I am just at the beginning of a new hobby project and I am hoping someone can help. I have a 3 axis accelerometer which is connected to an Atmega16. I am using the Atmega16's 10 bit ADC's to read the voltages from the accelerometer. I am getting the values from the AVR through a comm port then displaying these values on my PC.
What I am finding is that the return values are fluctuating a small amount even when the accelerometer is stationary. And when I move the accelerometer I am getting a lot of variation in the values. I have been reading a lot about what other people have done with accelerometers and there is some talk about both software and hardware filters. They talk about filtering to certain bandwidths but I don't understand what that means when I am just measuring a dc voltage. My understanding of electronics is very basic.
I was hoping someone can explain in idiots terms a bit about filters and how I would use them in my applications. I was also wondering how would I smooth the data using software?
What I am finding is that the return values are fluctuating a small amount even when the accelerometer is stationary. And when I move the accelerometer I am getting a lot of variation in the values. I have been reading a lot about what other people have done with accelerometers and there is some talk about both software and hardware filters. They talk about filtering to certain bandwidths but I don't understand what that means when I am just measuring a dc voltage. My understanding of electronics is very basic.
I was hoping someone can explain in idiots terms a bit about filters and how I would use them in my applications. I was also wondering how would I smooth the data using software?