Impact force measuring sensor

Thread Starter

DZ92

Joined May 29, 2021
1
Hi all!
I dont know much about sensors or hardware in general (Im a computer science student) so I would really appreciate some help here :)
I am looking for a flexible impact force sensor (for measuring a punch) , it needs to be around 10X10 cm and I want to connect it to Arduino or raspberry pi.
Can anyone point me to a site that sells what im looking for?
Any help will be greatly appreciated!
 

Reloadron

Joined Jan 15, 2015
7,501
A Google of "flexible force sensor" should get you a wide range of force sensors. Then it becomes a matter of deciding what will best fit in your application like round or square and the size. 10 X 10 cm is pretty small so you may also want to look at strain gauges. Be it a flexible force sensor or strain gauge once you have something that fits your design then I would think about making it part of a bridge circuit. A Google of strain gauge bridge circuits should yield some results. Then the amplified output can be connected to either an Arduino or Raspberry Pi but since a Pi has no analog input you will need to add one. Next if you really need to accurately measure the force of a punch you will need a means to calibrate things to measure your chosen units of force. Also, a nice addition would be to chart the punch force. The force of a punch much like the recoil of a rifle will have a peak force and would be interesting to chart. That is just simple data logging. Before I forget using either Arduino or Pi I would consider an ADS1115 for an analog front end input.

Ron
 

Reloadron

Joined Jan 15, 2015
7,501
Thinking further about this you are sure you want to measure the force of a punch using a flexible sensor? If I punch a flexible surface, one that has "give" I am not going to measure the actual force of the impact. If I want to measure actual force of the punch I would be hitting a hard surface and using an accelerometer having a sensitivity of mV/g something along these lines. As can be seen the newer versions have digital outputs making them very micro-processor (Arduino) friendly.

Ron
 
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