MPU-9150 Hookup Guide

Contributors: .Brent.

Introduction

The MPU-9150 is a nine degrees of freedom (9DOF) inertial measurement unit (IMU) in a sigle package. It houses a 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis magnetometer and a Digital Motion Processor™ (DMP™) hardware accelerator engine. The range of each sensor is configurable: the accelerometer's scale can be set to ±2g, ±4g, ±6g, ±8g, or ±16g, the gyroscope supports ±250, ±500, and ±2000 °/s, and the magnetometer has full-scale range of ±1200µT (±12 gauss).

The MPU-9150 supports I²C. There is a single reference to in the datasheet for SPI, but all other evidence points to the contrary. We have only testing using I²C, and, for the purposes of this tutorial, we will only be covering how to use this device in I²C mode.

Covered In This Tutorial

This tutorial is devoted to all things MPU-9150. First we'll introduce you to the breakout board. Then we'll switch over to example code and show you how to interface with the board using an Arduino and our [SFE_MPU-9150 Arduino library](https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/learn_tutorials/3/9/7/MPU-9150_libraries.zip).

The tutorial is split into the following sections:

• Breakout Board Overview -- This page examines the MPU-9150 Breakout Board -- topics like the pinout, jumpers, and schematic are covered.
• Hardware Assembly -- How to assemble the hardware to run some example code.
• Installing the Arduino Library -- How to install the Arduino library, and use a simple example sketch to verify that your hookup works.
• Resources & Going Further -- Resources for learning and doing more with the MPU-9150.

Required Materials

This tutorial explains how to use the MPU-9150 Breakout Board with an Arduino. To follow along, you'll need the following materials:

Suggested Reading

If you're not familiar with some of the concepts below, we recommend checking out that tutorial before continuing on.

• Pull-up Resistors
• Accelerometer Basics
• Gyroscopes
• Inter-IC Communication (I²C)