Microcontroller Discovery: Ultrasonic Ranging

In this Microcontroller Discovery Workshop session you will become familiar with HC-SR04 ultrasonic range sensor. This device is very popular with hobbyist because it is inexpensive (a dollar or two), easy to use, and supported by a lot of software and fun projects. It has a detection range from under 10cm up to 4m. It’s measurement resolution is around 3mm. These sensor have separate transmitter and receiver transducers. When triggered by the host MCU it sends out a short burst of sound, at 40kHz. If that sound wave hits a reflective surface and echo comes back to the very sensitive receiver. The round trip delay between the transmitted and received burst is a measure of the distance. One common hobby use of these sensors is for collision avoidance in small wheeled robots. That is the inspiration for the “eyes” in the Melbourne Creators Collective logo on the picture above, which was inspired by a wheeled robot. If you are in a generous mood you may recognise the ‘M’ as representing the wheels.

Please note that you need to have The Absolute Basics covered before attending this workshop.
We cannot afford to be held up by people who have not acquired The Absolute Basics!

For this workshop you must bring your own Windows laptop with the software installed and working. See The Absolute Basics

For more information about these Workshops: Workshops Overview