Usage

Mounting

Mount PicoQuake to the object you want to measure as rigidly as possible. You can use the included releasable zip tie and zip tie adapter.

For more demanding applications, it's recommended to design a custom 3D printed mount.

Using double sided tape is fine, but it might dampen higher frequency vibrations.

Axes orientation

Orientation of the axes is marked on the device. Make note of it so you can later interpret the data correctly.

Small objects

Measuring vibrations of small objects, that are not much larger than the PicoQuake itself, can be challenging. The vibrations of the object will be dampened by the device itself.

Connection

Connect PicoQuake to your computer's USB port. Multiple devices can be connected at the same time.

When connected and receiving power, the green LED will light up. The orange LED will light up when data is being acquired.

Short ID

Each PicoQuake has a 4 character ID that is used to identify it. It's printed on the label. All commands that require device identification use this ID.

Commands

PicoQuake is controlled using the command line interface (CLI).

For detailed information on all the available commands run picoquake --help or browse the CLI reference.

It's also possible to interface the device using the Python API. For more information, see the Python API reference.

List connected devices

List all connected PicoQuake devices with their Short ID and serial port.

picoquake list

Live display

Display live data from a PicoQuake device. Useful for quick checks and debugging.

picoquake display <short_id>

Data acquisition

Acquire data from a PicoQuake device. The data is saved to a CSV file.

picoquake acquire <short_id> <output_file> [options]

For the description of the CSV file, see Acquisition CSV File.

Examples

Acquire data for 10 seconds at 100 Hz sample rate. Filter set to 42 Hz. Save it to data.csv.

picoquake acquire D4E9 data.csv -s 10 -r 100 -f 42

Acquire data for 2 seconds at 4000 Hz sample rate. Filter set to 1000 Hz. Accelerometer range set to +-16 g, gyro range set to +-2000 dps. Save it to data.csv.

picoquake acquire D4E9 data.csv -s 2 -r 4000 -f 1000 -ar 16 -gr 2000

Warning

Specified sampling rate, filter frequency, accelerometer range, and gyro range are not guaranteed. The actual values may differ due to hardware limitations and are rounded to the nearest supported value. The actual values are printed in the console output.

Start prompt

After pressing enter, you will be prompted to start the acquisition. This is done to be able to better control the start time. To skip the prompt, add the -a flag.

Overwrite prompt

If the CSV file already exists, you will be prompted to overwrite it. To skip the prompt, add the -y flag.