MPU6050 (GY-521)
Also known as: MPU6050 · GY-521 · More staples
The immortal tutorial IMU: the silicon was discontinued years ago, the clones never stopped, and for 'is the washing machine vibrating' it honestly doesn't matter.
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The original silicon is end-of-life; what you buy today is clone/recycled stock.
At a glance
⚑ flag an error| Measures | acceleration |
|---|---|
| Accuracy | 6-axis IMU; drifty by modern standards, fine for event detection |
| Interface | I2C @ 0x68 / 0x69 |
| Supply | 3.3–5 V (module) |
| Battery-viable | Yes (deep-sleep friendly) |
| ESPHome | Native ESPHome component — mpu6050 |
| Typical price | $1-2 (street, varies) |
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Clone check
HIGH clone risk. The genuine chip is long EOL at TDK — every GY-521 carries recycled or cloned dies. For vibration detection they're fine; for orientation tracking, use a modern IMU.
Good for
Gotchas to know
- Buy it for events, not angles: gyro drift makes clone units poor at orientation.
- For real IMU work look at BMI270/ICM-20948 class parts (no native ESPHome component — verify before designing around one).
Wiring it up
It's I2C, so it shares two pins with every other I2C sensor you own — chain your climate/light/CO2 stack on one bus and mind the address clashes (this one lives at 0x68 / 0x69). Any ESP32 dev board works.