PASCO CI-6558 User Manual

Instruction Sheet
for the PASCO
Model CI-6558 Rev A

A CCELERATION SENSOR

a

5

g

TARE

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Acceleration
Sensor

DIN connector

interface cable
with 8-pin DIN
connectors

to computer interface

012-06361C

11/03

bracket for
attaching to
Dynamics Cart

Introduction

The PASCO CI-6558 Rev A Acceleration Sensor is
designed for use with any PASCO computer interface
and Data Studio to measure accelerations ranging up to 5
times the earth's gravitational field with an accuracy of

0.01 g (g = acceleration of gravity, 9.8 m/s2). The sensor
produces a bipolar output that may vary from +5 g to -5
g, depending on the direction of acceleration. The
Acceleration Sensor is capable of resolving changes in
acceleration on the order of 1 milli-g when a gain of 10 is
applied in Data Studio.

The Acceleration Sensor has two built-in features for
configuring it to a particular application: (1) a tare button,
used to set the output of the sensor to 0 regardless of the
acceleration being applied (allows the effect of the
earth's gravitational field to be nulled); (2) a filter with
two settings—"slow" or "fast", setting the frequency
response of the Acceleration Sensor to a range suitable
for the application.

For experiments such as measuring the acceleration of
elevators, roller coasters, and automobiles, select the
"slow" setting. The slow filter reduces errors due to high
frequency vibrations and noise. For applications

involving mechanical systems, such as cart collision
experiments, select the fast setting.

The Data Studio software will display the output of the
Acceleration Sensor in units of m/s

2

, or in terms of g.

Very small values of acceleration can be measured by
taring the sensor and adding gain in Data Studio.

Equipment

Equipment Included:

• Acceleration Sensor

• 6-foot cable with 8-pin DIN connectors

• bracket, thumbscrew, and bolt for attaching
Acceleration Sensor to a Dynamics Cart

Additional Equipment Required:

• Any PASCO Data Studio computer
interface (300, 500, 700 or 750 series for Macintosh
or Windows)

Additional Equipment Suggested:

• Dynamics Cart (ME-9430 or ME-9454)

• Dynamics Track (ME-9429A or ME-9452)

© 1997 PASCO scientific

®

10101 Foothills Blvd. • P.O. Box 619011 • Roseville, CA 95678-9011 USA

Phone [phone] • FAX [phone] • web: www.pasco.com

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Acceleration Sensor

012-06361C

Setup Procedure

Setting Up Data Studio

1 Connect the Acceleration Sensor to any analog

channel on the computer interface box with interface
cable (Figure 1a),

or

insert the DIN plug of the Acceleration Sensor into
the jack of any analog channel on the computer
interface box (Figure 1b).

ANALOG CHANNELS

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Interface

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a

DIGITAL CHANNELS

B

2

ON

GAIN

=

GAIN

1,10:ISOLATED

1,10: REF TO GND

Plug into
any analog
channel.

5

8

g

5

5

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-

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1: REF TO GND

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ANALOG CHANNELS

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DIGITAL CHANNELS

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Plug into any

B

2

ON

=

GAIN

1,10:ISOLATED

1,10: REF TO GND

analog

N

O
I
T

-

A

R
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L

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channel.

2

5 To select units of g or m/s

the icon (

) and select the Measurements tab.

for the display double click

To select units of g, click the check box next to
Acceleration (g).

To select units of m/s

2

, click the check box next to

Acceleration, A (m/s/s) .

➤➤

➤

Note: Open additional display windows by

➤➤

following the procedure in steps 4 and 5.

2

6 If accelerations of less than 1 g or 10 m/s

are to be
measured, the sensitivity may be increased to
medium (10X gain) as follows:

Double-click on the Acceleration Sensor icon

(

n

C

=

=

GAIN

GAIN

1: REF TO GND

) in the setup window to open the Acceleration

Sensor dialog box. Click on the arrow under the

Calibration tab for Sensitivity and select Med (10x)
in the pop-up menu.

7 The default sampling rate is 10 samples/second.

Change the sampling rate, if required, by clicking the
General tab and using the - and + buttons to select the
desired sampling rate.

Figure 1. Connecting the Acceleration Sensor to the
computer interface.

2 Open the Data Studio program. In the setup window,

click and drag the analog plug icon (

analog channel icon (

) that corresponds to the

) to the

port the Acceleration Sensor is plugged into.

3 Select

from the pop-up

menu.

4 Open a display window, such as the Graph

display, by dragging and dropping the appropriate

display icon (

icon (

).

) to the Acceleration Sensor

Adjusting the Acceleration Sensor

1 Set the filter switch to slow for most applications. Set

it to high for collision experiments or similar
mechanical experiments (Figure 2).

2 Press the tare button to set the sensor to 0 under the

current conditions (Figure 2).

tare button

filter switch:
fast or slow

RESPONSE

SLOW

FAST

Figure 2. Sensor setup controls and arrow indicator
of the direction of sensitivity.

TAR

E

SENSOR

DIRECTION OF ACCELERATION

SENSOR

+

SENSOR

POSITION

-

a

5

g

a

ACCELERATION

5

g

C
I-6

5
5
8

indicator of direction
of sensitivity and
sensor position

2