Re: How to measure footstep vibration and noise?

On 29 Nov, 06:39, m...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Nov 28, 9:32 am, esmith...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Yes, calibration would be an issue, I'm sure.  And a refusal to change
behavior, as Tim says, won't necessarily be helped by technology.  We
are currently just trying to see if there is any way to measure at
all.  The hope would be that it might give the Board some slight
leverage for mediating these situations if the offenders can be shown
that the complainants are not just overly-sensitive troublemakers but
have a legitimate, measurable grievance -- or, conversely, if the
complainants can be shown that the vibration is no greater than that
in any other apartment.

I'll do some research on geophones.  It's hard to find sites that are
geared to the non-expert.

Your responses are much appreciated.

I'm not sure a geophone is the way to go these days. I bought an
accelerometer from Sparkfun and geek that I am, found it fascinating.http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?c=23
The signal conditioning is right on the chip. I had mine connected to
a scope, but it seems to me you could drive a soundcard.

Of course, I'd probably find a geophone fun too. You can get them in
old seismic detectors used by the military. Murphy has them, though
you can always get Murphy's stuff at a third the price if you poke
around:http://www.murphyjunk.bizland.com/id11.html

An accelerometer PCB would be difficult to couple efficiently to the
building structure without a lot of extra work. Geophones usually have
a shaft that can easily be attached to the floor.

Leon
.