This page is a placeholder about ultrasonic sensors, which we hope to flesh out as time permits.

Ultrasonic Distance Sensors#

The HC-SR04 (click to enlarge)

I've been using a driver board from PiBorg called the UltraBorg that has both support for four servos and four HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensors, with a support library in Python.

SensComp Ultrasonics#

The Polaroid SX-70 Sonar (click to enlarge)

A more advanced sensor is available from SensComp, which uses a transducer similar to those found in the Polaroid SX-70 Sonar camera, circa 1978. These sensors are have a longer range and are more sensitive than their cheaper brethren. I contacted SensComp and received more information about their sensors. See the documents attached to this page.

SensComp offers a complete Development kit using the Arduino. This is the Smart Sensor Ultrasonic Development Kit For Arduino, attached is a spec sheet for the kit. I have also included the spec sheet for the Smart sensor itself which can also be purchased separately. Also attached is the code for the development kit.

• Smart Sensor Ultrasonic Development Kit For Arduino
• Smart Sensor Specifications
• Ping_SMRT.ino, Arduino code for the development kit.

According to SensComp there is currently no known Python port of the Arduino C code, but the Ping_SMRT.ino file looks to be relatively straightforward if the included Wire.h and LiquidCrystal_I2C.h library are themselves either ported or portable. But this is certainly a non-trivial effort.