Experiment 6 A/B: Measurement of Pressure and Acceleration with Wheatstone Bridge

EXPERIMENT 6 A/B
(May 5 2015)

Measurement of Pressure and Acceleration

Prelab Questions: Having prepared for the lab experiment, including reviewing the earlier
Experiments and attending lecture, you will have to answer the following questions
and turn them in with the prelab summary. All prelab submissions are individual and to
be computer-generated:
1) Give an example of how will you measure hysteresis effects for the
accelerometer?
2) Describe two different ways in which you calculate the spring constant in
this lab.
3) Considering the component of the force of gravity on the accelerometer
transducer, why should its voltage be plotted against cosine theta as
opposed to simply theta?
4) What is the relationship between the values of the four resistors of a Wheatstone
bridge when the bridge is in balance?
Objectives
1.
2.
3.
4.

To investigate and calibrate a pressure transducer.

To investigate and calibrate an accelerometer.
To examine the dynamic and static responses of an accelerometer on the end of a spring and in
doing so revisit omega = (k/m)1/2.
Build and measure the response of a Wheatstone Bridge circuit.
Part I: Calibration of Pressure Transducer
I.

Set-Up:
a. You will calibrate an electronic resistance-bridge type pressure
transducer using a water manometer over a range of 0 to 100 cm
height of water. This is an example of a so-called first principles
calibration in which the reference (the height of a column of water)
derives directly from basic physical principles, and requires only
that you measure a length with a meter stick.
b. The setup of equipment for the pressure sensor calibration is
shown below in Figure 1A. Note. The Pressure Conditioning Board
is using a 524 instrumentation OpAmp for signal gain.
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Experiment 6 A/B: Measurement of Pressure and Acceleration with Wheatstone Bridge

Figure 1A: Experimental arrangement for Pressure measurements.

Figure 1B: Strain and Pressure Conditioning Board

Experiment 6 A/B: Measurement of Pressure and Acceleration with Wheatstone Bridge

c.

Wiring connections and Conditioning Board setup: Power for the

Conditioning Board is derived from the Proto-Board. Connect +15,
ground, and -15 from the Proto-Board to the Power IN terminal strip
at the left hand side of the Conditioning Board. Connect the
pressure sensor leads to the 4-position Pressure Sensor terminal
strip, following the wire colors as shown above. Connect the
Conditioning Board output terminals to the handheld DMM. There
are two DIP switches on the Conditioning Board. Input Select:
Move all switches to the Pressure side. Gain Select: Move the
X100 position switch to the right. All other switches to the left.
d. Review your wiring and switch selections. If all is correct, power up
the Proto-Board.

II.

Procedure:
a. Initially set the height of the water in both thistle tubes to
approximately 1 meter. Both water columns should be very close to
equal heights. Read the voltage from the DMM and record it for
delta h = 0 (delta h is the difference in water heights). Note: Use the
NULL softkey on the DMM to initially obtain 0 V.
b. Obtain additional data by increasing the difference in water heights
and plot bridge voltage vs. delta h to establish a calibration
curve
i. Leaving one thistle tube stationary, incrementally decrease
the height of the other thistle tube (5cm increments is a good
choice; do not exceed a total of 100cm difference).
ii. Take 20 or so measurements decreasing the height.
iii. Take 5 measurements increasing the height back to the top,
to check for possible hysteresis effect.
c. Plot volts (Y-axis) vs. cmH2O (X-axis) increasing and decreasing
height (use different symbols). On the graph, comment whether
hysteresis is an issue. Calculate the slope and y-intercept. Using
the data provided on the web calculate the slope, y-intercept and
their uncertainty; also include the sensitivity of the listed pressure
transducer. How does that compare with your measured values?

Experiment 6 A/B: Measurement of Pressure and Acceleration with Wheatstone Bridge

Part II: Calibration of Accelerometer

Yellow Wire

Figure 2A: Accelerometer Wiring Diagram

I.

