IMU Selection
- Hardy Yu
Breakout Board
MPU6050
The most well-known 6-axis IMU that you see a lot of its breakout in the market
The production of this chip stopped unfortunately so we can’t keep buying this chip anymore, ICM 20602 is the new replacement to the MPU 6000(also out of date)
It has the same hardware named MPU6000 with additional SPI
Reviews of this breakout board’s accuracy are generally negative, but the performance of the chip is recognized by many UAV use
Sounds like the breakout board has an uneven quality
Adafruit has pretty detailed how-to-use instruction:MPU6050 6-DoF Accelerometer and Gyro
Outweigh the performance of other chips:
Gyro shootout: MPU6000 vs ICM20602 vs BMI270 and OSR4 mode for BMI Gyros!
BNO055 breakout
50$breakout, 9-axis IMU
Has an ARM processor on board that does some of the math for you, and the data can be fetched pretty handy
Has convenient absolute orientation output(100hz), and other raw data as well
Has the concern that the internal firmware hasn’t been updated for years, so the data process isn’t good
BMI270
20$ breakout, 6-axis IMU
Commonly used in flight controllers, wearable, smart clothing, and AR/VR applications
The chip requires extra filtering due to its much higher low-pass filter
Sparkfun breakout:SparkFun 6DoF IMU Breakout - BMI270 (Qwiic)
ISM330DHCX, MMC5983MA
40$ for breakout, 9-axis IMU with relatively new chips on it
Has a machine learning core, but I am not sure doesn’t sound like it has been programmed
Directional accuracy: 0.5 degrees compass applications
Sparkfun breakout:SparkFun 9DoF IMU Breakout - ISM330DHCX, MMC5983MA (Qwiic)
LSM9DS1
35$ for breakout, 9-axis IMU all-in-one-chip
This is from STM, so hopefully it has the better STM compatibility
Adafruit: Adafruit LSM9DS1 Accelerometer + Gyro + Magnetometer 9-DOF Breakout
Sparkfun: SparkFun 9DoF Sensor Stick
ICM 42688-P
Really affordable 6-axis IMU chip
There was this gossip about this IMU spoken from
Gyro Questions? Is the ICM42688 any good? - FPV Questions
TLDR, he is saying ICM42688 is good but needs to be treated carefully on its electronic design to make sure it doesn’t become unusable like it was in some older flight controller
ICM 20948
Similar performance to MPU6000
LSM6DOSX
The latest in a long line of quality Accelerometer+Gyroscope 6-DOF IMUs from ST
Has well well-documented datasheet
Also has a machine-learning core
STM: STEVAL-MKI197V1
Summary
LSM6DOSX is my favourite 6-axis IMU chip of all chips so far. Newer technology is implemented on this chip, and it is well-documented, the performance sounds promising
BNO055 breakout board is the most easy to use breakout board since it has on-board data processing. Make this board stand out in the non-Arduino/Raspberry Pi development scenario.
MPU6000, ICM 20602, and BMI270 are all good traditional chips