning were alleviated when we starting using the higher quality materials in the final product. Even though the full accelerometer was not calibrated to work correctly, the functioning device that we did make, which acts as a capacitance sensor to determine when the system is under high accelerations (<10 m/s2), the actual function of the device exceeded our expectations for the project. Given more time, the device could have been tested more thoroughly in its final configuration, and a more precise device could be produced as a result.