Ambient Light Sensor For Microcontroller Based Projects

TEMT6000 ambient light sensor is just another analog sensor.It is compatible with micro-controllers which supports analog data input.This sensor is working like a transistor.As light falling on sensor increases the analog output(SIGNAL)will increase.

                                                 If the light is very low then the SIG will be also very low as light increases the SIG will also goes high.

       We can useTEMT6000 ambient light sensor from spark fun electronics in various applications that includes ambient light sensing.Like if you want to control your bulb according to ambient light then TEMT6000 ambient light sensor  is best choice over simple LDRs.This one is more reliable that LDRs

       TEMT6000 is a silicon NPN epitaxial planar photo transistor .The device is sensitive to the visible spectrum.TEMT6000 is used as ambient light sensor for display back light dimming in mobile phones,Notebook computers ,cameras etc.

      The below circuit and code is for demonstrating basic working of TEMT6000 Ambient light sensor.Here we are  using Arduino Pro Mini as our microcontroller.You can use either a battery or FTDI+USB for powering the board.Anyway if we want to see the data on serial monitor we need to use FTDI and USB.In the below code i am just reading the data and printing it into percentage of Ambient light.And arduino inbuilt LED will ON if the analog value from the sensor goes beyond certain value.

CONNECTION

ARDUINO PRO MINI                  SENSOR

VCC                                               VCC

GND                                              GND

A0                                                   SIG

You can find  fritzing files here
you can find the hackster project here

Arduino Code

Purchase links
Sparkfun electronics 
Rhydolabz 

Playing With HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Ranging Module

 Introduction

 HC-SR04 is a ultrasonic  ranging module which is working like bats.ie it uses sonar technique for ranging.This module is widely used in between arduino hackers and diy enthusiast.The main attraction of this module is it is one of the simplest module and can be recommend to any newbie

 

 

 Applications

HC-SR04 is a module which can be used in various applications in our DIY projects.

• As obstacle detector in obstacle avoiding robot.
• In walking assistant system for visually impaired people.
• As parking sensor in vehicles. 
• As sensor in bugler alarm type projects.

 

 

Example project

Arduino based ultrasonic obstacle detector 

components needed

1.  Arduino ProMini x 1
2. HC-SR04 x1
3. Buzzer x 1
4. LED x 1
5. 220 ohm resistor x1

 Connections 

Arduino                                                 HC-SR04

pin 9                                                         trig

  pin8                                                          echo

  vcc                                                           vcc

  gnd                                                           gnd 

arduino pin 6 is connected to LED.

arduino pin A3 is connected to a buzzer.

arduino can be power via usb/ftdi or a 5v battery

working 

 In this demo project HC-SR04 is used as simple obstacle detector.it detects objects in front and will reply how far the obstacle is from the sensor.If an obstacle is detected it will alarm with a buzzer.If the obstacle is very close the led will ON.

Arduino code

//http://anasdalintakam.blogspot.com/2016/06/playing-with-hc-sr04-ultrasonic-ranging.html
//this is a simple project to demo working of HC-SR04
//connctions
//pin9-hcsr04 trig
//pin8-hcsr04 echo
//vcc-hcsr04 vcc
//gnd-hcsr04 gnd
//pin6-led
//pin A3-buzzer



int trig=9;
int echo=8;
int duration;       
float distance;
int val; 
float meter;      
void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(trig, OUTPUT);//trigger to hcsr04
  pinMode(echo, INPUT);//echo from hcsr04
  pinMode(6,OUTPUT);// led pin
  pinMode(A3,OUTPUT);// buzzer pin
  digitalWrite(trig, LOW);
  delayMicroseconds(2);
 
  delay(6000);
  Serial.println("Distance:");
}
void loop()
{ 
  digitalWrite(trig, HIGH);   
  delayMicroseconds(10);              
  digitalWrite(trig, LOW);   

  duration = pulseIn(echo, HIGH);

  if(duration>=38000){
      Serial.print("Out range"); 
      }    

  else{
      distance = duration/58;
      val=200-distance;  
      Serial.print("value:");
      Serial.print(val);
      Serial.print("\n");
      Serial.print(distance);   
      Serial.print("cm");
      meter=distance/100;
      Serial.print("\t");
      Serial.print(meter);
      Serial.println("m");
   if (distance >10){
   digitalWrite(6,LOW);
    }
    else {
   digitalWrite(6,HIGH);
      }
analogWrite(A3,val);
     
      }
  //   delay(1000);  
}