MPU6050 – Pin Diagram, Circuit and Applications

3D games, 3D pictures, and 3D videos are trending technology today. For enhanced end-user experience manufacturers are introducing many new methods. The main functions behind the 3D technology are rotation detection, orientation detection, Motion sensing, Gesture detection as well as recognition, etc… The devices that can measure these functions are the gyroscopes and accelerometers. As the size of the end product is very small, the sensors embedded in it should also meet the small size requirements. MPU6050 came as an answer to this challenge. As it is the smallest device that has on-chip integration of both gyroscope and accelerometer. It can be easily embedded in a smartphone due to its small size.

What is MPU6050?

MPU6050 is a MEMS-based 6-axis motion tracking device. It has an on-chip gyroscope and accelerometer sensors along with temperature sensor. MPU6050 is a digital device. This module is of very small in size, has low power consumption requirements, highly accurate, has high repeatability, high shock tolerance, it has application-specific performance programmability and low consumer price points.  MPU6050 can be easily interfaced with other sensors such as magnetometers and microcontrollers.

Block Diagram

MPU6050 module is composed of the following blocks and functions.

• A 3-axis MEMS rate gyroscope sensor with three 16-bit ADC’s and signal conditioning.
• A 3-axis MEMS accelerometer sensor with three 16-bit ADC’s and signal conditioning.
• An on-chip Digital motion Processor engine.
• Primary 12C digital communication interfaces.
• Auxillary I2C interfaces for communication with external sensors such as Magnetometer.
• Internal Clocking.
• Data registers for storing sensor data.
• FIFO memory which helps in reducing power consumption.
• User-programmable interrupts.
• A digital output temperature sensor.
• Self-test for gyroscope and accelerometer.
• LDO and Bias.
• Charge Pump.
• Status registers.

Circuit Diagram

The gyroscope present in MPU6050 can detect rotation about the three axises  X, Y, Z. Coriolis effect causes a vibration when the gyros are rotated about any of the axes. These vibrations are picked up by the capacitor. The signal produced is then amplified,  demodulated and filtered to produce a voltage that is proportional to the angular rate. This voltage is then digitized using ADC’s.

The DMP present on MPU6050 offloads the computation of motion-sensing algorithms from the host processor. DMP acquires data from all the sensors and stores the computed values in its data registers or in FIFO. FIFO can be accessed through the serial interface. Using AD0 pin more than one MPU6050 module can be interfaced with a microprocessor. MPU6050 can be used easily with Arduino, as MPU6050  has well-documented libraries available.

While used in applications, I2C lines of MPU6050 are pulled high using a 4.7kΩ resistor and interrupt pin is pulled down using 4.7kΩ resistor. When data is available in FIFO, the interrupt pin goes high. Now a microcontroller can read the data using I2C communication bus. The data provided by the libraries contain the following data values- Quaternion components, Euler angles, Yaw, Pitch, Roll, Real-world acceleration,  World frame acceleration, and Teapot invent sense values.

Pin Diagram

MPU6050 is available as a small 4×4×0.9 mm package. MEMS structure is hermetically sealed and bonded at the wafer level. MPU6050 is available as a 24-pin QFN package. Pin description of this module is given below-

• Pin-1- CLKIN- is the optional external reference clock input. This pin is connected to ground when not in use.
• Pin-2, Pin-3, Pin-4, Pin-5  are NC pins. These Pins are not connected internally.
• Pin-6, AUX_DA, is the I2C master serial data pin. This pin is used for connecting external sensors.
• Pin-7, AUX_CL, is the I2C master serial clock. This pin is used for connecting external sensors.
• Pin-8, VLOGIC, is the digital I/O supply voltage pin.
• Pin-9, AD0, is the I2C slave address LSB pin.
• Pin-10, REGOUT, is the regulator filter capacitor connection.
• Pin-11, FSYNC, is the frame synchronization digital input. This pin is connected to ground when not used.
• Pin-12, INT, is the interrupt digital output pin.
• Pin-13, VDD, is the power supply voltage pin.
• Pin-14, Pin-15, Pin-16, Pin-17 are NC pin. These pins are not connected internally.
• Pin-18, GND, is the power supply ground.
• Pin-19 and Pin-21 are the RESV pins. These pins are reserved.
• Pin-20, CPOUT, is the charge pump capacitor connection.
• Pin-22, is RESV, the reserved pin.
• Pin-23, SCL, is the I2C serial clock.
• Pin-24, SDA, is the I2C serial data pin.

