The MMA7455L is a micromachined capacitive 3-axis accelerometer (3 DOF) manufactured by Freescale Semiconductor, which can be easily connected to a controller or processor such as Arduino.

It is a capacitive micromachined sensor (MEMS) that detects acceleration in the X, Y, and Z axes. It is also possible to determine the sensor’s orientation, thanks to the force of gravity.

The MMA7455 accelerometer is widely used because it is a cost-effective option. The MMA7455 has low power consumption, from 0.5 to 3 mA when active and 26 µA in standby mode.

Communication can be done either via SPI bus or I2C bus, making it easy to obtain the measured data. The supply voltage is low voltage between 2.4 to 3.6V.

They are often integrated into modules that incorporate the necessary electronics to easily connect it to an Arduino. In most modules, this includes a voltage regulator that allows direct powering at 5V.

The MMA7455 has an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a low pass filter, and temperature compensation. The measurement can be adjusted to a range of ±2g, ±4g, or ±8g in 8-bit measurements, and an additional 10-bit mode of ±8g. The sensitivity is 1/64 of the measurement range (an accuracy of 1.5{7e82c6d62784066d1b113f595afb6e15f0ca3fec289cddd29e600df910d44428}).

The MMA7455 has two interrupt pins that can be configured to respond to certain events. These events include detection of rapid movements, bumps, and vibrations, in one or two pulses, and detection of 0-g free fall conditions.

Accelerometers are widely used in all kinds of devices, from determining orientation in mobile phones or tablets, detecting free fall, measuring steps in pedometers, camera stabilization, alarms and vibration sensors, among many others.