Sensors

CdS cells are little light sensors. As the squiggly face is exposed to more light, the resistance goes down. When it's light, the resistance is about ~1KΩ, when dark it goes up to ~10KΩ. To use, connect one side of the photocell (either one, it's symmetric) to power (for example 5V) and the other side to your microcontroller's analog input pin. Then...

Here it is, the motion sensor you were looking for: the one that just gives you the directly usable information without requiring you to first consult with a PhD to learn the arcane arts of Sensor Fusion. The BNO085 takes the life's work of multiple people who have spent their entire career focused on how to get useful information from direct motion sensor...

Listen to this good news - we now have a breakout board for a super tiny I2S MEMS microphone. Just like 'classic' electret microphones, MEMS mics can detect sound and convert it to voltage, but they're way smaller and thinner. This microphone doesn't even have analog out, it's purely digital. The I2S is a small, low-cost MEMS mic with a range of about 50Hz - 15KHz,...

If you've ever ordered and wire up a 9-DOF sensor, chances are you've also realized the challenge of turning the sensor data from an accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer into actual "3D space orientation"! Orientation is a hard problem to solve. The sensor fusion algorithms (the secret sauce that blends accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope data into stable...

This RF adapter cable is super handy for anyone doing RF work. Often times, small electronics save space by having a pick-and-placeable u.FL connector (also called uFL, IPEX, IPAX, IPX, MHF, and AM). But most antennas have SMA or RP-SMA connectors on them. This little cable will bridge the two! This cable is RG178 and is 15cm (5.9") long not including the SMA...

This I2C digital temperature sensor is one of the more accurate/precise we've ever seen, with a typical accuracy of ±0.25°C over the sensor's -40°C to +125°C range and precision of +0.0625°C. They work great with any microcontroller using standard i2c. There are 3 address pins so you can connect up to 8 to a single I2C bus without address...

Thermocouples are very sensitive, requiring a good amplifier with a cold-compensation reference. The MAX31855K does everything for you, and can be easily interfaced with any microcontroller, even one without an analog input. This breakout board has the chip itself, a 3.3V regulator with 10uF bypass capacitors and level shifting circuitry, all assembled and tested....

Thermocouples are very sensitive, requiring a good amplifier with a cold-compensation reference, as well as calculations to handle any non-linearities. For a long time we've suggested our MAX31855K breakout, which works great but is only for K-type thermocouples. Now we're happy to offer a great new thermocouple amplifier/converter that can handle just about any type...

Listen to this good news - we now have a breakout board for a super tiny ICS43434 I2S MEMS microphone. Just like 'classic' electret microphones, MEMS mics can detect sound and convert it to voltage, but they're way smaller and thinner. This microphone doesn't even have analog out, it's purely digital. The I2S is a small, low-cost MEMS mic with a range of about 50Hz -...

The Adafruit AS7341 10-Channel Light / Color Sensor Breakout is a multi-channel spectrometer, which is a special type of light sensor that is able to detect not only the amount of light present but also the amounts of light within different wavelengths. This means that you can use it to detect much better than the human eye is capable of, what color or colors of...

If you're like me, you've dreamed of being a dolphin - smoothly gliding through the water. Using your echo-location abilities to detect tasty fish treats. Until genetic modifications catches up with our desires, we'll just have to make do with these handy HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sonar Distance Sensors and a pair of flippers. These ubiquitous sensors are really common in...

The DHT20 is a nice but inexpensive temperature and humidity sensor from the same folks that brought us the DHT22. This little sensor looks an awful lot like the popular DHT11/DHT22 temperature and humidity sensors, but unlike classic DHT sensors, it has an I²C interface! That's right, you do not need to use a bit-bang timing-specific protocol to talk to the...

Sensirion Temperature/Humidity sensors are some of the finest & highest-accuracy devices you can get. And finally, we have some that have a true I2C interface for easy reading. The SHT45 sensor is the fourth generation (started at the SHT10 and worked its way up to the top!). The SHT45 has an excellent ±1.0% typical relative humidity accuracy from 25 to...

The AHT20 is a nice but inexpensive temperature and humidity sensor from the same folks that brought us the DHT22. You can take sensor readings as often as you like, and it uses standard I2C so its super easy to use with any Arduino or Linux/Raspberry Pi board. This sensor has a typical accuracy of +- 2% relative humidity, and +-0.3 °C at 20-80% RH and 20-60...

When you want to sense orientation using inertial measurements, you need an Inertial Measurement Unit, and when it comes to IMUs, the more DoFs, the better! The ICM20948 from Invensense packs 9 Degrees of freedom into a teeny package, making it a one-stop-shop for all the DOFs you need! Within its svelte 3x3mm package, there is not just one MEMS sensor die like your...

Need to measure something with a very slim sensor? This precision 10K thermistor is an inexpensive way to measure temperature in a small gap, or taped to a flat surface, it's only 0.2mm wide! The resistance in 25°C is 10K (+- 1%). The resistance goes down as it gets warmer and goes up as it gets cooler. For specific temperature-to-resistance, check the lookup...

Thermocouples are very sensitive, requiring a good amplifier with a cold-compensation reference. The Adafruit MCP9600 does all that for you, and can be easily interfaced with any microcontroller or single-board-computer with I2C. Inside, the chip handles all the analog stuff for you, and can interface with just about any thermocouple type: K, J, T, N, S, E, B and R...

For precision temperature sensing, nothing beats a Platinum RTD. Resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) are temperature sensors that contain a resistor that changes resistance value as its temperature changes, basically a kind of thermistor. In this resistance sensor, the resistor is actually a small strip of Platinum with a resistance of 100 ohms at 0°C, thus...

Infrared (IR) break-beam sensors are a simple way to detect motion. They work by having an emitter side that sends out a beam of human-invisible IR light, then a receiver across the way which is sensitive to that same light. When something passes between the two, and its not transparent to IR, then the 'beam is broken' and the receiver will let you know. Compared to...

The "poor man's" accelerometer/motion sensor! These spring-vibration switches are high sensitivity non-directional vibration induced trigger switches. Inside is a very soft spring coiled around a long metal pin. When the switch is moved, the spring touches the center pole to make contact. So, when there's motion, the two pins will act like a closed switch. When...

This sensor can detect flexing or bending in one direction. They were popularized by being used in the Nintendo PowerGlove as a gaming interface. These sensors are easy to use, they are basically resistors that change value based on how much their flexed. If they're unflexed, the resistance is about ~25KΩ. When flexed all the way the resistance rises to...

We've updated our favorite triple-axis accelerometer to now have an on-board 3.3V regulator - making it a perfect choice for interfacing with a 5V microcontroller such as the Arduino. This breakout comes 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, known for their...

Infrared (IR) break-beam sensors are a simple way to detect motion. They work by having an emitter side that sends out a beam of human-invisible IR light, then a receiver across the way which is sensitive to that same light. When something passes between the two, and its not transparent to IR, then the 'beam is broken' and the receiver will let you know. Compared to...

We stock a large number of Temperature/Humidity sensors, so you're probably wondering why another one? Well, this Adafruit HDC3022 Precision Temperature & Humidity Sensor breakout features the highest accuracy & precision one we've see so far! It has the TI HDC302x series chip with typical 0.5% accuracy for the RH sensor (with 0.19% long-term drift) and...

The LIS3DH is a very popular low power triple-axis accelerometer. It's low-cost, but has just about every 'extra' you'd want in an accelerometer: Three axis sensing, 10-bit precision. ±2g/±4g/±8g/±16g selectable scaling. Both I2C (2 possible addresses) and SPI interface options. Interrupt output. Multiple data rate options 1 Hz to 5Khz. As...

This rotary encoder is the best of the best, it's a high-quality 24-pulse encoder, with detents and a nice feel. It is panel mountable for placement in a box, or you can plug it into a breadboard (just cut/bend the two mechanical side tabs.) We also include a nice soft-touch knob with an arrow in it, fits perfectly and looks great. This encoder also has a push-button...

When the future is dazzlingly-bright, this ultra-high-range luminosity sensor will help you measure it. The TSL2591 luminosity sensor is an advanced digital light sensor, ideal for use in a wide range of light situations. Compared to low cost CdS cells, this sensor is more precise, allowing for exact lux calculations and can be configured for different gain/timing...

