Or... borrow a small boy who owns an iPhone, tell the kid to take a
hike, and buy an iPhone accelerometer app, such as G-Force

Net cost: $0.99

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=286780085&mt=8

On Aug 6, 2008, at 8:06 AM, Jake de Villiers wrote:

> You could use a clip-on transducer, meant to plug in to a tuner.
> Prolly $10
>
> On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 7:46 AM, Mike Elliott <camping.elliott@gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
>> On 8/5/2008 9:14 PM Dennis Haynes wrote:
>>
>> Sure it could be done, bring money.
>>>
>>
>> Aw, 3D accelerometers are not expensive, consider the Wii
>> controller. I've
>> used cheap polymer film piezo transducers in the past, the output
>> of which
>> could go to the input of my existing Picoscope oscilloscope box that
>> connects to the laptop via USB. I just don't think I can get even a
>> 1-axis
>> accelerometer in the time I have remaining.
>>
>> Wait - I might be able to find a stick-on piezo pickup for guitars,
>> upright basses or cellos at a music store nearby.
>>
>> Or, use a Radio Shack piezo mic, like shown here:
>>
>> http://home.earthlink.net/~erinys/contactmic.html<http://home.earthlink.net/%7Eerinys/contactmic.html
>> >
>>
>> And stick it to the body of the trailer with double-sided foam tape.
>>
>> -- Mike RJS
>>
>>
>>
>>> One thing about trailer tires, inflation pressure needs to set by
>>> the
>>> load. They are small and they spin fast and they are poorly made
>>> and they
>>> love to blow out. Squishy trailer tires are guaranteed failures,
>>> even
>>> small ones.
>>>
>>> Dennis
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On
>>> Behalf
>>> Of
>>> Mike Elliott
>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 12:06 AM
>>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>>> Subject: [NVC] Engineers: quick and cheerful vibration analysis?
>>>
>>> This is a question for the engineering geeks here.
>>>
>>> Say you were towing a little trailer behind your Vanagon. Say that
>>> the
>>> trailer had a rudimentary suspension consisting only of leaf
>>> springs. Say
>>> that this trailer also had tires, the pressure of which could be
>>> adjusted:
>>> higher pressure results in a harsher ride, while lower pressure
>>> results in
>>> a softer ride. Say you wanted to determine the optimum pressure of
>>> ride vs
>>> tire squishiness but were unable to find a small boy to ride in that
>>> trailer to report back about smoothness of ride v tire pressure
>>> while the
>>> experiments were being conducted, so lacking that small boy, your
>>> thoughts
>>> naturally turn to instrumentation. Okay, so say you had a laptop
>>> computer
>>> (WinXP) which could ride in the passenger seat, and /three/
>>> business days
>>> in which to acquire the needed sensor (accelerometer?) as well as
>>> the
>>> software to display the ride bounciness.
>>>
>>> Could it be done?
>>>
>>> --
>>> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
>>>
>>>
>
>
> --
> Jake
> 1984 Vanagon GL
> 1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
> Crescent Beach, BC
> www.crescentbeachguitar.com
> http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27