One more for this lovely Saturday night! Say hi to this Triple-axis accelerometer with 3 analog outputs for X, Y and Z axis measurements on a 0.75″x0.75″ breakout board. The ADXL335 is the latest and greatest from Analog Devices. Runs from 1.8-3.6 volts (3.3 is suggested), with radiometric output. That means that 0g measurement output is always at half of the supply voltage Vdd, -3g is at 0v and 3g is at Vdd with full scaling in between. Fully assembled and tested. Comes with 6 pin 0.1″ standard header in case you want to use it with a breadboard or perfboard. 4 x 0.125″ mounting holes for easy attachment. See the ADXL335 webpage for datasheets and pick one up at the Adafruit store…

This SHARP distance sensor bounces IR off objects to determine how far away they are. It returns an analog voltage that can be used to determine how close the nearest object is. Comes with 12″ long 3-JST interface wire. These sensors are good for short-range detection. For over 1 m distance, we suggest using sonar sensors

To use, connect black wire to ground, red wire to 5V and white wire to analog input. The analog voltage out will range from 3V when an object is only 4″ (10 cm) away and 0.4V when the object is 32″ (80 cm) away

For more information, please see the datasheet – and check it out in our store…

Here’s a quick and simple project you can do with an Arduino, a breadboard, 2 servos and the IR distance sensor – a edge detecting robot!

#include "Servo.h"

Servo leftServo;  
Servo rightServo;  
int distSensor = 0; 

void setup() {  
  leftServo.attach(10);  
  rightServo.attach(9);
}   

void loop() {  
  distSensor = analogRead(0);
  if (distSensor < 500) {
    leftServo.write(180);
    rightServo.write(0);
    delay(400);
    leftServo.write(180);
    rightServo.write(90);
    delay(900);
  } 
  else {
    leftServo.write(0);
    rightServo.write(180);
  }
}