The MPL3115A2 is a compact, piezoresistive, absolute pressure sensor with an I2C digital interface. MPL3115A2 has a wide operating range of 20 kPa to 110 kPa, a range that covers all surface elevations on earth. The MEMS is temperature compensated utilizing an on-chip temperature sensor. The pressure and temperature data is fed into a high resolution ADC to provide fully compensated and digitized outputs for pressure in Pascals and temperature in °C. The compensated pressure output can then be converted to altitude, utilizing the formula stated in Section 9.1.3 "Pressure/altitude" provided in meters.The internal processing in MPL3115A2 removes compensation and unit conversion load from the system MCU, simplifying system design. MPL3115A2's advanced ASIC has multiple user programmable modes such as power saving, interrupt and autonomous data acquisition modes, including programmed acquisition cycle timing, and poll-only modes. Typical active supply current is 40 μA per measurement-second for a stable 10 cm output resolution.
“For a while a wanted to make my own flight recorder similar to the commercial altimeters but with my own requirements for functionality. In addition it needed to be visually appealing and functional in the same time … After some thinking …
“A few more PCBs, this time for Freescale’s sensors.”