Even government grade accelerometers drift... it's the nature of the
beast. Most control systems augment the accelerometer with GPS or
other locating devices. The accelerometer is only of short term,
fill-in-the-data-points, value.
...Jim Thompson
True enough, but he was asking about tilt sensing which is a bit less
demanding than inertial navigation. While low cost MEMs
accelerometers of the sort used in every airbag recentlly manufactured
do have high thermal drift, high unit to unit variation, and not the
best shock resistance, they are suitable for use in low to moderate
accuracy tilt sensors, and once calibrated they will "register" +1g
all day long. Perhaps not +1.000g all day long, unless you are using
one of the better MEMS accelerometers like the ADXL105 with good
filtering, individual calibration and temperature compensation, and a
fairly stable environment.
Unless the OP wants high accuracy (in which case he should look at
electrolytic tilt sensors) he should give it a try. The mfgrs app
notes on tilt sensing are honest about the accuracies which can be
achieved, suggest you read them.
BTW I once dissasembled an inertial navigation accelerometer made in
the days before GPS, which used force balance inside a constant
temperature oven, very clever mechanism but obviously very expensive
too.
Glen
