Ultrasonic Sensor Module HC SR-04 for Arduino Project

This popular ultrasonic distance sensor provides stable and accurate distance measurements from 2 cm to 450 cm. It has an focus of less than 15 degrees and an accuracy of about 2mm. Usage: Connect the VCC and GND pins to a 5V power supply, the trigger input (Trig) pin to a digital output and the echo (Echo) pin to a digital input on your robot’s microcontroller. Pulse the trigger (trig) pin high for at least 10us (microseconds) and then wait for a high level on the echo (Echo) pin. The amount of time it takes to receive the echo corresponds to the distance that the ultrasonic sound has travelled. The quicker the response, the closer your robot is to an obstacle. This sensor uses ultrasonic sound to measure distance just like bats and dolphins do. Ultrasonic sound has such a high pitch that humans cannot hear it. This particular sensor sends out an ultrasonic sound that has a frequency of about 40kHz. The sensor has two main parts, a transducer that creates an ultrasonic sound and another listens to it’s echo. To use this sensor to measure distance, the robot’s brain must measure the amount of time it takes for the ultrasonic sound to travel. Sound travels at approximately 340 meters per second. This corresponds to about 29.412us (microseconds) per centimeter. To measure the distance the sound has travelled we use the formula is Distance = (Time x SpeedOfSound) / 2. The “2” is in the formula because the sound has to travel back and fourth. First the sound travels away from the sensor, then it bounces off of a surface and returns back. The easy way to read the distance as centimeters is use the formula, Centimeters = ((Microseconds / 2) / 29). For example, if it takes 100us (microseconds) for the ultrasonic sound to bounce back, then the distance is ((100 / 2) / 29) centimeters or about 1.7 centimeters.