New! Also available is a mini add-on board with the smaller, lower-power, and higher resolution next version of the LSM9DS0, the LSM9DS1 9-axis motion sensor.

What is it?

LSM9DS0 9-axis motion sensor and the MS5611 high-resolution pressure sensors/altimeter mounted on a pc board that is to be soldered to the end (pins 8 - 17) of the Teensy 3.1 microcontroller.

Why did you make it?

The LSM9DS0 is one of only a few 9-axis combination accelerometer/gyroscope/magnetometer MEMS sensors available today. It's in a small 4 mm x 4 mm package and has a lot of functions with a correspondingly large number of output and interrupt pins. I wanted to make use of the sensor for 9 DoF sensor fusion for motion sensing and motion control applications but do so with a very small footprint. The Teensy 3.1 microcontroller is a powerful Cortex M4 ARM-based microcontroller that is ideally suited for sensor fusion filtering. By designing a small pc board with the LSM9DS0 sensor that fit on a small portion of the Teensy 3.1, I can achieve absolute orientation sensing in a device package with an extremely small footprint with plenty of room (unoccupied pins) for expansion. Since the board is bigger than the similar LSM9DS0 micro add-on, I had room for a high-accuracy altimeter which provides a tenth degree of freedom well-suited to relative motion sensing for changes in height.

What makes it special?

This is the another example of the modular Teensy concept, where small special-purpose pc boards designed to be added on to the Teensy 3.1, either alone or in combination, can be mixed and matched for specific applications. In the works are pc boards for the other two 9-axis motion sensors I know of, Invensense's MPU9250 and Bosch's BMX-055, each coupled with an altimeter, as well as boards for LiPo battery charging, Bluetooth Smart, and dc motor control. Others are likely to follow. The idea is to add modular capability while maintaining an extremely small, portable, low-power package. More on the concept can be found here.

I have modified Jim Lindblom's excellent Sparkfun LSM9DS0 library to add 9 DoF sensor fusion using open-source Madgwick and Mahony sensor fusion filter algorithms, gyro and accelerometer calibration, accelerometer bandwidth specification, temperature readout, and i2c communication with the Teensy-3.1-specific i2c_t3.h Wire library. A general discussion of 9 DoF sensor fusion and motion control can be found here. The library to run sensor fusion on this LSM9DS0 Mini add-on with the Teensy 3.1 is reposited here.

Teensy 3.1 can be purchased from OSHPark for $17 and is not included with your purchase of this add on.

I have removed the option to order this LSM9DS0 Mini Add-On for Teensy 3.1 with two other pressure sensors: the 20-bit MPL3115A2 by Freescale and the 24-bit LPS25H by ST Microelectronics. You can read about the differences in the compare-and-contrast article here. Either of these will makes a great 10 DoF motion sensor, especially when mounted on a Teensy 3.1. I think the MS5611 is the better pressure sensor despite the higher cost. If you really want one of the other pressure sensors just order from this page and add a note to that effect. I have the boards and the sensors but I think it is too confusing to offer so many options at once. If you don't specify which pressure sensor you want you will get the MS5611. The sensors are all about the same cost (within a factor of two) so you have three variants to choose from all at the same low price!