Set-Up:
a. A block diagram of the equipment used for the accelerometer
calibration is shown in figure 2A above and figure 2B below.
b. Power for the accelerometers is the 5 volts and ground from the
Proto-Board. In fig 2A above the red, black, green, and yellow wires
are all bundled together in a 4-conductor cable. You have access to
the wires at the open end of the cable.

Figure 2B: Experimental arrangement for Accelerometer Tests

Experiment 6 A/B: Measurement of Pressure and Acceleration with Wheatstone Bridge

II.

Procedure:
a. Set up the tilt-table accelerometer. Review your wiring and when
you are sure it is correct, power up the Proto-Board.
b. Obtain data, angle vs. bridge voltage.
i. Set tilt angle at 90o. Read the voltage directly off of the
DMM. Note: Use the NULL softkey on the DMM to initially
obtain 0 V at the vertical zero-G position.
ii. Make 5-10 measurements incrementally decreasing angle,
manually recording the angle and the voltage at say
90,80,70,,0 degrees.
iii. Repeat 2.b, but starting at zero and increase the angle
(0,10,20,90) to check for any hysteresis.
c. Record the static sensitivity for the accelerometer (listed on the
spec sheet, mV/g) to compare later with your calibrated value.
d.

Plot volts vs. angle and volts vs acceleration in terms of e.g.

(acceleration due to gravity), (acceleration = g x cosine of the
angle) for the accelerometer for increasing and decreasing angles.
Calculate slope and y-intercept using Excel. What is the measured
sensitivity (in units of mV/g) of your accelerometer setup?

Part III: Frequency Response Dynamic Calibration: Using the equipment

1/2
setup shown in Figure 3, conduct a simple check of omega = (k/m)
for the
fundamental mode of a mass spring system.
I.

Set-Up & Procedure:

Spring setup

Oscilloscope Horiz = 500 mS/div, Vert = 200 mV/div

Figure 3: Arrangement for accelerometer frequency response tests.

a.

The accelerometer is attached to the weight-pan provided. This weight pan is

approximately 123g 138g.
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Experiment 6 A/B: Measurement of Pressure and Acceleration with Wheatstone Bridge

b.

First determine the spring constant k, directly (Static Method) by measuring F and x.
(F = -kx) where F is force, k is the spring constant, and x is the displacement. To do
this add several weights to the weight-pan and attach the whole system to the spring,
collect at least 4 data points.

c.

Take the value written on the weights as the true value of the weights (in grams). Note:
Do not exceed 1000g (best to keep the max weight at or below 900g).
Allow the system to oscillate (Dynamic Method) for each of the masses; I suggest a
small displacement. E.g. use approx. masses of 250g, 350g, 450g, 500g.
Set the oscilloscope horizontal (time) scale to 500 mS/div, and the vertical (voltage)
scale to 500 mV/div.
With one of several weights on the pan, allow the assembly to oscillate by pushing
down the pan and releasing. Note: Push down the weight pan approx 5 cm, and then
smoothly release it. Do not exceed 1000g (best to keep the max weight at or below
900g).
Dont overdo the oscillation; a modest oscillation is enough.
Observe the trace on the oscilloscope. Once you see a good trace, hit the Run/Stop
button to freeze the scope display. Then, use the cursors to measure the period of the
oscillation. Also capture and save the scope screen image. Print out front panel,
labeling frequency, total weight on spring.
Calculate k using the following methods:
i.
Static Method: [ F = -kx ] (Use F vs. x , solve for k )
1/2
ii.
Dynamic Method: [omega = (k/m) ] (Use the period determined from the
accelerometer scope trace plot to get frequency ( = omega / 2 ) and solve for k).
Remember that the pan itself is part of the total mass, which is oscillating up and
down and must be accounted for in the calculations.

d.
e.
f.

g.
h.

i.

Question 1: Why can we use an accelerometer to measure frequency?

Notes:
1) It is up to the experimenter to determine the y -intercept of the sensitivity curves.
It is not necessarily zero. The accelerometer need not read 0V at 90 degrees. The
pressure transducer need not read 0 V when the 2 columns of water are at equal
heights.
2) Remember, for accelerometer calibration, plot voltage vs. g cos theta. (Ask
yourself why voltage is not just plotted vs angle?)

