Request: Sonic range finder

[Anton]

Hey there,

 

I think that an ultra sonic range-finder would be a very welcomed addition to the bricklets.

 

They can serve many purposes in many different applications.

 

 

BTW: Congrats with the award!

 

[Xenna]

Agreed, if they had one available with a 6m range, I would have ordered one today.

 

OTOH, something like this http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9495 (5v power, analog out) should be easy to use with an Analog In bricklet, shouldn't it?

 

[borg]

Yes, you can use the XL-Maxsonar EZ4 with the Analog In Bricklet.

 

We have an eye on this sensor already, the problem is that it is quite expensive for us to make a Bricklet for this in big quantaties (you can see the price of the sensor). We kind of stretched our financial means with the newest production.

 

However, we will very likely have a Bricklet for one of the Maxsonar thingies by at least June.

[Anton]

I'm pretty new to all this, how would you use the XL-Maxsonar with the Analog In?

 

One would have to interpret the signals somehow, I guess?

[borg]

For the XL-Maxsonar EZ4 it is really easy. You have to connect 3.3V to V+, GND to GND and the analog in port to pin 3.

 

You can then call GetAnalogValue() on the Analog In Bricklet and to convert to cm just calculate analog_value/1024.

 

The whole interpretation of the signal is done by the EZ4 itself. Thats of course nice, but you pay for that feature (the sensor costs ~50$).