Vibration Analyzer for $20

You dont need the scope, take the data straight into excel, would provide the same graphing capability. IF you use google excel, its free

Could you do a detailed assembly video with close ups and a diagram? I am not an electronics guy but I would love making one of these. I’m rebuilding my vintage car engine and want to balance everything. Excellent video, your students are lucky to have you! Thanks!

Pretty straightforward. Biggest thing I'd change is making one box that holds the batteries, voltage regulator, and all the connections. That way the loose wires can connect to some terminal blocks, and you can put in some test-point style wire loops to connect the scope probes to(or binding posts/banana jacks if preferred). I'd probably 3d print an enclosure, it's not much work if you use the same form factor prototyping PCB for multiple different projects.

Edit: that accelerometer module already has a voltage regulator on it, so you probably don't need to add one, just might need to tweak the resistor values for the led/phototransistor.

Adafruit makes parts for what? Something about robots? Anyone know what he's referring to?

Hi, is it possible to measure a guitar body vibration with this?

1. How does the accelerometer output in mV gets converted to displacement/velocity/acceleration. Does picoscope software does it automatically?

2. Can we retrieve the discreet data points in x and y coordinates from picoscope software to MS excel for any further signal processing ?

Can you use time to triangulate to see where the vibration is coming from with multiple accelerometers?

Obrigado sempre

Hello from Down Under in Sydney Australia.
I tried a similar Idea using the same 3 axis Arduino accelerometer connected to three separate LM3914 ten LED voltage indicators. I was trying to identify the X, Y, or Z vibrations in my 1965 Mini Cooper S engine.
No matter what I did I could not get them to "Zero" at the same output voltage when they were stationary. FINALLY I realized that ZERO for the Z axis really means that it is in freefall.
When it is stationary it is actually accelerating upwards at 1g. You have combined the three axis outputs for the single CRO trace. If you had kept them separate you would have have had the different output for the Z axis. Maybe that was the cause of your wide "zero" trace?
Maybe gravity is -1g down here......... ????? Thanks Dave D.

Hello from China

I have an annoying harmonic vibration buzz going on in my HotRod and I want to analyze different locations under the car when it is running down the road. I know what you put together will do the job but I was hoping you could direct me to an app I can use on my Windows tablet that I can connect your sensor package into. I'm hella rusty on my electronics prowis so if you could maybe make a schmetic on how to build the USB connection wiring to the devise to communicate w/ the Oscilloscope Software that would be a huge help..... Thanks so much.

Amazing!

can it measure from 10hz to 10khz vibration?

How does the chip output go to the computer?

Thank you very much for yor videos.

Great video, great humor, awesome presentation! Thanks for your time and expertise.

Great detailed demostratoon

would it be possible to wire all 3 axis together so as to see on 1 single channel? Ideally so you could have 4 sensors on a vehicle and watch each corner and not miss any detail. Thanks for sharing this!

May be a dumb question but how does one determine a motors acceleration using this sensor? A dc motor

Hello sir, If you see this you might be able to help me, on the infrared pickup, I just finished building both these items. Is there in a way to look at the rpm easily. Seems everything is hertz or cycle time, was wondering if there is a way where it figures pulses per minute so I can move the rulers in and measure the rpm in different spots of the recorded measurement. Thanks so much

What tape are you using for the position sensor? I want to use this to sync a cylinder on older diesels for example, i just diagnosed a stump grinder with a 4bt cummins that had mechanical injection using a pulse sensor on exhaust and a pressure transducer on the dipstick tube but could id the cylinder on the scope.

Picoscope is more than 220$, not 20$

Thanks. But did you try tu use NVH for android application to figure vibrations out in the car?

electrical diagram for mounting the accelerometer ?????

