AN APPARATUS FOR DETECTING AND RECORDING ACCELERATIONS EXPERIENCED BY A STRUCTURE, AND A METHOD OF OPERATING THE APPARATUS

摘要

A method of operating an apparatus for detecting and recording accelerations experienced by a structure is provided, the apparatus comprising an accelerometer, a processor and a non-volatile computer memory device. The method comprises the steps of:i. operating the processor, accelerometer and computer memory device in a reduced power state;ii. in response to detecting an acceleration having a magnitude which is greater than a first preselected threshold magnitude, switching the accelerometer to a fully operational state and storing accelerometer data in a buffer;iii. switching the processor and computer memory device to a fully operational state;iv. operating the processor to store the accelerometer data from the buffer in the computer memory device;v. switching the processor and computer memory device to a reduced power state until the accelerometer signals that further data is available, and storing any further accelerometer data in the buffer;vi. repeating steps iii) to v) until a predetermined time has elapsed since the accelerometer last detected an acceleration having a magnitude which is greater than a second preselected threshold magnitude.;An apparatus for detecting and recording accelerations experienced by a structure is also described.