Part IV: Wheatstone bridge and measurement of unknown resistance

Many sensors are based on a resistance change as a response to some physical process like
temperature, humidity, light, or a strain gauge among other features of the physical
environment. A Wheatstone bridge circuit is useful in accurately measuring small changes in
resistance. For example, the resistor shown as RX in Figure 4 below could be a sensor which
exhibits a resistance change as it responds to a physical change of some sort. Wheatstone
bridge circuits have various configurations. You will be using one in which there is only one
element varying (RX in Figure 4). For increased sensitivity there are other configurations of the
bridge with two or four elements varying.
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Experiment 6 A/B: Measurement of Pressure and Acceleration with Wheatstone Bridge

Setup and Procedure:

Observe that the Wheatstone bridge you will be using is already contained on the
Strain/Pressure Conditioning board. You will complete the bridge by attaching a
decade resistance box for resistor RX in Fig 4. Begin by connecting +15 volts, -15
volts, and ground from the protoboard supply terminals to the Strain/Pressure board
Power IN terminals. Recheck your connections. Do not apply power yet.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

f.

g.

Connect the decade resistance box to the bridge RX by wiring the decade box terminals to the
Strain Gage top terminals on the Strain/Pressure Conditioning board.
Switch the Strain Pressure Conditioning board micro switches to SG (Strain Gage) and Gain
of 100.
Dial in the same resistance on the box as the other resistors in the bridge. Note that some
boards are built with 120 ohm Wheatstone Bridge resistors and some boards are built with 350
ohms. Dial in the resistance used in your particular bridge.
Set your multimeter to DC volts, and connect it to the Output of the Strain/Pressure board,
positive (red) lead to Signal, black lead to Gnd.
Switch on the protoboard power. 4 LEDs should light on the Strain/Pressure board. With the
R resistance value (120 or 350 ohms) dialed in on the decade box, you should see a small
voltage as measured across the bridge (Vout). Then press the Null button on the multimeter to
give a zero reading.
Now, measure and record at least 5 points on either side of the zero point, by dialing in
increasing or decreasing resistances from the resistance box in 2 ohm increments. Do not
exceed 10 ohms total departure on either side of the zero point, e.g. 340-360 or 110-130.
When you have collected your data (at least 10 data points, 5 on each side of the zero point),
plot the data (Excel or some other graphing program) to obtain a graph similar to the graph
shown in Fig. 5. Note that the graph is a plot of the bridge voltage versus 1/(RX+350).

Figure 4. Circuit for the Wheatstone bridge.

R = 120 (A lab sections) or 350 (B lab sections). The bridge is driven by a 5V supply on the
Strain/Pressure board. The decade resistance box, connected to the Strain Gage terminals on the
Strain/Pressure board, will substitute resistances for Rx. Vout is the bridge voltage output which
appears at the Output terminals on the Strain/Pressure board.

Experiment 6 A/B: Measurement of Pressure and Acceleration with Wheatstone Bridge

VOLTS
4.00

-4.00
0.00141

1/(RX + 350), ohms

-1

0.00146

Figure 5. Example bridge output voltage as a function of [1/(RX+350)]. You will use either
120 or 350 for your calculations depending on which bridge resistors you have in
your setup. Substitute 120 in the x-axis formulation shown if you are using a
120-ohm bridge. Note: The inverse of resistance is conductance, and the unit is
mho.

Experiment 6 A/B: Measurement of Pressure and Acceleration with Wheatstone Bridge

MMA7361L
Figure 6: Block diagrams of two modern IC accelerometers.
The MXA2500U uses the movement of a thermal bubble to detect accelerations.
The MMA7361 uses a capacitor plate on a bending beam. In this lab we are
currently using the MMA7361 device.
- Nicholas Busan, Steve Roberts & Rahul Kapadia (4th November 2013), Version 4
- Nicholas Busan, Joon Lee Nov. 10 2014
-NB May 5 2015. SWR May 6, 2015.
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