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LIS3DH

Works with

Any CircuitPython board with I2C or SPI

What it does

The LIS3DH is a triple-axis accelerometer that measures acceleration on the X, Y, and Z axes. The measurement range is configurable from ±2g to ±16g. Beyond raw acceleration, it includes hardware tap detection (single and double tap) and freefall detection via interrupt pins, which allows the microcontroller to be woken or notified without polling the sensor continuously. Common applications include orientation sensing, step counting, impact detection, tilt-based controls, and wearable projects.

Installing the library

Copy adafruit_lis3dh.mpy from the Adafruit CircuitPython Bundle to your board's lib/ folder. Also copy adafruit_bus_device/ if it is not already present.

Quick start

import board
import busio
import adafruit_lis3dh

i2c = busio.I2C(board.SCL, board.SDA)
sensor = adafruit_lis3dh.LIS3DH_I2C(i2c)

x, y, z = sensor.acceleration
print(x, y, z)  # m/s²

Key things you can do

What you want How to do it
Read acceleration (m/s²) sensor.acceleration → (x, y, z) tuple
Set measurement range sensor.range = adafruit_lis3dh.RANGE_4_G (2, 4, 8, or 16 G)
Enable single tap detection sensor.set_tap(1, 80)
Check if a tap occurred sensor.tapped
Enable double tap detection sensor.set_tap(2, 80)

Reading the official docs

https://docs.circuitpython.org/projects/lis3dh/en/latest/

The set_tap() arguments are tap count (1 or 2) and threshold (0–255, higher = less sensitive). The docs include a table of threshold values to help tune sensitivity. For interrupt-driven tap detection, wire the INT pin and see the interrupt examples in the guide.

Projects using this library