Accelerometer Interface using PSoC®

AN52678
Author: Archana Yarlagadda
Associated Project: Yes
Associated Part Family: CY8C21x34/ 21x24/ 24x33/
24x34A/ 24x94/ 27x43/ 29x66
Software Version: PSoC Designer™ 5.0
Associated Application Notes: AN2010, AN2352, AN2099

Application Note Abstract

This application note describes how to interface accelerometers with PSoC®. It analyzes the types of accelerometers and the
applications in which they are used. The example project accompanying this application note demonstrates the use of a three
dimensional analog accelerometer to detect the orientation and movement of mobile phones.

Introduction flexible. With digital accelerometers, parameters such

Accelerometers are electromechanical devices that measure
different types of acceleration such as static and dynamic
acceleration. Static acceleration includes the orientation with
respect to earth and dynamic acceleration involves
movement and vibration. Acceleration is measured in terms
of “g”, the earth’s gravitational acceleration at sea level
(9.81 m/s2). This application note discusses the types of
accelerometers, their application, and interface with
Programmable System-on-Chip™ (PSoC).
Types of Accelerometers
Accelerometers are divided based on their output type,
sensing method, manufacturing technology, and other
properties. When output type is considered, accelerometers
can have either analog or digital output. The analog output
accelerometers often have voltage as the output, while
digital output accelerometers have Pulse Width Modulated
(PWM) waveform, I2C, or SPI.
The choice between the analog and digital type depends on
the interface hardware.
as resolution, sampling speed, bandwidth, and SNR are
limited to a narrow selection range.
Microprocessors with some external hardware can interface
with the digital communication output accelerometers.
However, this does not work with digital PWM and analog
output accelerometers. Microcontrollers can interface with
digital PWM and digital communication output types, but not
to the analog output accelerometers. The PSoC device,
considered in this application note, has the flexibility of
interfacing with all three types. This is illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Interface Devices for Different Accelerometers
Microprocessor +
Microcontrollers PSoC
External Hardware
Digital Communication Digital PWM Analog
Accelerometers Accelerometers Accelerometers

 Analog accelerometers output the most raw data form

and their measurement is highly flexible. The speed and
accuracy with which the analog output is measured
changes with the hardware it is interfaced with.
 Digital PWM output accelerometers involve intensive
computation and timing analysis to get the acceleration
from the waveform.
 Accelerometers with digital communication output
(I2C/SPI) have Analog to Digital Convertors (ADC) and
digital communication modules integrated into the chip
along with the basic analog output accelerometer. This
added hardware is fixed function and increases the cost
of the accelerometer. These accelerometers provide
easy interface to a larger digital system, but are least
The analog output type provides the most raw data format,
and is flexible and cost effective. The PSoC has high
accuracy programmable and reconfigurable analog
capability. Therefore, this application note focuses on the
interface of analog accelerometers with PSoC.
All accelerometers have a mechanical mass that converts
vibration into displacement. This displacement is sensed
using a sensor. The classification of accelerometers based
on sensor type is listed in Table 1.

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Table 1. Accelerometer Types and Properties Figure 2. Functional Block Diagram of KXSC7-2050

Accelerator Type Properties Measurement

Capacitive Good DC accuracy, Tilt, Vibration
low noise, good
temperature
performance
Piezoelectric AC response only Vibration,
Shock
Piezoresistive Good DC accuracy, Tilt, Vibration
poor temperature
performance
Electromechanical Good DC accuracy, Tilt
Servo low frequency only,
fragile
The sensor element in the accelerometer works on the
The choice of accelerometer depends on the type of principle of differential capacitance. Here, the acceleration
application in which it is used. causes displacement in the silicon structure, resulting in a
change in capacitance. The ASIC is included inside the
package to convert change in capacitance into analog
Applications voltage, which is proportional to acceleration. It also features
Some applications in which accelerometers are used are as a programmable low pass filter. Thus the output voltages
follows: can be read directly by the ADC and processed accordingly.

