Best platform for simple(ish) accelerometer logging project

[calmsea]

Hi,

I have a project in mind that I'd like to try and implement as a way of learning microcontroller programming, among other things.
In short, I want to sample and store the output of an accelerometer at a fairly high frequency in order to create a picture of the motion of ocean waves over a period of at least a few hours (for an art project).
I'm thinking a VC accelerometer since it would have to be quite sensitive and the frequency response would have to go as low as 0.1 Hz (to pickup those big swells).
My first big question is what processor platform to use. PIC? Arduino? Something else?
It's going to be sitting out in the wild of course, at relatively low but stable temperature.
In order to minimise noise I'm thinking of sampling at a fairly high frequency, maybe even 100Hz, and either writing a large amount of data and filtering it in "post", or doing some DSP onboard and writing at a lower frequency. Does that make sense? What should I use for storage?
I have some programming experience - I'm learning C++ now.
I've built one PIC project before - a mouse translator - assembling it on perfboard from a schematic and programming from code which I didn't really look at. Not sure what happened to the programmer though, I haven't seen it since I moved.
I'd love to hear any thoughts. Thanks!

 

[jgauthier]

What are your requirements? Any kind of networking, or wireless? Personally, I like the Atmega chips (what the arduinos are based on). They have a good number of inputs, easy to get going, and not hard to program.

You could go all the way to something like a raspberry pi, but you get more complicated. You have to have some linux knowledge, and programming. Plus there's no analog inputs, so you have to incorporate an ADC.

I have done a few projects with Atmegas, inlcuding a remote control lego car that really worked well.

 

[KrisBlueNZ]

A micro SD card is probably ideal for storing the data.

 

[calmsea]

Yeah, micro SD is probably just what I need.
I'm definitely leaning toward Arduino. It just seems so well supported, especially as a beginner. I just read about a library for writing to FAT formatted SD cards, and adafruit has breakout boards for MicroSD and a 16 bit ADC with differential inputs.