Hi jm126,
Just to clarify, which specific accelerometer did you purchase from us, the 4030-002-120 or the 4030-006-120? The outputs will differ, depending on which one you have. Regardless, the voltages you are getting don’t sound right, but we should clarify your test set-up.
To test the device, you should use a clean DC power source from somewhere between 5Vdc to 30Vdc. A bench-top power supply, or a 12V or 24V battery set-up would be ideal. Connect your power source ground to the yellow wire and your positive voltage to the white wire, as you stated. The gray self-test wire should be left floating when not being used.
To take measurements, the negative lead of your multimeter must be connected to the yellow ground wire. Then, with the accelerometer sitting flat on a table and the “Z” axis pointing up, the X and Y axes (brown and green wires, respectively) should output between 2.4V and 2.6V. The Z axis (pink wire) should measure between 3.3V and 3.7V for the 4030-002-120 or between 2.7V and 3.0V for the 4030-006-120. The reason for this higher value for “Z” is that it is experiencing 1g of acceleration due to gravity in that orientation.
If you don’t get the readings expected above, you can try the self-test. To do that, short the gray self-test wire to ground. Then, the X, Y, and Z wires should read the following (note: these values are relative to 2.5V, so for instance, “X” would be between 2.62V and 2.80V):
