We are now selling version 3 of the BerryIMU.

BerryIMUv3 has been updated with the latest sensors, resulting in lower noise and a faster output rate (up to 6,664 times a second!).

We have also included level shifters for 5V MCUs. Which means you can safely connect the BerryIMUv3 directly to an Arduino.

BerryIMUv3 is compatible with the SparkFun QWIIC echo system.

We sell a QWIIC connector and cable for the Raspberry here.  This does away with the need to solder headers onto the BerryIMUv3 when connecting to a Raspberry Pi.

Some of the features.

• Gyroscope and accelerometer output rates of 6.7KHz (6,664 times a second!)
• Detect tilt, tap and double tap
• Pedometer, step detector and step counter
• Interrupt pins
• Read temperature
• supports both 3.3V and 5V
• I2C and SPI
• “Always-on” experience with low power
  consumption for both accelerometer and gyroscope

In this post I will show how to convert the raw values read from an accelerometer to 'Gs'.

Git repository here
The code can be pulled down to your Raspberry Pi with;

The code for this guide can be found under the python-BerryIMU-measure-G directory.

An accelerometer measures proper acceleration, which is the acceleration it experiences relative to freefall. This is most commonly called "G-Force" (G)

For example, an accelerometer at resting on a table would measure 1G ( 9.81 m/s2) straight upwards. By contrast, accelerometers in free fall and accelerating due to the gravity of Earth will measure zero.

The accelerometer used by the BerryIMU is a MEMS sensors(LSM9DS0), which outputs the raw readings as mg/LSB.
Most MEMS accelerometers use this output format.

mg = milli-G's (just like milliliters)
1mG = 0.001 G's of acceleration, so 1000mG = 1G.
LSB = Least Significant bit, which is the last bit on the right.

The LSM9DS0 outputs a 16 bit value for the accelerometer readings.

If you look at the characteristics of the LSM9DS0 in the datasheet, you can see the sensitivity levels for the accelerometer highlighted in red below and the corresponding values for the LSB, which are highlighted in blue. You can download the datasheet here;

The raw values from the accelerometer are  multiplied by the sensitive level to get the value in G.

Let's use FS ±2 g as an example sensitivity level.  As the range is -2 to +2, this would be a total of 4g.  Or 4,000 Milli-Gs.
The output is 16 bits. 16 bits equals 65,535.   This means we can get 65,535 different readings for the range  between -2 and +2. (or -2,000 MilliGs and +2,000 MilliGs)

 4,000 MilliGs / 65,535 = 0.061

Each time the LSB changes by one, the value changes by 0.061, which is the value highlighted in blue in the table above.

For FS ±8 g, the range would be -8 to +8, which is a total of 16,000 MilliGs.
 16,000 MilliGs / 65,535 = 0.244

Example when using ±2g sensitivity
In the table below, every time the raw values increments by one, the final calculated value(which is MilliG) increments by 0.061

RAW  	BINARY	LSB value for +/-2G	Calc MilliG
16	10000		0.061		0.976
17	10001		0.061		1.037
18	10010		0.061		1.098

The above values of 16,17 and 18 above a very low and only used for illustration.
If your accelerometer is horizontal and resting and at rest when using a sensitive level of ±2g, the raw value for Z should hover  around 16,500.
16,500 X 0.061 = 1006 MilliGs or 1G

Example when using ±8g sensitivity
In the table below, every time the raw values increments by one, the final calculated value(which is MilliG) increments by 0.244

RAW  	BINARY	LSB value for +/-2G	Calc MilliG
16	10000		0.244		3.904
17	10001		0.244		4.148
18	10010		0.244		4.392

If you accelerometer is horizontal and at rest, when using a sensitive level of ±8g, the raw value for Z should hover  around 4,475.

4,175 X 0.244 = 1018.7 MilliGs or 1G

The Code

The two above examples are easy to implement in python;
±8g Sensitivity

writeACC(CTRL_REG2_XM, 0b00010000) #+/- 8G full scale
print("G Value for Z axis %f G" % ((ACCz * 0.244)/1000))

The first line above is used to initialise the accelerometer with a sensitivity level of ±2g.
The second line prints the calculated value as G using the raw values from the accelerometer.

±2g Sensitivity

writeACC(CTRL_REG2_XM, 0b00000000) #+/- 2G full scale
print("G Value for Z axis %f G" % ((ACCz * 0.061)/1000))

The first line above is used to initialise the accelerometer with a sensitivity level of ±2g.
The second line prints the calculated value as G uses using raw values from the accelerometer.
Below is a snippet from the main program;

import smbus
import time
import math
from LSM9DS0 import *
import datetime
bus = smbus.SMBus(1)




def writeACC(register,value):
        bus.write_byte_data(ACC_ADDRESS , register, value)
        return -1




def readACCx():
        acc_l = bus.read_byte_data(ACC_ADDRESS, OUT_X_L_A)
        acc_h = bus.read_byte_data(ACC_ADDRESS, OUT_X_H_A)
	acc_combined = (acc_l | acc_h <<8)

	return acc_combined  if acc_combined < 32768 else acc_combined - 65536


def readACCy():
        acc_l = bus.read_byte_data(ACC_ADDRESS, OUT_Y_L_A)
        acc_h = bus.read_byte_data(ACC_ADDRESS, OUT_Y_H_A)
	acc_combined = (acc_l | acc_h <<8)

	return acc_combined  if acc_combined < 32768 else acc_combined - 65536


def readACCz():
        acc_l = bus.read_byte_data(ACC_ADDRESS, OUT_Z_L_A)
        acc_h = bus.read_byte_data(ACC_ADDRESS, OUT_Z_H_A)
	acc_combined = (acc_l | acc_h <<8)

	return acc_combined  if acc_combined < 32768 else acc_combined - 65536




	
#initialise the accelerometer
writeACC(CTRL_REG1_XM, 0b01100111) #z,y,x axis enabled, continuos update,  100Hz data rate
writeACC(CTRL_REG2_XM, 0b00011000) #+/- 8G full scale



while True:
	
	
	#Read the accelerometer,gyroscope and magnetometer values
	ACCx = readACCx()
	ACCy = readACCy()
	ACCz = readACCz()

	print("##### X = %f G  #####" % ((ACCx * 0.244)/1000)),
	print(" Y =   %fG  #####" % ((ACCy * 0.244)/1000)),
	print(" Z =  %fG  #####" % ((ACCz * 0.244)/1000))

	
	
	#slow program down a bit, makes the output more readable
	time.sleep(0.03)