If you're like me, you've dreamed of being a dolphin - smoothly gliding through the water. Using your echo-location abilities to detect tasty fish treats. Until genetic modifications catches up with our desires, we'll just have to make do with these handy 3V Ultrasonic Sonar Distance Sensor and a pair of flippers. These ubiquitous sensors are really common in...

Add an ear to your project with this well-designed electret microphone amplifier. This fully assembled and tested board comes with a 20-20KHz electret microphone soldered on. For the amplification, we use the Maxim MAX4466, an op-amp specifically designed for this delicate task! The amplifier has excellent power supply noise rejection, so this amplifier sounds really...

FSRs are sensors that allow you to detect physical pressure, squeezing and weight. They are simple to use and low cost. This sensor is an Alpha MF01A-N-221-A01 with 1/2 diameter sensing region. We used to stock the Interlink model 402 FSR - the Alpha version is almost half the price but the same quality and size! FSR's are basically a resistor that changes its...

The long-awaited BME688 from Bosch gives you all the environmental sensing you want in one small package. This little sensor contains temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and VOC gas sensing capabilities. All over SPI or I2C at a great price! The BME688 is a 'drop in' replacement for the BME680 - it adds a method of programming the gas-sensor heater for...

Behold, the ST LSM6DSOX: The latest in a long line of quality Accelerometer+Gyroscope 6-DOF IMUs from ST. This IMU sensor has 6 degrees of freedom - 3 degrees each of linear acceleration and angular velocity at varying rates within a respectable range. For the accelerometer: ±2/±4/±8/±16 g at 1.6 Hz to 6.7KHz update rate. For the...

Sensirion Temperature/Humidity sensors are some of the finest & highest-accuracy devices you can get. The SHT41 sensor is the fourth generation of I2C temperature and humidity sensor from Sensirion. (They started at the SHT10 and worked its way up to the top!). The SHT41 has an excellent ±1.8% typical relative humidity accuracy from 25 to 75% and...

Thermocouples are very sensitive, requiring a good amplifier with a cold-compensation reference. We have a couple digital thermocouple amplifiers in the shop already from Maxim. Now we're happy to introduce an excellent analog-output amplifier. This is a very simple sensor to use, and if your microcontroller has analog input capability, you'll be ready to go really...

This mini-kit makes it easy to mount a PSP/Xbox-like thumb joystick to your project. The thumbstick is an analog joystick - more accurate and sensitive than just 'directional' joysticks - with a 'press in to select' button. Since it's analog, you'll need two analog reading pins on your microcontroller to determine X and Y. Having an extra digital input will let you...

Add an ear to your project with this well-designed electret microphone amplifier with AGC. This fully assembled and tested board comes with a 20-20KHz electret microphone soldered on. For the amplification, we use the Maxim MAX9814, a specialty chip that is designed for amplifying electret microphones in situations where the loudness of the audio isn't predictable....

Vishay has a lot of light sensors out there, and this is a nice simple lux sensor that's easy to add to any microcontroller. Most light sensors just give you a number for brighter/darker ambient lighting. The VEML7700 makes your life easier by calculating the lux, which is an SI unit for light. You'll get more consistent readings between multiple sensors because you...

Most low cost soil sensors are resistive style, where there's two prongs and the sensor measures the conductivity between the two. These work OK at first, but eventually start to oxidize because of the exposed metal. Even if they're gold plated! The resistivity measurement goes up and up, so you constantly have to re-calibrate your code. Also, resistive measurements...

Bosch has stepped up their game with their new BMP280 sensor, an environmental sensor with temperature, barometric pressure that is the next generation upgrade to the BMP085/BMP180/BMP183. This sensor is great for all sorts of weather sensing and can even be used in both I2C and SPI! This precision sensor from Bosch is the best low-cost, precision sensing solution...

For precision temperature sensing, nothing beats a Platinum RTD. Resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) are temperature sensors that contain a resistor that changes resistance value as its temperature changes, basically a kind of thermistor. In this resistance sensor, the resistor is actually a small strip of Platinum with a resistance of 1000 ohms at 0°C, thus...

The AM2315C is a nice, enclosed temperature and humidity sensor from the same folks that brought us the AM2315. In fact, this enclosed sensor looks an awful lot like the popular AM2315 temperature and humidity sensors, but inside is the AHT20. You can power it with anything from 2.5V to 5.5V so it's good with 3V or 5V microcontrollers. You can take sensor readings as...

Thermocouples are very sensitive, requiring a good amplifier with a cold-compensation reference. The Adafruit MCP9601 I2C Thermocouple Breakout (a.k.a MCP96L01) does all that for you and can be easily interfaced with any microcontroller or single-board computer with I2C. Inside, the chip handles all the analog stuff for you, and can interface with just about any...

Give your Ultimate GPS V3 a boost with this external active antenna. This GPS antenna draws about 10mA and will give you an additional 28 dB of gain. It's got a 5 meter long cable so it will easily reach wherever you need it to. The antenna is magnetic so it will stick to the top of a car or truck (or any other steel structure) Comes with a standard SMA connector on...

Hey, listen up! It's the world's smallest USB microphone! OK maybe it's not in the Guinness Record Book, but it is pretty darn small! This plug-and-play Mini USB Microphone needs no driver, and its USB interface means you can use it with any computer, laptop, SBC, etc! Works great with a Raspberry Pi computer, but you can also use it with any other computer you want...

Have your next project be controlled by your muscles with this pack of Muscle Sensor Surface EMG Electrodes! Pair the electrodes with the MyoWare Muscle Sensor and a microcontroller (ie. Arduino, or anything else with analog input reading ability) to create a DIY low-cost version of an EMG or an electromyograph! This is for hobbyist use only. Electromyography is an...

Measure the invisible magnetic fields that surround us, with this wide-range magnetometer. The MLX90393 is a wide range magnetic field sensor, that can measure 16-bits in ranges from ±5mT up to ±50mT in all 3 axes. Compared to most magnetometers, this gives a huge range, which makes it excellent for detecting magnets and magnetic orientation, rather...

Control the flow of fluid using the flow of electrons! This liquid valve would make a great addition to your robotic gardening project. There are two 1/2" (Nominal non-taped National Pipe) outlets. Normally, the valve is closed. When 12VDC is applied to the two terminals, the valve opens and water can push through. The valve has a gasket arrangement inside, so there...

This breakout is chock full o' sensors! Add basic gesture sensing, RGB color sensing, proximity sensing, or ambient light sensing to your project with the Adafruit APDS9960 Proximity, Light, RGB, and Gesture Sensor. When connected to your microcontroller (running our library code) it can detect simple gestures (left to right, right to left, up to down, down to up are...

Add lots of touch sensors to your next microcontroller project with this easy-to-use 12-channel capacitive touch sensor breakout board, starring the MPR121. This chip can handle up to 12 individual touchpads. The MPR121 has support for only I2C, which can be implemented with nearly any microcontroller. You can select one of 4 addresses with the ADDR pin, for a total...

The Adafruit VL53L1X Time of Flight Distance Sensor (also known as VL53L1CX) is a Time of Flight distance sensor that has a massive 4 meter range and LIDAR-like precision. The sensor contains a very tiny invisible laser source and a matching sensor. The VL53L1X can detect the "time of flight", or how long the light has taken to bounce back to the sensor. Since it...

This Photo Transistor Light Sensor is a simple sensor that detects ambient light. It's kind of the opposite of an LED - when light hits the little chip inside, it induces current to flow from the long pin to the short pin. This sensor has a built-in optical filter (probably IR filter) so it'll do a fair job of simulating light levels as the human eye does. To use,...

We carry a few different GPS modules here in the Adafruit shop, but none that satisfied our every desire - that's why we designed this little GPS breakout board. We believe this is the Ultimate GPS module, so we named it that. It's got everything you want and more: -165 dBm sensitivity, 10 Hz updates, 66 channels. 5V friendly design and only 20mA current draw....

Sensirion Temperature/Humidity sensors are some of the finest & highest-accuracy devices you can get. And, finally we have some that have a true I2C interface for easy reading. The SHT31-D sensor has an excellent ±2% relative humidity and ±0.3°C accuracy for most uses. We now use the version with a PTFE filter, it'll stay clean while still...