Specifications of MPU6050

MPU6050 is the worlds first integrated 6- axis motion tracking device. Some of the specifications of this module are given below-

• MPU6050 has a 3-axis gyroscope, 3- axis Accelerometer and a Digital motion processor integrated on a single chip.
• It works on the power supply of 3V-5V.
• MPU6050 uses the I2C protocol for communication and transfer of data.
• This module has a built-in 16-bit ADC which provides great accuracy.
• MPU6050 can be interfaced with other IIC devices such as Magnetometers.
• MPU6050 also has an in-built temperature sensor.
• I2C sensor bus helps it to collect data directly from external 3-axis compass, which it uses to provide a complete 9-axis MotionFusion output.
• For manufacturers, MPU6050 eliminates the need for selection, qualification and system-level integration of discrete devices.
• Using its I2C port, non-inertial sensors such as pressure sensor can be interfaced.
• MPU6050 consists of three 16-bits ADC’s for digitizing the gyroscope 0utputs and three 16-bits ADC’s for digitizing the accelerometer outputs.
• A user-programmable gyroscope range and a user-programmable accelerometer range is present for precision tracking of both fast and slow motions.
• An on-chip 1024 byte FIFO buffer is present which helps in lowering the power consumption of the module.
• The need for frequent pooling of sensor output is minimized with the help of on-chip DMP.
• MPU6050 also has an on-chip oscillator with ±1% variation.
• MPU6050 has low-pass filters for gyroscope, accelerometer and temperature sensor.
• VLOGIC reference pin is used to set the logic levels of the I2C interface.
• The user-programmable range of gyroscope present on MPU6050 is ±250, ±500, ±1000 and ±2000°/sec.
• Image, video, and GPS synchronization are supported by the external sync pin of the gyroscope.
• This gyroscope has improved low-frequency noise performance.
• Gyroscope needs 3.6mA of current for operating.
• Low pass filter of the gyroscope is digitally programmable.
• Accelerometer present on MPU6050 operates on 500μA of current.
• The programmable full-scale range of this accelerometer is ±2g, ±4g, ±8g, and 16g.
• The accelerometer can also detect orientation, tap detection.
• User programmable interrupts are present for accelerometer.
• Between accelerometer and gyroscope axes there is a minimal cross-axis sensitivity.
• To communicate with all registers 400kHz fast mode I2C is used.
• DMP present on MPU6050 supports 3D motion processing and gesture recognition algorithms.
• Burst reading is provided for system processor. After reading data from FIFO the system processor enters into low power sleep mode while MPU collects more data.
• Features such as gesture recognition, panning, zooming, scrolling, tap detection, and shack detection are supported by the programmable interrupts.
• MPU6050 also has an optional external clock input of 32.768kHz or 19.2Mhz.

Applications of MPU6050

Some of the applications of this module are given below-

• This module is used in Blurfree technology for video or still image stabilization.
• For recognizing in-air gestures this module is used.
• In the security and authentication systems, MPU6050 is used for gesture recognition.
• For “no-touch” UI application control and navigation MPU6050 is used.
• In motion command technology for gesture short-cuts, this module is used.
• This module has also found application in motion enabled gaming and application frameworks.
• In InstantGesture -IG, MPU6050 is used for gesture recognition.
• Due to its small size, this module is used in handsets and portable gaming equipment.
• Motion-based game controllers also have this module.
• 3D remote controllers, 3D mice also use this module.
• Wearables used for health, fitness and sports also containMPU6050.
• This module can also be found in many toys.
• For IMU measurements MPU6050 is used.
• In drones and quadcopters, MPU6050 is used for position control.
• This module has also found application in self-balancing robots.
• MPU6050 is highly preferred for robotic arm control.
• Humanoid robots also use this module for tilt, rotation, orientation detection.
• In smartphones, this module is used for applications such as augmented reality, gaming, gesture command control, panoramic photo capture, and viewing.
• This module has also being applied for location-based services.

Alternative IC

Some of the IC that can be used as an alternative to MPU6050 are ADXL335, ADXL345, MPU9250, MPU6000.

This module is highly preferred for portable devices due to its compact size and battery-powered systems due to its low power consumption requirements. MPU6050 can change a handheld mobile into a powerful 3D intelligent device. The further details on the electrical characteristics and interrupt logic of this module can be found in its datasheet. To which microprocessor have you interfaced MPU6050?