The accelerometer is probably useful for emulating game consoles that use motion inputs.
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I like the sound of this idea… think of automation potential.
This can be used for fall detection or something? I know it is not an Apple Watch but this can be a helpful piece of information for diagnostics or repair. It would be helpful to know whether the device suffered some mechanical shock. For example if it did suffer some mechanical shock the repairman would like to check if any ports joints became loose.
Just guessing.
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Now that I think about it, can the accelerometer be used for screen rotation? I might actually try to use that.
hear me out… VR thinclient. if the accelerometer is good enough then all you would need is a headset with 4 standard expansion ports, 2 for wide-angle cameras for inside-out tracking and two for USB-C/PD?DP into two monitors in the headset.
This is an active discussion right here, if you want to talk about it more! We’re having some ideas, and we can’t be hurt by more!
If/when you do, be sure to share it here, that sounds like something I’d love to do, but I’d love it even more if it was already done, lol.
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Just a note on this that we’re going to be removing the accelerometer from upcoming manufacturing. This is one part that there is a global shortage around, and rather than risk our ability to produce Framework Laptops on time, we decided to de-populate the part. Given that it was never enabled by default in BIOS, and I suspect nobody is actually using it, there is probably no real-life impact to this. There is potentially an interesting path to build an accelerometer+gyro+magnetometer Expansion Card to be a more capable motion sensing tool as a project.
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Is there a timeframe for when/which batches would get their accelerometer neutered?
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I don’t know what I might have used it for (probably nothing), but so far I’ve not even been able to find it in Linux despite enabling it in BIOS.
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That’s really sad to know… I just ordered the November batch and saw this thread. Planning to make a project with the accelerometer…
@Xiaoling_He I’m hoping an IMU expansion card (acc+gyro+mag) will be one of the first things to show up on the marketplace.
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This is a cool idea. A lap detect mode that triggers some extra cooling to keep your legs from getting spit roasted while letting the system run hotter and faster when on a desk would be a nice little QoL feature.
Though the removal of the part to ensure your boards ship in a timely manner does seem more important than a possible future feature.
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Is there a way to tell if our laptop was built before or after the accelerometer was removed from the manufacturing process?
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This actually sound a insanely cool thing to do. Imagine running some kind of software that can take the inputs and tell you how level your laptop is …
Oh, wait. No. You need a full-blown gyro for that.
But still. You can make simple cool things (how about a actual labyrinth game where you treat your entire laptop as the maze/imagine the uncomfort)
Right now it’s probably more than a gimmick. I have it enabled, though. Although currently it do nothing.
What a sensor like it used to do is to detect when a laptop falls. If it detect a collision/fall something, it try to immediately park the headers of the HDD so you don’t end up with a catastrophic failure with metal shards everywhere.
Of course, HDDs are a lone relic of the past (basically, except in desktops as a cheap mass storage solution), and this function is now useless.
A gyro detects rotational motion; an accelerometer detects linear acceleration (including gravity). You should be able to determine at least rough spacial orientation using an accelerometer.
Yes, but it’s not even close to what a $5 CC3D module is capable of, since the copter control have gyro.
I agree, just trying to clarify terminology for people who are less familiar. The CC3D is better classified as an IMU (inertial measurement unit) that combines an accelerometer and gyroscope to measure orientation and motion. The Accelerometer can detect linear motion (after integrating the output) and gravity direction for 3d orientation, but it’s bad at accounting for fine rotations required for flight stabilization. In contrast, the gyroscope is great at detecting rotations, but it cannot detect linear motion or orientation (just changes in orientation).
Some IMUs fuse in other sensors as well like magnetometers (for detecting magnetic fields like a compass) or barometers (for detecting altitude).
That’s enough of a side track for now. Hopefully it helps clear up the differences between sensor names brought up in this thread 
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Just a heads up, the G-Sensor option in the BIOS has been removed as of v3.06 Beta.
Not sure if it completely disables the accelerometer but anyone interested in experimenting with it should probably hold off on updating to the latest BIOS.
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Oh well… Accelerometer off, cannot use…