Add rotational sensing - without a mechanical connection - with the Adafruit AS5600 Magnetic Angle Sensor. Featuring the classic ams AS5600, this board can sense a rotating N/S magnetic field up to 3mm away from the chip body. These sensors are often used to create 'frictionless' rotary encoders or potentiometers, without the risk of mechanical failure or noise....

This funky user interface element is reminiscent of the original clicking scroll wheel interface on the first iPods. It's a fancy mechanical kit but has an intuitiveness that is hard to argue with - everyone knows how to use this kind of rotary encoder to scroll and select. This product is just the encoder/button wheel element. The pin-out is a little odd, we really...

The LTR390 is one of the few low-cost UV sensors available, and it's a pretty nice one! With both ambient light and UVA sensing with a peak spectral response between 300 and 350nm. You can use it for measuring how much sun you can get before needing to covering up. Unlike the Si1145, this sensor will not give you UV Index readings. However, the Si1145 does UV Index...

Bosch has been a leader in barometric pressure sensors, from the BMP085. BMP180, BMP280, BMP388... now we've got the next generation, the Adafruit BMP390 (we refer to it as the BMP390L or BMP390, same thing!) Precision Barometric Pressure and Altimeter Breakout. As you would expect, this sensor is similar to its earlier versions but even better. The BMP390 has better...

The "poor man's" accelerometer/motion sensor! These spring-vibration switches are medium sensitivity non-directional vibration induced trigger switches. Inside is a medium hardness spring coiled around a long metal pin. When the switch is moved, the spring touches the center pole to make contact. So, when there's motion, the two pins will act like a closed switch....

This is a pre-wired and waterproofed (with heat shrink) version of a 1 Wire DS18B20 sensor. Handy for when you need to measure something far away, or in wet conditions. While the sensor is good up to 125°C the cable is jacketed in PVC so we suggest keeping it under 100°C. Because they are digital, you don't get any signal degradation even over long distances!...

When you need a lot of options, you need a Mini 8-Way Rotary Selector Switch. This is basically a single-pole to 8-throw switch. As you rotate the knob around, the middle pin will make contact with each of the outer pins. Rotary switches are very simple to use and are also nice and compact. This one is easy to panel mount, thanks to the included washer and hex nut....

This is the BH1750 16-bit Ambient Light Sensor from Rohm. Because of how important it is to humans and most other living things, sensing the amount of light in an environment is a common place to get started when learning to work with microcontrollers and sensors. Should we turn up the brightness of our display or dim it to save power? Which direction should your...

I mew, you mew we all mew for IMU! The MPU-6050 is what we call "an oldie but goodie" - this popular triple-axis accelerometer plus gyro combo has been a staple of electronic projects for years, and we've finally gotten around to making a breakout for it! Inside are two sensors, one is a classic 3-axis accelerometer, which can tell you which direction is down towards...

The TLV493D 3-axis magnetometer is a great little sensor for detecting magnets in 3D. In fact, the manufacturer Infineon suggests it could be used to make a joystick! You could also use it for other cool things like detecting objects with magnets attached, like the lid of a box, or maybe a statue that unlocks your secret lair when placed on your mantle? The TLD493D...

A strain gauge is a type of electronic sensor used to measure force or strain (big surprise there). They are made of an insulating flexible backing with a metallic foil pattern. The resistance of a strain gauge changes when force is applied and the object is deformed along with the foil and this change will give a different electrical output. However, these thin...

Sensirion Temperature/Humidity sensors are some of the finest & highest-accuracy devices you can get. And finally, we have some that have a true I2C interface for easy reading. The SHT45 sensor is the fourth generation (started at the SHT10 and worked its way up to the top!). The SHT45 has an excellent ±1.0% typical relative humidity accuracy from 25 to...

Add a teeny analog light sensor, the ALS PT19 analog light sensor is a great way to upgrade a project that uses a photocell and needs RoHS compliance. Due to the high rejection ratio of infrared radiation, the spectral response of the ambient light sensor is close to that of human eyes. It's a pretty simple sensor - connect - to ground, + to 2.5V-5.5V or so to power...

An exotic new microphone has arrived in the Adafruit shop, a PDM MEMS Microphone! PDM is the 'third' kind of microphone you can integrate with electronics, apart from analog or I2S. These microphones are very commonly used in products, but are rarely seen in maker projects. Still, they have some benefits so we thought we'd offer a breakout for the shop. The first...

Breathe easy, knowing that you can track and sense the quality of the air around you with this Adafruit PMSA003I Air Quality Breakout. This sensor is great for monitoring air quality, in a compact plug-in format. Best of all, unlike almost all other sensors we've seen that are UART interface, this one is I2C interface, which makes it a great match for single-board...

Listen to this good news - we now have a breakout board for a super tiny MEMS microphone. Just like 'classic' electret microphones, MEMS mics can detect sound and convert it to voltage, but they don't need a bias resistor or amplifier, its all in one! The SPW2430 is a small, low cost MEMS mic with a range of 100Hz - 10KHz, good for just about all general audio...

Need to measure something damp? This epoxy-coated precision 1% 10K thermistor is an inexpensive way to measure temperature in weather or liquids. The resistance in 25 °C is 10K (+- 1%). The resistance goes down as it gets warmer and goes up as it gets cooler. For specific temperature-to-resistance, check the lookup table. These are often used for air...

This sensor can detect flexing or bending in one direction. They were popularized by being used in the Nintendo PowerGlove as a gaming interface. These sensors are easy to use, they are basically resistors that change value based on how much they're flexed. If they're unflexed, the resistance is about ~10KΩ. When flexed all the way the resistance rises to...

A strain gauge is a type of electronic sensor used to measure force or strain (big surprise there). They are made of an insulating flexible backing with a metallic foil pattern. The resistance of a strain gauge changes when force is applied and the object is deformed along with the foil and this change will give a different electrical output. However, these thin...

The MCP9808 digital temperature sensor is one of the more accurate/precise we've ever seen, with a typical accuracy of ±0.25°C over the sensor's -40°C to +125°C range and precision of +0.0625°C. They work great with any microcontroller using standard I2C. With three address jumpers on the back, you can connect up to 8 to a single I2C bus...

Do you know which way the wind blows? You will now, with this triple-axis accelerometer/magnetometer compass module. Inside are two sensors, one is a classic 3-axis accelerometer, which can tell you which direction is down towards the Earth (by measuring gravity). The other is a magnetometer that can sense where the strongest magnetic force is coming from, generally...

Add high-quality motion, direction, and orientation sensing to your Arduino project with this all-in-one 9 Degree of Freedom (9-DoF) sensor with sensors from ST. This little breakout contains two chips that sit side-by-side to provide 9 degrees of full-motion data. The board includes an LSM6DSOX, a 6-DoF IMU accelerometer + gyro. The 3-axis accelerometer can tell you...

PIR sensors are used to detect motion from pets/humanoids from about 20 feet away (possibly works on zombies, not guaranteed). This one has an adjustable delay before firing (approx 2-4 seconds), adjustable sensitivity and we include a 1 foot (30 cm) cable with a socket so you can easily reposition the sensor or mount it using the two holes on either side. Runs on...

Breathe easy with the SGP30 Multi-Pixel Gas Sensor, a fully integrated MOX gas sensor. This is a very fine air quality sensor from the sensor experts at Sensirion, with I2C interfacing and fully calibrated output signals with a typical accuracy of 15% within measured values. The SGP combines multiple metal-oxide sensing elements on one chip to provide more detailed...

Are you itching for an easy way to mount a PSP-like thumb joystick to your project? This Analog Mini Thumbstick Breakout Board will help you do just that! This is a neat little PCB, on which you can mount a joystick/thumbstick -- we recommend this one. Since it's analog, you'll need two analog reading pins on your microcontroller to determine X and Y. We designed the...

Take your next outdoor sensor project to the next level with this SHT-30 based temperature/humidity sensor. The sensor includes a dual-use sensor module from Sensirion in a sintered metal mesh encasing. The casing is weatherproof and will keep water from seeping into the body of the sensor and damaging it, but allows air to pass through so that it can measure the...

