SparkFun Electronics - IMU 6 Degrees of Freedom - v4 with Bluetooth® Capability

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Product Info

IMU 6 Degrees of Freedom - v4 with Bluetooth® Capability

sku: SEN-08454

Description: The 6DOF v4 Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) is the latest Sparkfun IMU offering. The v4 provides 3 axes of acceleration data, 3 axes of gyroscopic data, and 3 axes of magnetic data. Each independent channel is user selectable, as is the sampling frequency. The device can also report in ASCII or binary format, and can work over a wireless Bluetooth^®link or a wired TTL serial connection. Control is provided through an LPC2138 ARM7 processor with plenty of extra memory for custom code development. All code is written using the free WinARM development platform. With our available source code, you can be doing your own development in minutes!

For a wireless link, the 6DOF will communicate with any Bluetooth^®device that supports the Serial-Port-Profile (SPP - most do!). However, because of the dense amount of data across the serial link we recommend the BlueDongle USB device below.

Note: We've been encountering a lot of noise on the x-axis magnetometer when using the 6DOF over Bluetooth. If the output of this sensor is of vital importance, we really suggest using the IMU over a hard-wired interface, which will drastically diminsh the noise. Our engineers are aware of the issue and in the process of resolving it. Please contact our tech support team (techsupport at sparkfun dot com) if you have any questions.

Features:

Input Voltage: 3.7V to 7VDC
LPC2138 ARM7 Processor
Freescale MMA7260Q triple-axis accelerometer, settable to 1.5g, 2g, 4g or 6g sensitivity
2 Invensense IDG500 500 degree/second dual-axis gyros (total of 4 axis)
Honeywell HMC1052L and HMC1051Z magnetic sensors
Roving Networks Bluetooth Module
Tri-color status LED

Board stack comes fully assembled as shown. All sensors are internally temperature compensated. All readings are available through any terminal program in either ASCII, binary format, or with the improved 6DOF v4 IMU Mixer demo application (source code also available).

Documents:

Firmware:

Pricing

	34 in stock backorder allowed

$449.95	price
$404.96	10-99 (10% off)
$359.96	100+ (20% off)

	quantity

click on image to enlarge

Comments

16 comments

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	by Steven +1 \| November 20, 2008 at 11:56 PM 0
As this product is out of stock, I can only backorder. According to the backorder rule, I will pay the money until the product is available. However, I want pay it first as we do not have enough funds to pay next year.

	by TreeBee +1.6 \| January 21, 2009 at 12:22 AM 0
I do not see the BlueDongle USB device below. Any advice? How necessary is this component?

Tibs

| May 24, 2009 at 7:00 PM

Hi! This works very well for such a price!
Thats why we ordered two more and then... :(
...we discovered that when transmitting datas, the Bluetooth was corrupting the magnetometer with large amplitude, low frequency noise. Its the same with all IMUs. This is too sad because perf are good when wired.

Has anyone encounterd the same problem? Solution please? =S

Btw be carefull with axis names(X and Y mag are inverted) and signs (corrections needed too). In the initial firmware this is not properly defined with respect to printed Yaw, Pitch and Roll axis.

	by russio +1 \| June 15, 2009 at 8:18 AM 0
Hi! I've found the same problem as you Tibs. If I'm using the Bluetooth connection the magnetometer's data gets corrupted but if I'm using the serial cable everything is fine. I sent an email to the tech support last week I asking for a solution but still waiting.

	by maou +1 \| July 8, 2009 at 3:54 AM 0
Hi there, just wondering whether a solution has been found to the issue with the Bluetooth corrupting the magnetometer? Would a zigbee module cause the same type of corruption?

	by kurf +2.3 \| July 20, 2009 at 2:48 PM 0
how about just turn off the bluetooth radio. Take a reading from the magnetic sensors, store it to eeprom and then turn back on the radio and read the accerlerometers and gyro.

	by Max +1.4 \| July 8, 2009 at 6:24 PM 0
Hi, Could anybody post some sample linux C code to read the imu data through serial cable. I'm just starting on this and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Max

	by swhite +2.4 \| August 5, 2009 at 7:56 PM 0
Any idea if the Bluetooth noise problem has been solved? I was going to purchase this for a project but we need it to work cleanly with wireless. -Sean

	by Seiya +2.1 \| September 16, 2009 at 9:17 PM 0
Can anybody tell me exact dimension and weight of this, please?

	by Pearce \| September 17, 2009 at 10:40 AM
The maximum Dimensions are as follows length: 2.214 in. with the Bluetooth Module, 2.005 in. without the module Width: 1.727 in. with the gyro, 1.610 in. without the gyro Height: 1.090 in. with the gyro, 0.955 in. without the gyro Weight: .0573 lbs For the dimensions of most of our products I would recommend using the eagle files as they are pretty accurate.

	by daniel-arg +1.3 \| October 22, 2009 at 7:10 AM 0
Hi. I bought a 6dof v4, and I connected to a gumstix overo fire device. I saw the configuration, but when I read the raw, all teh channels are actives, changing values. is it normal, even when I didnt move the IMU at all. How can I interpret the data? Are there any perl and or excell spreadshet to convert the volt measures into geographic data thanks in advance daniel

	by fundoo +1 \| November 30, 2009 at 7:42 AM 0
can anybody tell how i can calibrate this using 3dm gx1 , i have trying to do it but the readings are no where near to each other ..? and which methods can be used to see whether this product gives the right readings ?

ledshine

+1.1

| December 2, 2009 at 8:54 PM

other than bluetooth module and gyro sensitivity diffrence , is there a difference this module and the combination of
https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9184
+ 2*
https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=719
+
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=272

can i use the firmware provided here ?

what is the difference between compass, magnetometer and magnetic sensor ?

can any one suggest me a better IMU setup for autonomous quadrocopter around the same price tag ?

sudobangbang

+1.3

| December 9, 2009 at 12:55 AM

I'm having trouble reading magnetometer data over bluetooth. The signal to noise ratio I'm currently acquiring is awful. I can't really do any form of filtering to make the noise minimal. Like most people have suggested, maybe I should try turning off bluetooth and reading over serial. It seems pointless to ship a product that doesn't work out of the box especially since this item boasts about bluetooth connectivity.

If anyone can send me a few minutes worth of IMU data, [all 9 values (3mag, 3acc, 3gyro) and timer count (w/ freq.)] I'd appreciate it.

chuck18735

| January 13, 2010 at 7:57 AM

As usual, another board is full of questions about a potentially faulty product without any solutions or explanations forthcoming from the seller. We were considering ordering this device, but thanks to this board, we will not be ordering anything from Sparkfun.

Sparkfun -- answer the people's questions, or lose the business! It's time to change the paradigm of manufactures sitting smugly by in silence, collecting money for faulty product, while their boards fill up with the lamenting of customers who trusted them.
This board reminds me of the board for Sony Vegas Pro 9. You can tell when a product is a ripoff just by reading the boards.

	by Jimb0 \| January 13, 2010 at 10:24 AM
Hi there. We'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. Drop us a line. techsupport at sparkfun dot com