Sparkfun: Large Piezo Vibration Sensor - With Mass

Overview

The Large Piezo Vibration Sensor is a basic piezo sensor which is often used for flex, touch, vibration and shock measurements. This sensor acts like a small capacitor which discharges up to +/-90V when the film moves back and forth. Some common uses this type of sensor are for impact sensing or as a flexible switch. A larger scale example are piezo sensors that are laid within the road for use of traffic signals.

This sensor can be purchased at SparkFun.

The Technical Manual and datasheet can also be found on Sparkfun's website.

Usage

Since the piezo sensor acts like a small capacitor, you can connect on a bread board as such. However an additional resistor is needed in order affect the low frequency of measurement. This is called the "loading effect". Additionally, if the signal from the piezo sensor is too low an op amp may be necessary.

More specific information and circuit diagrams can be found in the Technical Manual on pages 36-40.