Sensors detect and respond to input from the physical environment, such as light, heat, motion, moisture, pressure, or other entities. The output is an analog or digitally encoded signal that can be converted to a human-readable display or transmitted for further processing.
Sensor Breakout Boards
Typically, sensors are available separately or on ready-to-use breakout boards. Some sensors provide analog output in the form of a voltage change. Other sensors provide digital output, i.e. via a I2C interface. The latter require microcontrollers to interpret the digital output.
Breakout boards typically come with all external components required interface with a particular sensor. Such boards can also protect sensors that may be sensitive to input voltage and can be destroyed when applying voltage outside their specs. A breakout board hosting such a sensor would include a voltage regulator. Often, but not always, this allows sensor breakout boards to be operated with a wide range of voltages, making them usable both with 3.3V and 5V environments.
Raw Sensors
At the heart of any sensor breakout board is the actual sensor device. You may use the sensor directly provided you exactly know its requirements, i.e. its minimum and maximum operating voltage.
Some sensors require significant currents at regular intervals. Make sure your power supply and voltage regulator can supply the required current.
Using a sensor directly without a breakout board can save space and reduce power consumption since you can tailor the circuitry exactly to your needs. It often requires more work and skills than using standard breakout boards.
Sensor Types
There is an abundance of sensors available. Here is a quick overview of the most commonly used sensor types, plus a few popular models.
- Accelerometers: ADXL345
- CO2 sensors: SCD-30, MH-Z19, MG-811
- Flame sensors: infrared flame sensors
- Gas sensors: MQ-2, MQ-135 (for CO2)
- Gyroscope sensors: MPU-6050
- Humidity sensors: DHT22
- Light sensors: LDR, photodiodes
- Magnetic sensors: Hall effect sensors
- Motion sensors: PIR sensors
- pH sensors: pH probes
- Pressure sensors: BMP180
- Proximity sensors: ultrasonic sensors like HC-SR04
- Radar sensors: RCWL-0516
- Rain sensors: rain detection modules
- Soil moisture sensors: soil hygrometers
- Sound sensors: microphones
- Temperature sensors: DHT11, DS18B20
- Tilt sensors: mercury switches
- Touch sensors: capacitive touch sensors
- Water flow sensors: YF-S201
- Water level sensors: float switches
In the subsections you find additional information on selected sensors.
Slow Website?
This website is very fast, and pages should appear instantly. If this site is slow for you, then your routing may be messed up, and this issue does not only affect done.land, but potentially a few other websites and downloads as well. Here are simple steps to speed up your Internet experience and fix issues with slow websites and downloads..
Comments
Please do leave comments below. I am using utteran.ce, an open-source and ad-free light-weight commenting system.
Here is how your comments are stored
Whenever you leave a comment, a new github issue is created on your behalf.
-
All comments become trackable issues in the Github Issues section, and I (and you) can follow up on them.
-
There is no third-party provider, no disrupting ads, and everything remains transparent inside github.
Github Users Yes, Spammers No
To keep spammers out and comments attributable, all you do is log in using your (free) github account and grant utteranc.es the permission to submit issues on your behalf.
If you don’t have a github account yet, go get yourself one - it’s free and simple.
If for any reason you do not feel comfortable with letting the commenting system submit issues for you, then visit Github Issues directly, i.e. by clicking the red button Submit Issue at the bottom of each page, and submit your issue manually. You control everything.
Discussions
For chit-chat and quick questions, feel free to visit and participate in Discussions. They work much like classic forums or bulletin boards. Just keep in mind: your valued input isn’t equally well trackable there.
(content created Jun 04, 2024)