The Complete Handbook of Accelerometers
Selection, Installation, Maintenance, and Business Practice for Professionals and Serious Users
by Alumigogo Books
non-fiction
From MEMS to piezoelectric, this handbook covers accelerometer selection, installation, maintenance, and the business of vibration sensing.
About this book
Accelerometers are everywhere: in your phone, in your car's stability control, on a wind turbine's gearbox, and in the payload bay of a rocket. But choosing the right one for a given job is rarely straightforward. This handbook cuts through the marketing language and provides a practical, engineering-focused guide to the entire lifecycle of an accelerometer, from the physics of measurement to the economics of a service business.
Inside, you will find a detailed breakdown of accelerometer types - capacitive MEMS, piezoelectric, piezoresistive, and servo - with honest guidance on their strengths and failure modes. The book explains how to read a datasheet critically, how to match sensor bandwidth and range to your actual vibration environment, and how to avoid common installation mistakes that ruin measurements. It also includes practical procedures for mounting, cabling, grounding, and calibration, plus a troubleshooting chapter that addresses the most frequent field failures.
For those looking beyond a single purchase, the handbook devotes a full chapter to the business landscape: how to position a reselling operation, what a vibration-analysis consulting service needs in terms of equipment and certification, and how to evaluate the major manufacturers by price tier and reliability. With a FAQ based on real buyer questions and a glossary of essential terms, this is the reference you will keep within arm's reach on the workbench.
Reader Reviews
Lisa Jackson
★★★★★It's a solid reference, but I was hoping for a bit more hard data on specific model comparisons. The chapter on installation was genuinely useful - I fixed a grounding issue in my test rig that had been causing noise for weeks. My reservation is that some sections feel a little too general; I'd have liked more real-world case studies with numbers. Overall, it's a good purchase if you're new to the field, but seasoned engineers might find parts of it basic.
Mark Miller
★★★★★This is the book I wish I'd had when I started in predictive maintenance. The chapter on selecting the right accelerometer is spot on and saved me from buying an expensive sensor that would have been the wrong choice for our conveyor system. The troubleshooting chapter is practical and well-organized. I knocked off a star because the 'Business Opportunities' chapter felt a bit out of place for my needs, but I can see how others would use it. Worth the money.
Edward Thompson
★★★★★Finally, an accelerometer book that doesn't read like a datasheet or a sales brochure. The explanation of the different sensing technologies - especially the trade-offs between piezoelectric and MEMS - is the clearest I've seen. I particularly appreciated the detailed section on mounting; getting surface flatness and torque right is something that's rarely covered in this depth. I'm a design engineer, and I've already referenced this book three times this week. It's earned a permanent spot on my desk.
Emily Hill
★★★★★I'm a hobbyist building a drone flight controller, and this handbook was far more useful than any forum thread I've found. The explanation of how to interpret sensitivity and noise specs helped me pick a sensor that actually works for my application. The glossary at the back is a nice touch. The only reason it's not 5 stars is that some of the industrial maintenance sections weren't really relevant to my small-scale projects, but they're still well-written. I'd recommend it to anyone getting into the electronics side of things.