 Mobile Phones: Used for motion activated functions, Interface with PSoC
gaming, free-fall detection, and vibration control.
This document assumes that the reader is familiar with the
 Vehicles: Used for crash testing, robotics, motion PSoC User Modules (UM). If you are new to PSoC, AN2010
control, and skid detection. Getting Started with PSoC is a good reference. The project
 Computers: Used in computers and computer accompanying this application note uses CY8C24533. The
peripherals such as mouse, for motion activated following sections are based on the same PSoC family. The
functions, gaming, and tilt sensing. accelerometer project can also be implemented with other
 Medical Appliances: Used in pacemaker and blood PSoC families.
pressure measurement applications.
Block Diagram and Working
 Home Appliances: Used in appliances such as washing
The voltages on the X, Y, and Z axes are measured directly
machines for spin and vibration measurement.
with a single ADC by multiplexing the input ports. The
This application note focuses on the use of accelerometers accelerometer has an internal low pass filter and thus it is
in mobile phones; therefore, both tilt and vibration are not implemented in PSoC. The block diagram of the system
measured. Considering the analog benefits of PSoC and the is shown in Figure 3.
properties of capacitive sensing, an analog output capacitive
sensing accelerometer is ideal for this application. Examples Figure 3. Block Diagram of Accelerometer with PSoC
of analog accelerometers that can be used are BMA140,
KXSC7–1050/KXSC7–2050, MMA7360L, ADXL330, and PSoC
LIS344AL. KXSC7 series accelerometer is selected here X
P0[2]
based on the requirements. Accelerometer Y
MUX ADC I2C Display
(KXSC7-2050) P0[1]
Z
The KXSC7-2050 Accelerometer P0[0]
PSoC Internal
VDD GND Mode ST/MOT Enable
KXSC7-2050 is a tri-axis, analog voltage output device. The P1[7] P1[6] P1[5] P1[5] P1[3] PSoC Hardware Module

output range of this device is ±2g, or 19.9 m/s2. The voltage Control PSoC Software Module

on the three outputs change based on the static and External Devices

dynamic acceleration of the device. The functional block
diagram of the accelerometer is shown in Figure 2. This
diagram is reproduced from the data sheet of KXSC7
accelerometer on the Kionix website.
The output of the ADC block can be processed using digital
blocks, displayed using an LCD module, or transmitted
using the UART, I2C, or SPI digital communication modules
available in this chip.
The example project makes use of I2C UM and transfers the
data via the external I2C-USB Bridge hardware. The output
is then plotted using the Cypress I2C-USB Bridge software.
For more details about I2C Bridge usage and working, refer
to AN2352.

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User Modules and Routing Resources Used in Different PSoC Families

The user modules used in the example project are SAR8
UM (ADC) and EzI2Cs (I2C communication). The routing in
PSoC Designer™ is shown in Figure 4 and is based on the
block diagram shown in Figure 3.
Multiplexing ports into the SAR8 block is done with software,
by changing the contents of registers. The sampled data
from the ADC is then given as the input to the I2C UM in the
software code. The code for the project is provided later in
Different UMs must be used to implement the same project
in different PSoC families. Table 2 shows the resources
used by different PSoC families when the UMs for each
family are chosen appropriately to implement the same
project.
Table 2. Resources used for Accelerometer Project

Analog Blocks

SRAM (Bytes)
Digital Blocks

I2C Controller

User Modules
Part Number

Flash (KB)

Decimator
this application note.

