MPL3115A2 Atmospheric Pressure Altitude Temperature Sensor Module

The MPL3115A2 Pressure, Altitude, and Temperature Sensor Module is a smart, all-in-one barometric solution that combines high-resolution pressure measurement, altitude calculation, and temperature sensing in a single compact breakout board. Manufactured by NXP / Freescale, the MPL3115A2 is one of the most accurate consumer-grade barometric sensors available, offering a measurable altitude resolution of just 30 cm — accurate enough to detect changes between floors of a building.

What makes this sensor especially powerful is that it performs all the computation onboard. Instead of returning raw ADC values that require complex calibration math (as with the older BMP180/BMP085), the MPL3115A2 directly outputs fully compensated values in international standard units: Pascal for pressure, meters for altitude, and degrees Celsius for temperature. Your microcontroller simply reads the data over I2C — no extra computation required, dramatically reducing MCU load and saving power.

The module operates from 1.95V to 3.6V with extremely low power consumption (only 8.5µA at 1Hz sampling, and 2µA in standby), making it ideal for battery-powered IoT devices, weather stations, and wearable altimeters. It also includes advanced features such as 128x oversampling for noise reduction, a 32-sample FIFO buffer for storing readings autonomously, two programmable interrupt outputs, threshold and limit alarms, and extreme value recording.

This sensor is fully supported by popular Arduino libraries (such as Adafruit's MPL3115A2 library and SparkFun's library) and works seamlessly with Arduino Uno, Mega, Nano, ESP32, ESP8266, and Raspberry Pi.

Important: The MPL3115A2 operates at 3.3V logic. When using it with 5V Arduino boards, ensure the breakout board includes onboard logic level shifting and a 3.3V regulator, or add an external level converter to avoid damage.

Specifications

• Sensor Chip: NXP MPL3115A2
• Measurement Outputs:
  • Pressure: 20-bit, in Pascal (Pa)
  • Altitude: 20-bit, in meters (m)
  • Temperature: 12-bit, in degrees Celsius (°C)
• Pressure Measurement Range: 20 kPa – 110 kPa
• Relative Accuracy: ±0.05 kPa (±5 Pa)
• Effective Resolution:
  • Pressure: 1.5 Pa
  • Altitude: 0.3 meters (30 cm)
• Operating Temperature Range: -40°C to +85°C
• Supply Voltage (VDD): 1.95V – 3.6V
• I/O Supply Voltage: 1.62V – 3.6V
• Communication Interface: I2C
• Default I2C Address: 0x60
• Oversampling: Up to 128x for noise reduction
• FIFO Buffer: 32 samples (built-in)
• Interrupt Pins: 2 programmable interrupt outputs
• Power Consumption:
  • Standby Mode: 2µA
  • Low-Power Mode: 8.5µA at 1Hz sampling
• Special Features:
  • Onboard pressure, altitude, and temperature offset adjustment
  • Autonomous data acquisition
  • Limit / threshold alarms
  • Extreme value recording

Applications

• Weather stations — barometric pressure and forecasting
• Drones, quadcopters, and UAVs — altitude hold and barometric altimeter
• GPS altitude correction and dead-reckoning systems
• IoT environmental monitoring projects
• Hiking and outdoor altimeter devices
• Indoor floor detection (multi-story buildings)
• HVAC and building management systems
• Variometer for gliders, paragliders, and hot-air balloons
• Smart home and weather logging
• Educational STEM and meteorology projects
• Smartphone, smartwatch, and wearable altimeter prototypes
• Industrial process monitoring requiring pressure tracking
• Arduino, ESP32, and Raspberry Pi environmental sensor builds