Have you ever wanted your project to just “hibernate” until someone picks it up or moves it? It’s a great strategy for dramatically extending the battery life of a widget that doesn’t need to be active all the time. The SparkFun Wake-on-Shake board is designed to make it really simple to do just that!

The Wake-on-Shake, based on a concept by Nitzan Gadish of Analog Devices, combines the ATTiny2313A with the ADXL362 low-power MEMS accelerometer to cut power to your project for long periods of time, all the while waiting for a shake or a bump and sipping < 2uA @ 3.7V! With power consumption that low, the limiting factor for lifespan in most devices will be aging-related self-discharge of the batteries.

The board is easy to use, you basically connect it as a power switch between your device and a power source (2.0-5.5V). By default, the board will activate the load when it experiences a mild bump or tilt; the load will be powered for 5 seconds after that. Using a serial data connection, the sensitivity can be increased or decreased, as can the delay time. Additionally, the “WAKE” pin allows the load to control when it goes back to sleep. By pulling the wake signal high (to at least 2.7V), the load will remain energized until it releases the pin.

Note: While it is possible to connect the load to the on-board serial port, allowing the load to access the ADXL362 and EEPROM storage of the ATTiny2313A, caution must be exercised when doing this to avoid sourcing current to the load through the serial port data lines on the ATTiny2313A, which could damage the ATTiny2313A as well as causing excessive off-state power dissipation.

Features

Supply Voltage: 2.0 - 5.5VDC

Power Consumption in Hibernation: < 2uA @ 3.7V

Wake Signal: 2.7 - 15V

Serial Header for Configuration is FTDI Basic Breakout Compatible

ISP Header for ATTiny2313A is Broken Out, No Bootloader is Available

2mm JST Connector for LiPo Battery Input

This breakout board makes it easy to use the tiny MMA8452Q accelerometer in your project. The MMA8452Q is a smart low-power, three-axis, capacitive MEMS accelerometer with 12 bits of resolution. This accelerometer is packed with embedded functions with flexible user programmable options, configurable to two interrupt pins. Embedded interrupt functions allow for overall power savings relieving the host processor from continuously polling data.

The MMA8452Q has user selectable full scales of ±2g/±4g/±8g with high pass filtered data as well as non filtered data available real-time. The device can be configured to generate inertial wake-up interrupt signals from any combination of the configurable embedded functions allowing the MMA8452Q to monitor events and remain in a low power mode during periods of inactivity.

This board breaks out the ground, power, I2C and two external interrupt pins.

Note: If you are looking for the SparkFun Triple Axis Accelerometer Breakout with headers, it can be found here or in the Recommended Products below.

Get Started with the MMA8452Q Breakout Hookup Guide

Features

1.95 V to 3.6 V supply voltage

1.6 V to 3.6 V interface voltage

±2g/±4g/±8g dynamically selectable full-scale

Output Data Rates (ODR) from 1.56 Hz to 800 Hz

12-bit and 8-bit digital output

I2C digital output interface (operates to 2.25 MHz with 4.7 kΩ pullup)

Two programmable interrupt pins for six interrupt sources

Three embedded channels of motion detection

Orientation (Portrait/Landscape) detection with set hysteresis

High Pass Filter Data available real-time

Current Consumption: 6 μA – 165 μA