CY8C
Figure 4. Routing in PSoC with SAR8 as ADC

A U A U A U A U A U A U A=Available, U=Used

24x33 4 0 4 0 8 0.5 256 6 1 0 1 1 SAR8, EzI2C

29x66 16 1 12 2 32 0.5 2048 14 1 1 1 1 ADCINC, PGA, EzI2C

27x43 8 1 12 2 16 0.5 256 14 1 1 1 1 ADCINC, PGA, EzI2C

24x94 4 1 6 2 16 0.5 1024 14 1 1 1 1 ADCINC, PGA, EzI2C

The same functionality can be achieved by using an
ADCINC to get a higher resolution than SAR8.
Many PSoC families can be used to implement this project.
The benefit of using this PSoC chip over others is that this
chip family has the hardware SAR8 block and does not use
the Switched Capacitor (SC) analog block. The use of SAR8
not only saves analog blocks, but also digital blocks that are
used by most ADC UMs in other PSoC chips.
The SC block also requires the input to be buffered through
PGA for two reasons. Only Port-2 pins can be connected to
the SC blocks directly and are limited by one pin to a
particular block. For example, ASC10 block in PSoC
Designer can be connected to only Port2[3] and not other
pins of Port-2. Thus multiplexing to use one ADC is not
possible, if connected directly to the SC block. The second
problem with connecting the input directly to a SC block
ADC is the loading that happens on the SC circuit when
connected to a high impedance node.
For a higher resolution, use an SC ADC at the expense of
analog blocks. The routing when an ADCINC UM is chosen
is shown in Figure 5
Figure 5. Routing in PSoC with ADCINC as ADC
24x23A 4 1 6 2 4 0.5 256 14 1 1 1 1 ADCINC, PGA, EzI2C
21x34 4 1 4 2 8 0.8 512 17 0 0 1 1 ADC8, EzI2C
21x23 4 1 4 2 4 0.8 256 17 0 0 1 1 ADC8, EzI2C
Software Code and Control
A software code is used to start all the user modules and
connect the appropriate inputs to the SAR8 UM and process
the data obtained. The different functions performed are as
follows:
Get_Acceleration Function
For each axis connection, the ADC input is sampled and the
ADC counts are converted to the voltage equivalent value in
this function. The KXSC7-2050 has an offset voltage of
1.65V and this is subtracted from the voltage measured.
Then voltage is converted to the “g” equivalent, based on
the sensitivity of the accelerometer.
IIR Filter
The acceleration obtained is filtered using software IIR
method by taking a part of the old value and adding to a part
of the new value. This method is explained in application
note AN2352, Single-Pole IIR Filter.

I2C Communication
The acceleration on each axis after converting to “g” is
stored in the I2C RAM buffer. The PSoC is configured as an
I2C slave using the EzI2Cs UM. These values are
transferred over the I2C Bridge and displayed using the I2C
Bridge software.

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fAccl_Volt = (float)bAccl_Count *
Code with SAR8 ADC_VOLTS_PER_COUNT;
#include <m8c.h> //Convert Volts to "g"
#include "PSoCAPI.h" fAccl_g = (fAccl_Volt-
ACCL_OFFSET)*ACCL_SENSITIVITY;
//Volts per count=(3.3V/2^8)=0.0128 return(fAccl_g);
#define ADC_VOLTS_PER_COUNT 0.0128 }
//KXSC7-2050 1/sensitivity=1.515 g/V
#define ACCL_SENSITIVITY 1.515 Code with ADCINC and PGA
//KXSC7-2050 Offset = 1.65 V
#define ACCL_OFFSET 1.65 The code for a 14 bit ADCINC ADC is given below.
#include <m8c.h>
BYTE bAccl_Count; #include "PSoCAPI.h"
float fAccl_Volt;
float fAccelarometer_g[3]; //Volts per count=(3.3V/2^14)=0.0002
float Get_Accelaration(void); #define ADC_VOLTS_PER_COUNT 0.0002
//KXSC7-2050 1/sensitivity=1.515 g/V
void main() #define ACCL_SENSITIVITY 1.515
{ //KXSC7-2050 Offset = 1.65 V
//Setting I2C data size and address #define ACCL_OFFSET 1.65
EzI2Cs_SetRamBuffer(sizeof(fAccelarometer_g)
,0,(BYTE *)&fAccelarometer_g); int iAccl_Count;
float fAccl_Volt;
//Set Enable=1,Vdd=1,GND=0 and Mode=1 float fAccelarometer_g[3];
PRT1DR = (PRT1DR|0xA8)&(~0x40); float Get_Accelaration(void);
//Enable Global Interrupts
M8C_EnableGInt; void main()
{
//Start all the UMs and initialize //Setting I2C data size and address
SAR8_Start(); EzI2Cs_SetRamBuffer(sizeof(fAccelarometer_g)
EzI2Cs_Start(); ,0,(BYTE *)&fAccelarometer_g);
while(1)
{ //Set Enable=1,Vdd=1,GND=0 and Mode=1
//SAR8 input to P0[2]and sample X data PRT1DR =(PRT1DR|0xA8)&(~0x40);
SAR8_SelectADCChannel(SAR8_P0_2); //Enable Global Interrupts
//IIR filter : New_Value M8C_EnableGInt;
=0.9*Old_Value+0.1*New_Value
fAccelarometer_g[0]=0.9*(fAccelarometer_g[0] //Start all the UMs and initialize
)+0.1*(Get_Accelaration()); ADCINC_Start(ADCINC_HIGHPOWER);
PGA_Start(PGA_HIGHPOWER);
//SAR8 input to P0[1]and sample Y data AMUX8_Start();
SAR8_SelectADCChannel(SAR8_P0_1); while(1)
fAccelarometer_g[1]=0.9*(fAccelarometer_g[1] {
)+0.1*(Get_Accelaration()); //Connect PGA to P0[2]and sample X
AMUX8_InputSelect(AMUX8_PORT0_2);
//SAR8 input to P0[0]and sample Z data //IIR filter : New_Value
SAR8_SelectADCChannel(SAR8_P0_0); =0.1*Old_Value+0.9*New_Value
fAccelarometer_g[2]=0.9*(fAccelarometer_g[2] fAccelarometer_g[0] =
)+0.1*(Get_Accelaration()); 0.1*(fAccelarometer_g[0]) +
0.9*(Get_Accelaration());
}
} //Connect PGA to P0[1]and sample Y
float Get_Accelaration(void) AMUX8_InputSelect(AMUX8_PORT0_1);
{ fAccelarometer_g[1] =
float fAccl_g; 0.1*(fAccelarometer_g[1]) +
bAccl_Count=0; 0.9*(Get_Accelaration());
fAccl_Volt=0;
fAccl_g=0; //Connect PGA to P0[0]and sample Z
AMUX8_InputSelect(AMUX8_PORT0_0);
SAR8_Trigger(); fAccelarometer_g[2] =
//Wait till the ADC data is available 0.1*(fAccelarometer_g[2]) +
while (0 == SAR8_fIsDataAvailable()); 0.9*(Get_Accelaration());
//get the ADC counts data }
bAccl_Count = SAR8_bGetData(); float Get_Accelaration(void)
//convert ADC counts to Volts {