Take a deep breath in...now slowly breathe out. Mmm isn't it wonderful? All that air around us, which we bring into our lungs, extracts oxygen from and then breathes out carbon dioxide. CO2 is essential for life on this planet we call Earth - we and plants take turns using and emitting CO2 in an elegant symbiosis. But it's important to keep that CO2 balanced - you...

Sense the magnetic fields surrounding us with this handy triple-axis magnetometer (compass) module. Magnetometers can sense where the strongest magnetic force is coming from, generally used to detect magnetic north, but can also be used for measuring magnetic fields. This sensor tends to be paired with a 6-DoF (degree of freedom) accelerometer/gyroscope to create a...

You can now add affordable heat-vision to your project and with an Adafruit MLX90640 Thermal Camera Breakout. This sensor contains a 24x32 array of IR thermal sensors. When connected to your microcontroller (or Raspberry Pi) it will return an array of 768 individual infrared temperature readings over I2C. It's like those fancy thermal cameras, but compact and simple...

A new tiny squishy delight! This Black Rubber Joystick Nubbin Cap is the perfect add-on to any of your projects with a 5-way navigation joystick, like our Adafruit Mini Color TFT with Joystick FeatherWing or Adafruit 128x64 OLED Bonnet for Raspberry Pi. Fits perfectly on classic 5-way navigation joysticks like this one. It's solid, sturdy, and presses on firmly. We...

Analog Devices has followed up on their popular classic, the ADXL345, with this near-drop-in-replacement, the ADXL343. Like the original, this is a triple-axis accelerometer with digital I2C and SPI interface breakout. It has a wide sensitivity range and high resolution, operating with an 10 or 13-bit internal ADC. Built-in motion detection features make tap,...

Thermocouples are best used for measuring temperatures that can go above 100 °C. This is a bare wires bead-probe which can measure air or surface temperatures. Most inexpensive thermocouples have a vinyl covering which can melt at around 200 °C, this one uses a fiberglass braid so it can be used in high temperature measurements such as heaters and ovens....

A strain gauge is a type of electronic sensor used to measure force or strain (big surprise there). They are made of an insulating flexible backing with a metallic foil pattern. The resistance of a strain gauge changes when force is applied and the object is deformed along with the foil and this change will give a different electrical output. However, these thin...

The long awaited BME680 from Bosch gives you all the environmental sensing you want in one small package. This little sensor contains temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and VOC gas sensing capabilities. All over SPI or I2C at a great price! Like the BME280 & BMP280, this precision sensor from Bosch can measure humidity with ±3% accuracy,...

Behold, the ST ISM330DHCX: an industrial quality Accelerometer+Gyroscope 6-DOF IMUs (inertial measurement unit) from ST. This IMU sensor has 6 degrees of freedom - 3 degrees each of linear acceleration and angular velocity at varying rates within a respectable range. For the accelerometer: ±2/±4/±8/±16 g at 1.6 Hz to 6.7KHz update rate....

This unbelievably small USB camera is great for embedded projects that have USB host support for standard UVC cameras, and not a lot of space. Sure you could get a desktop USB camera at any tronix shop, but would it be so incredibly small? This was probably originally designed for use inside monitors or products that need a simple video sensor with 640x480 output and...

Hall effect sensors detect whether a magnet is near. Useful for non-contact/waterproof type switches, position sensors, rotary/shaft encoders. I tried dozens of different hall effect sensors to see which one would work best for the SpokePOV kit (to determine the wheel location) and this one came out on top! Runs at 3.5V up to 24V. To use connect power to pin 1 (all...

Sometimes a simple analog control device can be the perfect tactile solution for your project, but they can be surprisingly hard to come by. Luckily we've got a low-cost, quality Mini 2-Axis Analog Thumbstick to fulfill your directional analog input needs! This is a small joystick with a black rocker cap, similar to the PSP joysticks. The joystick is a...

Sometimes a simple analog control device can be the perfect tactile solution for your project, but they can be surprisingly hard to come by. Luckily we've found a low-cost, quality Mini Analog Joystick to fill your directional analog input needs! Unlike most arcade-style joysticks, which come with four clicking switches, this product has two 10KΩ potentiometers...

Bosch has been a leader in barometric pressure sensors, from the BMP085. BMP180, BMP280, BMP388, BMP390... now we've got the next generation, the Adafruit BMP58x Precision Barometric Pressure and Altimeter Breakout. As you would expect, this sensor is similar to its earlier versions but even better. The BMP581 has better precision than ever, which makes it excellent...

Filling out our accelerometer offerings, we now have the really lovely digital ADXL345 from Analog Devices, a triple-axis accelerometer with digital I2C and SPI interface breakout. We added an on-board 3.3V regulator and logic-level shifting circuitry, making it a perfect choice for interfacing with any 3V or 5V microcontroller such as the Arduino. The sensor has...

Bosch has been a leader in barometric pressure sensors, from the BMP085. BMP180, and BMP280... now we've got the next generation, the Adafruit BMP388 Precision Barometric Pressure sensor. As you would expect, this sensor is similar to its earlier versions but even better. The BMP388 has better precision than ever, which makes it excellent for environmental sensing or...

So many accelerometers and so little time! We've expanded our accelerometer selection even more with this high-precision and inexpensive MMA8451 Triple-Axis Accelerometer w/ 14-bit ADC. You can detect motion, tilt and basic orientation with a digital accelerometer - and the MMA8451 is a great accelerometer to start with. It has a wide usage range, from +-2g up to...

Sensirion Temperature/Humidity sensors are some of the finest & highest-accuracy devices you can get. And finally, we have some that have a true I2C interface for easy reading. The SHT40 sensor is the fourth generation (started at the SHT10 and worked its way up to the top!). The SHT40 has an excellent ±1.8% typical relative humidity accuracy from 25 to...

We stock a few barometric pressure sensors, great for altitude and weather measurements. This pressure sensor is special because it comes with a metal port! Unlike other pressure sensors, you can easily attach a tube to it, to measure air pressure inside a close space. In particular we think this would be a great sensor for use with making DIY assistive tech "Sip...

For precision temperature sensing, nothing beats a Platinum RTD. Resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) are temperature sensors that contain a resistor that changes resistance value as its temperature changes, basically a kind of thermistor. In this sensor, the resistor is actually a small strip of Platinum with a resistance of 1000 ohms at 0°C, thus the name...

These 1-wire digital temperature sensors are fairly precise (±0.5°C over much of the range) and can give up to 12 bits of precision from the onboard digital-to-analog converter. They work great with any microcontroller using a single digital pin, and you can even connect multiple ones to the same pin, each one has a unique 64-bit ID burned in at the...

This pressure sensor from Goertek is a good low-cost sensing solution for measuring barometric pressure. If you need excellent accuracy and repeatability for altitude calculations, you can't beat the Bosch BMP series - but if you are doing basic DIY sensing, this sensor fits the bill. We see it used a lot for DIY quad copter builds and environmental sensing. The...

Add lots of touch sensors to your next microcontroller project with this easy-to-use 8-channel capacitive touch sensor breakout board, starring the CAP1188. This chip can handle up to 8 individual touch pads, and has a very nice feature that makes it stand out for us: it will light up the 8 onboard LEDs when the matching touch sensor fires to help you debug your...

How high are you right now? If you had a precision altitude sensor, you would know for sure! The DPS310 sensor from Infineon a high-precision barometric sensor, perfect for measuring altitude changes with a up to ±0.002 hPa (or ±0.02 m) precision high precision mode and ± 1 hPa absolute accuracy. That means you can know your absolute altitude...

This little sensor looks an awful lot like the popular DHT11/DHT22 temperature and humidity sensors, but unlike classic DHT sensors, it has an I2C interface! That's right, you do not need to use a bit-bang timing-specific protocol to talk to the AM2320, it uses plain-old-I2C. Whew, that makes things a little easier, doesn't it? But! We'll let you know, this sensor is...

For precision temperature sensing, nothing beats a Platinum RTD. Resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) are temperature sensors that contain a resistor that changes resistance value as its temperature changes, basically a kind of thermistor. In this sensor, the resistor is actually a small strip of Platinum with a resistance of 100 ohms at 0°C, thus the name...

Thermocouples are best used for measuring temperatures that can go above 100°C. This is a bare wires stainless-steel tip probe which can measure air or surface temperatures. Most inexpensive thermocouples have a vinyl covering which can melt at around 200°C, this one uses a fiberglass braid so it can be used in high temperature measurements such as heaters...

