How to Select Tilt sensor?

As the name suggests, the tilt sensor is to measure the angle of the carrier through sensor technology. The application of tilt sensor is more and more extensive, and it has been widely used in the attitude detection field such as radar antenna angle measurement, bridge, mountain, dam, tall building, engineering vehicle robot arm angle measurement. So how do we choose a suitable tilt sensor?

1. Select by application environment

If you want to apply to a static environment or uniform motion environment, choose a static tilt sensor, if your actual use of the environment is dynamic, non-uniform motion, then choose a dynamic tilt sensor.
1.1 Inclination sensors are divided into two types according to the principle, one type can be called static inclination sensors, which are more widely used in the monitoring of static or quasi-static objects such as DAMS, bridges, towering buildings. For example, the ER-TS-3160VO is a static inclination sensor that can measure the tilt angle of an object in a static state, and can be used to check the tilt angle of bridges, DAMS, and monitor the angle of various construction machinery. It has the characteristics of small size, strong impact resistance and vibration resistance.
1.2 Another type is the dynamic inclination sensor, which adopts the latest inertial navigation technology to avoid the loss of accuracy of the sensor in the process of motion and vibration, and can be applied to vehicles, aircraft, construction machinery, robots and other motion carriers to measure the attitude of the carrier with high precision in motion.

2. Select by transmission mode

If you have high requirements for environment, noise, and mobility, you can choose wireless, if you need high signal stability, long life, and low failure rate you can choose wired. According to the different data transmission mode, the inclination sensor can be divided into wireless and wired two kinds.

2.1 Wireless tilt sensors transmit tilt signals through wireless communication technology without cable connection, making them highly flexible. The main advantage of wireless tilt sensors is their flexibility and convenience. Since no wiring is required, the sensor can be easily installed wherever it is needed, regardless of laying cables. In addition, the wireless tilt sensor also has the advantages of high mobility, easy expansion and maintenance. For example, the ER-TS-12200-Modbus is a wireless inclination sensor that does not need to use a traditional cable to transmit inclination signals, but uses a lithium battery to power and wirelessly transmit inclination data via Bluetooth and ZigBee. This wireless digital signal transmission method eliminates the tedious wiring and noise interference caused by long cable transmission. However, wireless sensors also have some disadvantages, such as signal quality may be affected by radio interference, and signal stability and reliability may not be as good as wired sensors. Wireless inclinometer sensors can be widely used in bridge construction, transmission tower/signal tower tilt, dangerous buildings, ancient buildings, warehouse shelves, smart towns, smart lighthouses, fan tower tilt monitoring and other scenarios.

2.2 Wired inclination sensors usually use RS485 bus or other similar bus protocols to transmit inclination signals. RS485 is a serial communication protocol widely used in the field of industrial automation, which has the advantages of noise suppression and high signal quality. The main advantage of the wired inclinometer sensor is that the signal stability is high, and the signal quality is not easy to be disturbed by the wired transmission mode. In addition, wired sensors have long service life, low maintenance costs, and low failure rates. However, this sensor also has some disadvantages, such as the need to lay cables, high requirements for the field environment, and wiring difficulties may exist in some application scenarios. Wired inclination sensors can be widely used in construction, bridge, dam, shield jacking, rail transit, high-rise buildings, slope monitoring and other scenarios.

3. Select by the number of axes

According to the need to measure the inclination of several directions to choose, if it is to measure one direction, use a single axis, if it is to measure two directions (pitch and roll), choose a double axis.