[Rana, Ian]
We built a power supply for the accelerometer shown in Attachment 1 based on the diagram shown in the Wilcoxon manual and shown in attachment 2. We used a 9V power supply and a capacitor value of 680uF. We did not use a constant current diode.
When hooked up to an oscilloscope we saw vibrations from hitting our hands on the table but we did not see the same amplitude in the negative and positive directions. For example, when I held the accelerometer and moved it down you would see a dip then a peak as the accelerometer accelerated down then accelerated up when I stopped the down word movement. But weirdly when I did the opposite (moved the accelerometer up the same dip then a peak appeared. This is a little concerning because it should be the opposite. it should be a peak then a dip. This in addition to the seemingly decreased sensitivity in one direction make me think that the accelerometer is broken.
I labeled the box with "might be broken" before I returned it to the cryo lab. |