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float fAccl_g; Figure 8. Board Inline with “g” and X=1g, Y=0g and Z=0g
iAccl_Count=0;
fAccl_Volt=0;
fAccl_g=0;

ADCINC_GetSamples(1);
//Wait till the ADC data is available
while (0 == ADCINC_fIsDataAvailable());
//get the ADC counts data
iAccl_Count = ADCINC_iClearFlagGetData();
//convert ADC counts to Volts
fAccl_Volt = (float)iAccl_Count *
ADC_VOLTS_PER_COUNT; Figure 9. Board Inline with “g” and X= 0g, Y= -1 g and Z= 0g
//Convert Volts to "g"
fAccl_g = (fAccl_Volt-
ACCL_OFFSET)*ACCL_SENSITIVITY;
return(fAccl_g);
}
Setup for Experiment

The Kionix KXSC7-2050 is interfaced with PSoC using the

Eval 1 board as shown in Figure 6. The pin connections for
the accelerometer board are illustrated in Figure 3. The port
pins of PSoC and the accelerometer pins are connected.
The control signals are set high and low in firmware and the Figure 10. Board Inline with “g” and X= -1g, Y=0g and Z=0g
results are observed using the I2C-USB Bridge.
Figure 6. Board Setup to Test Accelerometer Interface

Figure 11. Accelerometer Chip Perpendicular to Earth and

on Top

Results
The output in the graph is expressed in terms of “g”.
Because KXSC7-2050 is a 3-axis, 2g accelerometer, the g
values for the X, Y, and Z axes are between –1 and +1.
Different orientation of the board leads to different “g” values
on the output. Some combinations are shown in Figure 7
through Figure 12. The orientation of the board is changed Figure 12. Accelerometer Chip Perpendicular to Earth and
manually. Therefore, the outputs slightly vary from the on Bottom
expected values.
Figure 7. Board Inline with “g” and X=0g, Y=1g and Z=0g

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The graph obtained when the board is changed from one
position to another is shown in Figure 13.
Figure 13. Accelerometer Moved Along Different Axes
Summary
The accelerometer type is selected based on the application
to be implemented. It is possible to interface both digital and
analog output accelerometers with PSoC. This application
note demonstrates the interface of an analog output
accelerometer. Many PSoC families can be used to
implement the same functionality. This application note
serves as the basic format of interface and the data
obtained can be used to generate control signals based on
the target application.

When there is free fall, X, Y, and Z have 0g acceleration.

About the Author

Name: Archana Yarlagadda
Title: Applications Engineer
Background: Applications Engineer in Cypress with
focus on PSoC.
Masters in Analog VLSI from University
of Tennessee, Knoxville
Contact yara@cypress.com

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Document History
Document Title: Accelerometer Interface using PSoC®
Document Number: 001-52678
Revision ECN Orig. of Submission Description of Change
Change Date
** 2683340 YARA 04/03/09 New application note.

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