Great presentation Sir! I was looking for a way to develop a system to balance numerous items; truck drive shaft (custom), grinders which I use to make tooling for my lathe and CNC mill, props for RC aircraft, etc. I cobbled up a setup using a piezo connected to my Pico 4425, it worked great for concept. I wanted to be able to include angular measurement to facilitate accurate placement of balancing weight. Your system provides a great platform upon which to build; thinking of adding a 3 axis accelerometer into it also. Bottom line, you did great: lead-in, demo, and production! Thank you very much for the production of the video, and BTW, I did "like" and subscribe. Best wishes!

seem that the accelerometer and the optical position sensor get a phase shift (before or after) depending on how much I press the sensor against the bearing where I measure the vibration 🤷‍♂️

Thanks.great stuff

X=μ|{

i wonder if you can balace a shaft / multy cilinder crank with this , if you use two of those xyz thingies and mount them on the front and rear holder (each holder made from two main bearingcaps bearings hung from treaded rod hung from a solid object (might be a concrete floor or wall ) and use each to drive an oxiloscope or switch between the sensors and have a way to overlay them , get the timing / degree mark on the crank of where the imbalance tops out , now inbalance in a shaft should cause the front and back to move independently so you need to remove weight at each end and in different spots per side to get it to run in a straight line without swinging side to side
one option i was thinking on was using two disks for degreeing the camshaft and a pointer on each end (though that might mess up the balance on its own ) or a numbered piece of sticker pasted on a round part and point the strobe to that in such a way and at the right angle so that a change in direction will light up and freese the strip / disk and pointer and shows the degree number on the disk / strip
think you can use differen weight neomedium magnets and move them around a little untill it balanced to find out the weight needed to be added or removed across from where the weight is
along with using bobweights you should get a pretty acurate way to get the imbalance though the amount of wieght i would need to remove would take some trail and error
as a last option i wonder if you in some way can mount a rotary encoder to the shaft with a flexible holder (like a piece of glasfiber fishing rod mounted to the same frame as the treaded rods of the crank holder )or hang it from the axle and put a weight on the body to alow it to spin in the air without the body moving to prevent the encoder again from messing up the measurments ((Single-phase 600 pulses /R,Two phase 4 frequency doubling to 2400 pulses per rotation ) but it handle the rpm ?) , that way you should be able to find the exact location of the inbalance back without the use of the infrared sensor and shiny surface , still need to ponder about finding out the exact weight you need to remove or add but thats probably like you said getting to know youre setup , a larger stroke crank should take less material removal than a shorter trow crank , spinning it faster or slower allso should affect vibration / amplification

Great Video, I am currently working on performing the modal analysis of a wheel rim but I don't have analyzer. Can I use the same procedure to perform the modal analysis? Any suggestion will be helpful. Thanks

Man, this is good stuff. Back in 2007 when i went to ford asset school, technology wasn't this available yet. Sure they had chassis ears, but for cost, it wasnt justified usually. I just got my 4ch pico recently and im looking to add NVH capability, so this video is perfect.
I also dabled in arduino for a couple things. I used my arduino for 5v for a pressure sensor to do waveform analysis yesterday.
I also have a 3d printer, so if you would like, come up with an enclosure design for housing the parts and i can CAD & print it for you, no charge.

Thanks for the video explanation. This is great information. I have some Piezo sensors from Spark Fun and I was wondering if I could use them in place of the accelerometer you used. I searched "vibration analysis piezo" and came across your other video about the pulse sensor but it was a little different concept I think. Do you think a Piezo could be used in place of the ADXL335 in this video?

Thanks for the explanation "how its made"!!!!

You made me change my mind about what ugly means, lol. Thank you very much for the creative project.

You need write a book or books. I would love to buy them. Videos are great but I prefer books for reference material.

That's great. I will make one of these. Would I be able to balance a crankshaft with this? Would I need to do anything special to make a crankshaft balancer?

Great video mate, what computer program do you use? Or scope?

i get the part where you made the sensors ... i also understood the PC is on the other hand ... what i dont understand/can't see is what is in the middle of those both. can you please explain a bit on that part

Shaun, looks great. Can the Pico NVH software be used to obtain results.

Can you please make a follow up video? I made the vibration analyzer, how to you use it to monitor the condition of motors? What parameters to look for and how to perform predictive maintenance. Thank you

Thanks, Ill be making one of these.

Very interesting. Thanks for the information.

how accurate are the readings on these?

I was hoping this would come up. Thanks.

Very interesting. Many thanks for the information.