# Adafruit MMA8451 Accelerometer Breakout

## Overview

![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/018/452/medium800/sensors_2019iso_ORIG.jpg?1406585851)

You can detect motion, tilt and basic orientation with a digital accelerometer - and the MMA8451 is a great accelerometer to start with. It's low cost, but high precision with 14-bit ADC. It has a wide usage range, from +-2g up to +-8g yet is easy to use with Arduino or another microcontroller

The MMA8451 is a miniature little accelerometer from Freescale, who are (by this point) masters at the accelerometer-design game. It's designed for use in phones, tablets, smart watches, and more, but works just as well in your Arduino project. Of the MMA8451/MMA8452/MMA8453 family, the MMA8451 is the most precise with a built in 14-bit ADC. The accelerometer also has built in tilt/orientation detection so i can tell you whether your project is being held in landscape or portrait mode, and whether it is tilted forward or back

![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/018/471/medium800/sensors_2019kit_ORIG_.jpg?1406662829)

This sensor communicates over I2C so you can share it with a bunch of other sensors on the same two I2C pins. There's an address selection pin so you can have accelerometers share an I2C bus. Please note this chip requires repeated-start I2C support (in case you are looking to port this to another processor)

![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/018/473/medium800/sensors_2019_quarter_ORIG.jpg?1406662945)

To get you going fast, we spun up a breakout board for this little guy. Since it's a 3V sensor, we add a low-dropout 3.3V regulator and level shifting circuitry on board. That means its perfectly safe for use with 3V or 5V power and logic.

- [Next Page](https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-mma8451-accelerometer-breakout/pinouts.md)

## Featured Products

### Adafruit Triple-Axis Accelerometer - ±2/4/8g @ 14-bit - MMA8451

[Adafruit Triple-Axis Accelerometer - ±2/4/8g @ 14-bit - MMA8451](https://www.adafruit.com/product/2019)
So many accelerometers and so little time! We've expanded our accelerometer selection even more with this high-precision and inexpensive **MMA8451 Triple-Axis Accelerometer w/ 14-bit ADC.** You can detect motion, tilt and basic orientation with a digital accelerometer - and...

In Stock
[Buy Now](https://www.adafruit.com/product/2019)
[Related Guides to the Product](https://learn.adafruit.com/products/2019/guides)

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