Picking Accelerometers

Assuming the parameter we’re measuring is within the range of the sensor, how particular do we need to be when selecting a particular range for a sensor? Does it make a big difference if we use a 100 g accelerometer instead of a 50 g if both exceed the maximum acceleration likely to be seen? Should we use the 50 g first and then use the 100 g when we run out of 50 g accels?

There's not much difference between 50g and 100g units. The biggest problem is we occasionally exceed 50g in some areas of the model when there's a lot of motion and amplification. If you exceed 50g on a 50g unit then it greatly corrupts the signal (not just clipped). Most everything we purchase anymore is 100g units, but they used to be 50g because that's all they had. 50g units are fine, maybe easier to keep them near the base where we know motions won't exceed 50g.

Researchers should have an idea of how large they expect accelerations to be at each location so that they know they won't exceed the sensor capacity. It's also required when setting gains in smaller events. In fact, researchers should have an idea of how large they expect every measurement to be in every event so that all gains and offsets can be set appropriately.