An Ultra-precision Electronic Clinometer for Measurement of Small Inclination Angles

This paper describes an ultra-precision electronic clinometer, which is based on the capacitive?based fluid type, for detection of small inclination angles. The main parts of the clinometer low?noise electronics are two capacitance measurement circuits for converting the capacitances of the capacitors of the clinometer into voltages, and a differential amplifier for obtaining the difference of the capacitances, which is proportional to the input inclination angle. A 16 bit analog to digital (AD) converter is also embedded into the same circuit board, whose output is sent to a PC via RS-232C, for achieving a small noise level down to tens of μv. A compensation method, which is referred to as the delay time method for shortening the stabilization time of the sensor was also discussed. Experimental results have shown the possibility of achieving a measurement resolution of 0.0001° as well as the quick measurement with the delay time method.