Accelerometers & Gyros for N00bs

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by Trevor_Decker

is 100 g better then 1 g or is it the other way around?

I think the confusion revolves around what you mean by better. Do you mean easier to measure? Or which is greater?

100 g is a much greater acceleration than 1 g. If you are talking about an option between a sensor with a range of 1 g and a sensor with a range of 100g then it matters what you are measuring and what kind of accuracy you need.

For a given resolution (in bits) a sensor with a larger range will have larger steps (less accurate for small changes in acceleration). A sensor with a smaller range may be saturated if the acceleration is larger than the range (5g of acceleration applied to a 1g sensor).