Oh say can you see By the knob's early light... Sorry - we thought that was clever. And while it wasn't really, this potentiometer knob definitely is. It's a 'soft touch' T18 knob that works great with our Panel Mount 10K, Panel Mount 1K, and Panel Mount 100K potentiometers. The knob is designed to set directly on the potentiometer's ridges so it's an easy &...

Here's a new addition to our rotary-potentiometer-knob family. This knob has a nice soft-touch feel with an arrow on it, and its much 'slimmer' than the skirted knob we have been using, so good for compact layouts. Note: This is just the knob. We have a breadboard-friendly rotary encoder here. Rotary encoders are useful as rotation sensors or selectors and look...

Extend your light-sensing spectrum with this analog UV sensor module. It uses a UV photodiode, which can detect the 240-370nm range of light (which covers UVB and most of UVA spectrum). The signal level from the photodiode is very small, in the nano-ampere level, so we tossed on an opamp to amplify the signal to a more manageable volt-level. This sensor is much...

Wide range, low power temperature sensor outputs an analog voltage that is proportional to the ambient temperature. To use, connect pin 1 (left) to power (between 2.7 and 5.5V), pin 3 (right) to ground, and pin 2 to analog in on your microcontroller. The voltage out is 0V at -50°C and 1.75V at 125°C. You can easily calculate the temperature from the voltage...

Yow! These things are super powerful. .47" diameter and .18" thick discs. Great for use with your SpokePOV Kit. If you have an aluminium frame, use tape/foam sticky tape to attach it.

The "poor man's" accelerometer/motion sensor! These spring-vibration switches are low sensitivity non-directional vibration induced trigger switches. Inside is a stiff spring coiled around a long metal pin. When the switch is moved, the spring touches the center pole to make contact. So, when there's motion, the two pins will act like a closed switch. When everything...

This breakout board is the simplest way to create a project with a single "momentary" capacitive touch sensor. No microcontroller is required here - just power with 1.8 to 5.5VDC and touch the pad to activate the sensor. When a capacitive load is detected (e.g. a person touches the sensor-pad area) the red LED lights up and the output pin goes high. You can also...

It's half USB Key, half temperature-humidity sensor... it's the Adafruit SHT41 Trinkey. We wanted to make it super-easy to add one of our most popular combination environmental sensors to any computer with a USB A port. The PCB is designed to slip into any USB A port on a computer or laptop. There's an ATSAMD21 microcontroller on board with just enough circuitry to...

Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 is a compact camera from Raspberry Pi. It offers an IMX708 12-megapixel sensor with HDR, and features phase detection autofocus. Camera Module 3 is available in standard and wide-angle variants, both of which are available with or without an infrared cut filter. Need a wider field of view than the standard 75 degrees? Camera Module 3 Wide...

Sense the magnetic fields that surround us with this handy triple-axis magnetometer (compass) module. Magnetometers can sense where the strongest magnetic force is coming from, generally used to detect magnetic north, but can also be used for measuring magnetic fields. This sensor tends to be paired with a 6-DoF (degree of freedom) accelerometer/gyroscope to create a...

The SHT30-D sensor has an excellent ±2% relative humidity and ±0.5°C accuracy for most uses. Unlike earlier SHT sensors, this sensor has a true I2C interface. The enclosed box is a Sensiron SHT-30 digital sensor (much like our breakout here or this weather-proof mesh sensor) but with the 4 data/power wires brought out to bare wires. Any SHT-3x code...

Sometimes a simple analog control device can be the perfect tactile solution for your project, but they can be surprisingly hard to come by. Luckily we've got a low-cost, quality Mini Analog Thumbstick (Joycon Style) to fulfill your directional analog input needs! This is a small joystick with a black rocker cap, similar to the ones used in Nintendo joycons. Note it...

This miniature GPS breakout is only 1" x 1" (~ 25mm x 25mm) but houses a complete GPS/GNSS solution with both I2C and UART interfaces. There's even an antenna on top, so it's plug and play! Support for GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS. -165 dBm sensitivity, up to 10 Hz updates. Up to 210 PRN channels with 99 search channels and 33 simultaneous tracking channels. 5V...

The Ultimate GPS module you know and love has a glow-up to let it be easily used with any computer, not just microcontrollers! With the built-in USB-to-Serial converter, you can now plug-n-play the Ultimate GPS into your computer, laptop, embedded Linux computer, and more. Power and transport data over any USB type C cable, with handy onboard indicator LEDs that let...

Remote infrared sensors are unique in their ability to measure something they are pointed at, but not touching, and we've been looking for a replacement for the now-discontiued TMP007 for a few years. The Adafruit MLX90632 FIR Temperature Sensor features a compact and low cost 'remote' infrared sensor. These are great when you want to measure the temperature of...

The VL53L0X is a Time of Flight distance sensor like no other you've used! The sensor contains a very tiny invisible laser source, and a matching sensor. The VL53L0X can detect the "time of flight", or how long the light has taken to bounce back to the sensor. Since it uses a narrow light source, it is good for determining distance of the surface directly in front of...

It's 10 PM, do you know where your Raspberry Pi is? If you had this GPS HAT, you would! This new HAT from Adafruit adds our celebrated Ultimate GPS, so you can add precision time and location to your Raspberry Pi Model Pi 3, Pi Zero, A+, B+, or Pi 2, 3, 4, & 5. Here's the low-down on the GPS module: -165 dBm sensitivity, 10 Hz updates, 99 search channels. GPS +...

We've now got a wider range version of favorite triple-axis accelerometer - it even has an on-board 3.3V regulator - making it a perfect choice for interfacing with a 5V microcontroller such as the Arduino. This breakout comes with 3 analog outputs for X, Y and Z axis measurements on a 0.75"x0.75" breakout board. The ADXL326 is the latest and greatest from Analog...

We stock a large number of barometric pressure sensors, and they all have slight differences: some are ported, some are tiny, some are popular and precise and some are low cost. The Adafruit LPS28 (LPS28DFW) Pressure Sensor is unique in that it can handle a much higher range of pressures: almost every other sensor we've encountered tops out at about 1260 hPa. That...

It's summer and you're sweating and your hair's all frizzy and all you really want to know is why the weatherman said this morning that today's relative humidity would max out at a perfectly reasonable 52% when it feels more like 77%. Enter the HTU21D-F Temperature + Humidity Sensor - the best way to prove the weatherman wrong! This I2C digital humidity sensor is an...

This sensor is essentially a reed switch, encased in an ABS plastic shell. Normally the reed is 'open' (no connection between the two wires). The other half is a magnet. When the magnet is less than 13mm (0.5") away, the reed switch closes. They're often used to detect when a door or drawer is open, which is why they have mounting tabs and screws. You can also pick...

*sniff* *sniff* ... do you smell that? No need to stick your nose into a carton of milk anymore, you can build a digital nose with the ENS161 Gas Sensor, a fully integrated MOX gas sensor. This is a very fine air quality sensor from the sensor experts at ScioSense, with I2C interfacing so you don't have to manage the heater and analog reading of a MOX sensor. It...

This version of the Ultimate GPS is even MORE Ultimate, with support for more GPS-like networks such as GLONASS, for even more coverage worldwide. It uses a slightly taller module than our classic Ultimate GPS, and uses a little more power. Otherwise its almost identical in functionality: -165 dBm sensitivity, 10 Hz updates, 99 channels. GPS + GLONASS support. 5V...

We've got a high-powered infrared emitter board, and a super-sensitive infrared remote receiver board - but why buy two boards when you can pick up one that does both? This board is the Adafruit Infrared Tranceiver breakout, which can transmit and receiver 940nm remote control data in one handy solder-free package. Please Note: to make this board easy to use, we have...

Take a deep breath in...now slowly breathe out. Mmm isn't it wonderful? All that air around us, which we bring into our lungs, extracts oxygen from and then breathes out carbon dioxide. CO2 is essential for life on this planet we call Earth - we and plants take turns using and emitting CO2 in an elegant symbiosis. But it's important to keep that CO2 balanced - you...

