Every time a smartphone screen rotates automatically, an accelerometer chip like the ADXL335 is behind it — and the same sensor makes a solid entry point into motion and tilt sensing on Arduino.
How it works
The ADXL335 is built on MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) technology: a microscopic suspended structure inside the chip shifts position under acceleration or the constant pull of gravity, changing the capacitance between a set of fixed and moving plates. That change converts into an analog voltage on each of the sensor's three axes, proportional to the acceleration along that axis.
Wiring it up
The sensor runs on 3.3V or 5V, so it works directly with most Arduino boards. Its three analog outputs — X, Y, and Z — connect to three analog input pins, commonly A0, A1, and A2, alongside the shared power and ground connections.
Reading and calibrating values
The code reads the raw analog value from each axis and converts it to a G-force reading, where 1G corresponds to Earth's standard gravitational acceleration of roughly 9.8 m/s². Because the raw analog signal carries some electrical noise, taking several readings per axis and averaging them before conversion produces noticeably more stable output on the Serial Monitor.
What it's used for
Beyond screen-rotation logic, the same three-axis output supports tilt-triggered alarms, drop and impact detection, self-balancing platforms, and any project that needs to sense orientation or sudden motion without a full gyroscope.
You can find the ADXL335 accelerometer module at Juthour Tech.
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