jaimemartinsoler / distancesensor

Arduino ultrasonic distance sensor with LCD, Buzzer, LED and Pause button.

DISTANCE SENSOR

Distance Sensor with Arduino, perfect for cars. With LCD screen, LED, buzzer and pause button. Check a real time emulation in circuits.io.

 

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OUTPUTS & INPUTS

This distance sensor allows 3 different outputs and 1 input:

• OUTPUTS:
  • LCD Screen: Shows "Distance: XXXcm" and "Range: X" (or "PAUSED"), with both contrast and backlight regulators (by two potenciometers)
  • LED: Flashes, faster as the distance is smaller
  • Buzzer: Beeps, faster as the distances is smaller
• INPUTS:
  • Button: Pause/Resume Button

 

 

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CONFIGURATION

Distance Ranges and Beep periods (distanceSensor.ino):

const int rangesSize = 4;
const short int ranges[rangesSize]    = {10, 30, 100, 200};  // cm
const short int periods[rangesSize-1] = {200, 600, 1500};    // ms

• cm < ranges[0]: LED and the buzzer with continuous light and sound.
• cm > ranges[rangesSize-1]: LED and the buzzer with no light nor sound.
• ranges[i] < cm < ranges[i+1]: LED and buzzer with flash and beep every periods[i] milliseconds.

Sensing Range and Frequency (Ultrasonic.cpp):

Time_out=12000;  // 6000 µs = 1m // 30000 µs = 5 m 

Time_out determines the maximum sensing range, proportional to the relation 6000µs->1m (max is 24000µs->4m). It also affects the sensing frequency (the Time_out is the minimum time for each distance measure).

 

 

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ABOUT SENSOR (HC-SR04) & EMULATION (circuits.io)

This setup has been developed for the Ultrasonic Sensor HC-SR04, which is not available in circuits.io (another one is shown just for cosmetic reasons). Then, note that:

• To test the program from circuits.io emulator, go to my project and modify the line in the code (just in case you want to test it with different distances):

// manually set cm=15, cause circuits.io does not handle the HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor
cm=15;

• The HC-SR04 would be connected as shown in the Breadboard mini "Ultrasonic_Interface":
  • VCC: yellow
  • Trig: orange
  • Echo: red
  • GND: brown
• Note that it might run slowly, due to the emulation capabilities.

 

 

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OTHER NOTES

The ultrasonic distance sensor range is quite wide (around 20º) and it fails when the surface is not perpendicular or homogeneus. Maybe, a setup with many laser distance sensors would solve those issues.

 

 

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LICENSE

This software is under MIT license.