Adafruit 9-DOF Accel/Mag/Gyro+Temp Breakout Board - LSM9DS1

Add motion, direction and orientation sensing to your Arduino project with this all-in-one 9-DOF sensor. Inside the chip are three sensors, one is a classic 3-axis accelerometer, which can tell you which direction is down towards the Earth (by measuring gravity) or how fast the board is accelerating in 3D space. The other is a 3-axis magnetometer that can sense where the strongest magnetic force is coming from, generally used to detect magnetic north. The third is a 3-axis gyroscope that can measure spin and twist. By combining this data you can REALLY orient yourself.

Adafruit carried the LSM9DS0 from ST for a while, and the LSM9DS1 is their latest offering. The LSM9DS1 is not the same set of sensors as the LSM9DS0.

Here are some of the differences:

• LSM9DS0 accelerometer has ±2/±4/±6/±8/±16 g ranges. The LSM9DS1 has ±2/±4/±8/±16 g (no ±6 g range).
• LSM9DS0 magnetometer has ±2/±4/±8/±12 gauss ranges. The LSM9DS1 has ±4/±8/±12/±16 gauss ranges. So the LSM9DS0 has ±2 gauss low range where-as the LSM9DS1 has ±16 gauss high range.
• LSM9DS0 and LSM9DS1 gyros both have the same ±245/±500/±2000 dps ranges.

There are other differences, for example the LSM9DS1 has slightly worse accuracy. The gyro angular zero-rate (±25 for the LSM9DS0 and ±30 for the LSM9DS1 at the highest sensing range). The accelerometer offset accuracy is ±90 mg for the LSM9DS1 and ±60 mg for the LSM9DS0.

However, these offsets may not matter for most projects and the pricing of the LSM9DS1 is lower than the LSM9DS0.

The breakout board version of this sensor has both I2C and SPI interfaces. Attaching it to the Arduino is simple, power Vin and GND with 3-5VDC, and wire up I2C data on SCL and SDA, and you're ready to go! More advanced users can use SPI, Adafruit's library has support for both. The breakout comes fully assembled and tested, with some extra header so you can use it on a breadboard. Four mounting holes make for a secure connection, and the popular power+data pins are put on one side, and the interrupt pins on the other side for a nice & compact breakout.