PIR sensors are used to detect motion from pets/humanoids from about 5 meters away (possibly works on zombies, not guaranteed). This sensor is much smaller than most PIR modules, which makes it great for unobtrusive projects. It's also fully-contained - only needs power and ground, and it's breadboard or perfboard friendly. Usage is super simple: You can power it...

Take a deep breath in...now slowly breathe out. Mmm isn't it wonderful? All that air around us, which we bring into our lungs, extracts oxygen from and then breathes out carbon dioxide. CO2 is essential for life on this planet we call Earth - we and plants take turns using and emitting CO2 in an elegant symbiosis. But it's important to keep that CO2 balanced - you...

Give your Feather a sense of place, with an Ultimate GPS FeatherWing. In 2013 we designed the Ultimate GPS module to satisfy all your GPS desires - and now we have brought its power and versatility plus more to our Feather series with the Adafruit Ultimate GPS FeatherWing! This FeatherWing plugs right into your Feather board and gives it a precise, sensitive, and...

Add motion and orientation sensing to your Arduino project with this affordable 6 Degree of Freedom (6-DoF) sensor with sensors from ST. The board includes an ST LSM6DS3TR-C, a great entry-level 6-DoF IMU accelerometer + gyro. The 3-axis accelerometer can tell you which direction is down towards the Earth (by measuring gravity) or how fast the board is accelerating...

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox - sorry! We were practicing our typing ON THIS NEW AWESOME KEYBOARD. With 88 dedicated keys and 12 function keys, totaling 100 keys altogether, this 'standard size' keyboard is the perfect on-the-go accessory to your Pi or everyday computer when your project...

Vishay has a lot of light sensors out there, and this is a nice simple lux sensor that's easy to add to any microcontroller. Most light sensors just give you a number for brighter/darker ambient lighting. The VEML7700 makes your life easier by calculating the lux, which is an SI unit for light. You'll get more consistent readings between multiple sensors because you...

Hobby-level microcontrollers are finally getting big and powerful enough to start handling camera modules that historically would have required a full computer or FPGA to handle. The RP2040 and ESP32-Sx series of chips, for example, have enough pins to communicate with the 8-bit data output, DMA to quickly grab a frame, and the necessary RAM to buffer a raw snapshot....

Cooling fans...They're everywhere, and they serve the important purpose of keeping things cool, generally electronics. One might rightfully think: "these fans are pretty good at moving air to keep things cool; maybe I can use one of these neat computer fans to keep my widget frosty" followed closely by throwing up one's hands in confusion at the sight of a 3 or even...

This is a breakout for the Texas Instruments DRV5032 Digital Magnetic Hall Effect Sensor. It is the perfect way to add magnetic sensing to your project. The sensor has a digital output that indicates when the magnetic flux density threshold has been crossed. The device integrates a Hall effect element, analog signal conditioning, and a low-frequency oscillator that...

The "poor man's" accelerometer! Tilt sensors are switches that can detect basic motion/orientation. The metal tube has a little metal ball that rolls around in it, when its tilted upright, the ball rolls onto the contacts sticking out of end and shorts them together. Be sure to read our detailed tutorial including diagrams and example code.

PIR sensors are used to detect motion from pets/humanoids from about 5 meters away (possibly works on zombies, not guaranteed). This sensor is much smaller than most PIR modules, which makes it great for unobtrusive projects. It's also fully-contained - only needs power, ground and a resistor to set the delay time - and breadboard or perfboard friendly. Runs on 3.3V...

IR sensor tuned to 38KHz, perfect for receiving commands from a TV remote control. Runs at 3V to 5V so it's great for any microcontroller. To use, connect pin 3 (all the way to the right) to 5V power, pin 2 (middle) to ground and listen on pin 1. It doesn't do any decoding of the signal, just passes the 'raw data' along. Check the TSOP38238 datasheet for more details...

Keep wet things wet and dry things dry by detecting when the dry things get wet by accident! This palm-sized cherry-red water sensor is simple and easy to implement in your wet-dry-sensing project. Usage is very simple: connect the minus (-) pin to ground, connect the plus (+) pin to 3 to 5V DC and then the output signal pin (S) goes to your microcontroller. The...

Now you can quickly integrate the Sensirion SEN6x environmental sensor node into your microcontroller or microcomputer project, with no soldering or fiddly breadboarding - thanks to this here Adafruit SEN6x Adapter Breakout (for SEN66 and friends). We covered the awesome Sensirion SEN66 environmental sensor nodes on EYE ON NPI a while ago; it's an awesome all-in-one...

*sniff* *sniff* ... do you smell that? No need to stick your nose into a carton of milk anymore, you can build a digital nose with the SGP40 Multi-Pixel Gas Sensor, a fully integrated MOX gas sensor. This is a very fine air quality sensor from the sensor experts at Sensirion, with I2C interfacing so you don't have to manage the heater and analog reading of a MOX...

It's summer and you're sweating and your hair's all frizzy and all you really want to know is why the weatherman said this morning that today's relative humidity would max out at a perfectly reasonable 42% when it feels more like 77%. Enter the Si7021 Temperature + Humidity Sensor - the best way to prove the weatherman wrong! This lovely sensor for Silicon labs has...

Sensirion Temperature/Humidity sensors are some of the finest & highest-accuracy devices you can get. And finally, we have some that have a true I2C interface for easy reading. The SHTC3 sensor has an excellent ±2% relative humidity and ±0.2 °C accuracy for most uses. Unlike some earlier SHT sensors, this sensor has a true I2C interface on...

Wow that's a tiny GPS antenna! This passive antenna is only 15mm x 15mm x 6.8mm in size, with a 50mm long uFL cable. Great for when you want to keep things small. Comes with a standard uFL connector on the end. Perfect for our FONA 808! Not good for our Ultimate GPS breakouts/shields/hat as those are designed for active antennas. This is the 15mm version - we also...

This slim and modern potentiometer is small and compact, yet looks good and has a nice feel. We hand-selected the best knobs for your project in different sizes and varieties. This one is the Slim Metal Knob 10mm diameter x 15mm Tall (T18 Splines). It's a brushed aluminum knob with a shiny black (anodized?) coating. It kind of looks like the type of knob you'd find...

Behold, the ST LSM6DSO32: The latest in a long line of quality Accelerometer+Gyroscope 6-DOF IMUs from ST. This IMU is like a big sister to the LSM6DSOX; it has the same pinout and firmware - but the accelerometer component can go up to 32g instead of the normal 16g maximum. This IMU sensor has 6 degrees of freedom - 3 degrees each of linear acceleration and angular...

Hey rocket man (burnin' out your fuse out there alone) ever wonder how fast you're rocketing? The Adafruit ADXL375 High G Accelerometer is an epic +-200g 3-axis accelerometer may be able to tell the answer. You read that right, this accelerometer can sense up to 200 g's of force in three axes of measurements (X Y Z) has and pins that can be used either as I2C or SPI...

Punch in your secret key (or Jenny's number) into this numeric matrix keypad. This keypad has 16 buttons, arranged in a telephone-line 4x4 grid. The keys are connected into a matrix, so you only need 8 microcontroller pins (4-columns and 4-rows) to scan through the pad. Check the tutorials tab for links to an Arduino library and example code. We include some header...

The VCNL4040 is a handy two-in-one sensor, with a proximity sensor that works from 0 to 200mm (about 7.5 inches) and light sensor with range of 0.0125 to 6553 lux. We've all been there. That thing is close but how close? When you need to measure a small distance with reasonable accuracy, such as the rough height of particularly calm bumble bee, the VCNL4040 Proximity...

Perfect for educational uses, the Adafruit Simple Soil Moisture Sensor is low cost, and easy to use. This is a simple resistive style moisture sensor, where there's two prongs and the sensor measures the conductivity between the two. We gold-plated the prongs so reduce risk of oxidation - if you see build-up on the prongs, clean them off with a dish-scrubber to keep...

Add motion, direction and orientation sensing to your Arduino project with this all-in-one 9-DOF sensor. Inside the chip are three sensors, one is a classic 3-axis accelerometer, which can tell you which direction is down towards the Earth (by measuring gravity) or how fast the board is accelerating in 3D space. The other is a 3-axis magnetometer that can sense where...

