I'm just getting started with electronics (with Arduino) and have bought this SunFounder accelerometer with part code ADXL345 from Amazon.
My problem is I can't find a datasheet anywhere from SunFounder for this part. I found this datasheet on SparkFun's website for an ADXL345, which seemed like it matched the part as the first few lines of the datasheet description matched exactly the description for the part description on Amazon ("The ADXL345 is a small, thin, low power, 3-axis accelerometer with high resolution (13-bit) measurement at up to ±16 g. Digital output data is formatted as 16-bit twos complement... etc")
But then I noticed that the pin layout diagram in the SparkFun datasheet doesn't match my part:
So my questions are (sorry, I'm really really new to electronics):
- What does the part code for an electronic component (like ADXL345) actually mean if different manufacturers can produce chips that look different / different pins etc. but have the same part number?
- Is it safe to use the datasheet from SparkFun for ADXL345 for an ADXL345 made by SunFounder or will there be subtle differences in how they work?
Thanks!