USB Accelerometer + Smartphone = Vibration Pen Alternative

When implementing condition based monitoring programs, it is not only the cost of equipment, but also an even larger installation and cable routing cost that typically keeps businesses from fully implementing vibration measurement practices. Factor in additional training time and personnel and these costs start to look even more difficult to justify. As such, most industrial plants starting out on vibration monitoring choose to evaluate less expensive methods that do not require as much overhead and project cost. Doing so, many companies have some version of a handheld vibration meter or vibration pen. Most vibration pens are built for simplicity reading an overall vibration level and have an integral accelerometer so the device can be held against the vibration machinery. Some pens and most vibration meters have separately cabled accelerometers so that the sensor can either be hand held for convenience or mounted directly to the machine with a magnet or temporary adhesive.

The Digiducer USB Digital Accelerometer provides a digital time stream of vibration measurement that can allow your smart phone, tablet or PC to function similarly to the vibration pen. A variety of apps / software are commercially available to couple the plug-and-play simplicity of the Digiducer with the basic mathematics of overall vibration calculations and then display the results (some even including comparison to standards like ISO 10816-1 machine vibration severity limits) on your smart phone, tablet or pc.

Using a magnetic mount, epoxy, stud mount, or hand-held probe, the Digiducer can measure vibration data anywhere. An added benefit of the Digiducer is that the same USB digital data time stream of measured vibration can be used for time data storage or even spectral analysis, depending on your software choice. This allows for vibration time data or spectrums to recorded and easily emailed from your device to your chosen support team or consultant.

As an easy and economical incremental step up in capability, some manufacturers are supplementing the Digiducer to their fleet of vibration pens to capture the initial spectral vibration assessment of machinery before opting for full inspection that needs higher end, more costly portable spectrum analyzers. The easy accessibility of USB digital vibration data and the low cost software apps are allowing technicians and machine operators to gain exposure to frequency spectrum analysis which creates an easy environment for advanced learning and by making the assessments more intuitive. This combination of digital accelerometer and entry level app allows more access to visualize equipment vibration on a daily basis in a friendly portable form.