This slim and modern potentiometer is small and compact, yet looks good and has a nice feel. We hand-selected the best knobs for your project in different sizes and varieties. This one is the Slim Metal Knob 10mm diameter x 10mm Tall (T18 Splines). It's a brushed aluminum knob with a shiny black (anodized?) coating. It kind of looks like the type of knob you'd find...

Because of their many applications, Pressure, Temperature, and Humidity sensors (PHT sensors) are a common offering from semiconductor companies. The MS8607 PHT sensor from TE Connectivity does an admirable job of measuring a wide range of all three environmental conditions. Each and every MS8607 sensor is calibrated at the factory and the calibration constants...

An exotic new microphone has arrived in the Adafruit shop, a PDM MEMS Microphone! PDM is the 'third' kind of microphone you can integrate with electronics, apart from analog or I2S. These microphones are very commonly used in products, but are rarely seen in maker projects. Still, they have some benefits so we thought we'd offer a breakout for the shop. The first...

Bosch has been a leader in barometric pressure sensors, from the BMP085. BMP180, BMP280, BMP388, BMP390... now we've got the next generation, the Adafruit BMP585 Precision Barometric Pressure and Altimeter Breakout. As you would expect, this sensor is similar to its earlier versions but even better. The BMP585 has better precision than ever, which makes it excellent...

Sense the magnetic fields that surround us with this handy triple-axis magnetometer (compass) module. Magnetometers can sense where the strongest magnetic force is coming from, generally used to detect magnetic north, but can also be used for measuring magnetic fields. This sensor tends to be paired with a 6-DoF (degree of freedom) accelerometer/gyroscope to create a...

This is really the fanciest, best-feeling knob we've ever seen. Using this knob sort of reminded us of driving along the Amalfi coast in a perfectly restored '65 Porsche - meaning we really, really liked it. We hand-selected the best knobs for your project in different sizes and varieties. This one's the Solid Machined Metal Knob - 1". It has a nice, weighted feel...

It's half USB Key, half temperature-humidity sensor... it's the Adafruit SHT45 Trinkey with a PTFE filter. We wanted to make it super-easy to add one of our most popular combination environmental sensors to any computer with a USB A port. The PCB is designed to slip into any USB A port on a computer or laptop. There's an ATSAMD21 microcontroller on board with just...

It's half USB Key, half Adafruit Trinket M0, half APDS9960 breakout...it's Proximity Trinkey, the circuit board with a Trinket M0 heart, APDS9960 Proximity, Light, RGB, and Gesture Sensor, and two RGB NeoPixels for a customizable glow. We wanted to make it super-easy to add one of our most popular combination-sensors to any computer with a USB port and this one is...

Oh say can you see By the knob's early light... Sorry - we thought that was clever. And while it wasn't really, this potentiometer knob definitely is. It's a 'soft touch' T18 knob that works great with our Panel Mount 10K, Panel Mount 1K, and Panel Mount 100K potentiometers. The knob is designed to set directly on the potentiometer's ridges so it's an easy &...

Hobby-level microcontrollers are finally getting big and powerful enough to start handling camera modules that historically would have required a full computer or FPGA to handle. The RP2040 and ESP32-Sx series of chips, for example, have enough pins to communicate with the 8-bit data output, DMA to quickly grab a frame, and the necessary RAM to buffer a raw snapshot....

PIR sensors are used to detect motion from pets/humanoids from about 5 meters away (possibly works on zombies, not guaranteed). This sensor is much smaller than most PIR modules, which makes it great for unobtrusive projects. It's also fully contained and very configurable. After you've provided power and ground, you can use the remaining 3 pins to configure whether...

Punch in your secret key (or Jenny's number) into this numeric matrix keypad. This keypad has 12 buttons, arranged in a telephone-line 3x4 grid. The keys are connected into a matrix, so you only need 7 microcontroller pins (3-columns and 4-rows) to scan through the pad. Check the tutorials tab for links to an Arduino library and example code. We include some header...

A strain gauge is a type of electronic sensor used to measure force or strain (big surprise there). They are made of an insulating flexible backing with a metallic foil pattern. The resistance of a strain gauge changes when force is applied and the object is deformed along with the foil and this change will give a different electrical output. However, these thin...

This Reflective IR Sensor is a simple plastic casing with two elements - an IR LED and an IR phototransistor. You can control the IR LED and turn it on to bounce IR off objects to determine their reflectivity. White & light colored stuff will bounce the light, so you can detect it. Black & dark colored stuff will absorb the IR light so that it isn't detected....

You can now add affordable heat-vision to your project and with an Adafruit MLX90640 Thermal Camera Breakout. This sensor contains a 24x32 array of IR thermal sensors. When connected to your microcontroller (or Raspberry Pi) it will return an array of 768 individual infrared temperature readings over I2C. It's like those fancy thermal cameras, but compact and simple...

Your friends probably tell you that you are "good with your hands," but now you can also be good with your feet! This foot switch is made of rubbery plastic, is plenty strong to put up with any amount of stomping, and contains a snap switch. You can use the switch as either a "normally open" or "normally closed" type. Attached to the switch is a 2 meter long cable so...

Breathe easy, knowing that you can track and sense the quality of the air around you with the PM2.5 Air Quality Sensor with Breadboard Adapter particulate sensor. Mad Max & Furiosa definitely should have hooked up one of these in their truck while scavenging the dusty desert wilderness of post-apocalyptic Australia. And for those of us not living in an Outback...

Punch in your secret key into this numeric membrane keypad. This keypad has 4 buttons, and since every key has its own wire line, no matrix code is required - just treat these like every day switches. The membrane is soft and has a removable paper backing to expose a strong adhesive so you can stick this on an enclosure and feed the cable through a slot. Its a simple...

Sense the magnetic fields that surround us with this handy triple-axis magnetometer (compass) module. Magnetometers can sense where the strongest magnetic force is coming from, generally used to detect magnetic north, but can also be used for measuring magnetic fields. This sensor tends to be paired with a 6-DoF (degree of freedom) accelerometer/gyroscope to create a...

An optical reflective sensor is a composite electronic device with two elements - an IR LED and an IR photo-transistor. The IR LED blasts light, and when something bounces the light back to the photo-transistor, the transistor turns on and the amount of current flowing through it increases. This makes the sensor great at detecting when something is in front of the...

Our QT Py boards are a great way to make very small microcontroller projects that pack a ton of power - and now we have a way for you to turn many QT Py boards into powerful 9 degree-of-freedom (9DoF) motion plus pressure/altitude sensing projects that are super small! We call this the Adafruit BNO055 + BMP280 BFF—a "Best Friend Forever." When you were a kid,...

Snap, snap! There's a new official camera board released by the Raspberry Pi Foundation! The Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera is the latest camera accessory from Raspberry Pi. It offers higher resolution (12.3 megapixels, compared to 8 megapixels), and sensitivity (approximately 50% greater area per pixel for improved low-light performance) than the existing Camera...

This breakout board is the simplest way to create a project with a single "toggle" capacitive touch sensor. No microcontroller is required here - just power with 1.8 to 5.5VDC and touch the pad to activate the sensor. This sensor is a toggle output type: touch-on then touch-off. That means that when a capacitive load is detected (e.g. a person touches the sensor-pad...

Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 is a compact camera from Raspberry Pi. It offers an IMX708 12-megapixel sensor with HDR, and features phase detection autofocus. Camera Module 3 is available in standard and wide-angle variants, both of which are available with or without an infrared cut filter. Need a wider field of view than the standard 75 degrees? Camera Module 3 Wide...

Thermocouples are very sensitive, requiring a good amplifier with a cold-compensation reference. So far we've carried the very nice MAX31855 which is an SPI interface thermocouple amplifier. The '855 is great but if you have a lot of thermocouples to measure it isn't terribly easy to use. That's why we are also carrying the new '850 model from Maxim - it's a "1-Wire"...

Add motion, direction, and orientation sensing to your project with this all-in-one 9-DOF sensor that is STEMMA QT ready for easy plug-n-play usage. Inside the chip are three sensors, one is a classic 3-axis accelerometer, which can tell you which direction is down towards the Earth (by measuring gravity) or how fast the board is accelerating in 3D space. The other...

Secure your project with biometrics - this all-in-one optical fingerprint sensor will make adding fingerprint detection and verification super simple. It even has an LED ring built around the detection pad, which can be set to red, blue or purple (as well as some fading/blinking effects) for a great user experience. These modules are typically used in safes - there's...

For those who want to integrate our awesome Ultimate GPS module into their own projects, we now have the raw sub-module available. Don't be fooled by its small size, this is a very sensitive, high-quality GPS module with all the extras you could want and more at under 6 grams! As of August 2021, the original "Ultimate GPS" module we used was discontinued by the...

Sometimes you need to sense pressure in a damp or caustic environment. And sometimes you need to know the relative changes in pressure as well as the absolute pressure. For the times you need to do both (or either), the LPS33HW is the pressure sensor for you. Combining protection from water intrusion with support for high precision relative and absolute measurements,...

This Reflective IR Sensor is a simple plastic casing with two elements - an IR LED and an IR phototransistor. You can control the IR LED and turn it on to bounce IR off objects to determine their reflectivity. White & light colored stuff will bounce the light, so you can detect it. Black & dark colored stuff will absorb the IR light so that it isn't detected....

A year ago we designed a high-current-output Infrared Transmitter STEMMA which makes it easy to create high-powered IR LED blasters. Now we've sat down to design the other side, the super sensitive wide-range Adafruit Infrared IR Remote Receiver with two selectable IR receiver chips. We found plenty of 38KHz receiver sensors that would work nicely on this breakout...

Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 is a compact camera from Raspberry Pi. It offers an IMX708 12-megapixel sensor with HDR and features phase detection autofocus. Camera Module 3 is available in standard and wide-angle variants, both of which are available with or without an infrared cut filter. Camera Module 3 NoIR is perfect for "night vision" and infrared photography,...

The AM2301B is a nice but inexpensive temperature and humidity sensor from the same folks that brought us the AM2302. In fact, this enclosed sensor looks an awful lot like the popular DHT22/AM2302 temperature and humidity sensors, but unlike classic DHT sensors, it has an I²C interface! That's right, you do not need to use a bit-bang timing-specific protocol to...

We've all been there. That thing is close but how close? When you need to measure a meter-or-so distance with reasonable accuracy, the VCNL4200 Long Distance Proximity Sensor from Vishay can do that for you. It's excellent for robotic or motion-detection situations. And. if perchance you also needed to measure the amount of light at the same time, you're in luck! The...

The MSA311 is a super small and low-cost triple-axis accelerometer. It's inexpensive, but has just about every 'extra' you'd want in an accelerometer: Three-axis sensing, 14-bit resolution. ±2g/±4g/±8g/±16g selectable scaling. I2C interface on fixed I2C address 0x62. Interrupt output. Multiple data rate options 1 Hz to 500 Hz. As low as...

Dig out that old Wii controller and use it as a sleek controller for your next robot if you like. The Adafruit Adafruit Wii Nunchuck Breakout Adapter fits snugly into the Wii connector and performs the level shifting and power regulation needed to use the controller with any microcontroller or microcomputer. The Wii controllers use a standard I2C interface, and...

Pulse Sensor Amped is a greatly improved version of the original Pulse Sensor, a plug-and-play heart-rate sensor for Arduino and Arduino compatibles. It can be used by students, artists, athletes, makers, and game & mobile developers who want to easily incorporate live heart-rate data into their projects. Pulse Sensor Amped adds amplification and noise...

The Adafruit PCT2075 Temperature Sensor is a 'code compatible' drop-in replacement for a very common I2C temperature sensor, the LM75. Compared to the LM75, however, the 11-bit ADC in the PCT2075 provides more precise measurements when compared to the LM75's 9-bit ADC. Additionally, because the PCT2075 allows the address pins to work in three states (high, low,...

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...

Add heat-vision to your project with an Adafruit AMG8833 Grid-EYE Breakout! This sensor from Panasonic is an 8x8 array of IR thermal sensors. When connected to your microcontroller (or raspberry Pi) it will return an array of 64 individual infrared temperature readings over I2C. It's like those fancy thermal cameras, but compact and simple enough for easy...

Add lots of touch sensors to your next microcontroller project with this easy-to-use 12-channel capacitive touch sensor breakout board, starring the MPR121. This chip can handle up to 12 individual touchpads with plug-and-play STEMMA QT connector and large alligator/croc-clip friendly pads, its a no-solder solution to capacitive touch sensing. The MPR121 has support...

The Adafruit LTR-303 Light Sensor a simple and popular low-cost I2C digital light sensor that is easy to integrate into your project for reliable and wide-ranging light measurements. Perfect for a wide range of project use cases: Should we turn up the brightness of our display or dim it to save power? Which direction should your robot move to stay in an area with the...

The Adafruit OPT4048 Tri-Stimulus XYZ Color, Light Temperature and Lux Sensor is a modern take on the common 'RGB' color sensor: this time with true "CIE" XYZ output so you can match it to your existing color space. It's also excellent for calculating color temperature, which is based on CIE, and as a bonus also has Lux calculation, up to 144 kLux for light...

For fans of the TMP36, we now have a very similar analog temperature sensor with a 3-pin JST connector (we call these STEMMA connectors). Unlike many of our temperature sensors, this one is analog output, not I2C, so its best used by a microcontroller with an analog input, as most microcontrollers do. These sensors are very simple to use, no libraries or complex...

Is your house haunted? Or, rather, are you convinced that your house is haunted but have never been able to prove it since you've never had a camera that integrated with your Raspberry Pi Zero but was still small enough that the ghosts wouldn't notice it? Luckily, the Spy Camera for Raspberry Pi Zero is smaller than a thumbnail with a high enough resolution to see...

Oh say can you see By the knob's early light... Sorry - we thought that was clever. And while it wasn't really, this potentiometer knob definitely is. It's a 'soft touch' T18 knob that works great with our Panel Mount 10K, Panel Mount 1K, and Panel Mount 100K potentiometers. The knob is designed to set directly on the potentiometer's ridges so it's an easy &...

The ANO rotary encoder wheel is a funky user interface element is reminiscent of the original clicking scroll wheel interface on the first iPods. It's a nifty kit, but the pin-out is a little odd, so we made a handy breakout board that converts the funky pin set into a straightforward, breadboard-friendly header strip. This version comes with the encoder pre-soldered...

This T-Slot Photo Interrupter is a simple plastic sensor with two elements - an IR LED and an IR photo-transistor, situated across a U-shaped gap. You can control the IR LED and turn it on to transmit IR light across the gap, to the detector on the other side. This makes it perfect for detecting when something is in the slot - when there's something blocking the...

This is a pre-wired and waterproofed version of the DS18B20 sensor made with a PTFE wire cable. Handy for when you need to measure something far away, or in wet conditions. This sensor is a little more expensive than the other waterproof version we have with a PVC cable because this one can be used up to 125°C - the limit of the sensor itself. That said, it's...

This T-Slot Photo Interrupter with Cable is a simple plastic sensor with two elements - an IR LED and an IR photo-transistor, situated across a U-shaped gap. You can control the IR LED and turn it on to transmit IR light across the gap, to the detector on the other side. This makes it perfect for detecting when something is in the slot. When there's something...

The Raspberry Pi AI Camera is a compact camera module from Raspberry Pi based on the Sony IMX500 Intelligent Vision Sensor. IMX500 combines a 12-megapixel CMOS image sensor with on-board inferencing acceleration for various common neural network models, enabling users to develop sophisticated vision-based AI applications without needing a separate accelerator. The AI...

An assortment of the most common sensors used in electronics. 9 sensors and 3 additional components to interface with the 'analog world'. We have some tutorials here, to get you started. Includes Triple-axis analog accelerometer - for measuring motion and tilt. Force sensitive resistor - for sensing pressure/force. Temperature sensor - for measuring from -40 to over...

Here is a jolly cute, palm-sized, Bluetooth®-enabled sensor to monitor your room's temperature and humidity. Only 43mm x 43mm, we dig its small form factor and minimal design. The shell is made of durable ABS material. Up front, you get a 1.5" (28x28mm) LCD display. These sensors are sold to work with the Mijia "Mi Home" App (iOS and Android) and are a low cost...

The Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera with M12 Lens Mount offers 12.3-megapixel resolution and impressive low light performance in a compact form factor. The camera is designed to work with interchangeable M12-mount lenses (not supplied) and is suitable for integrating into industrial and consumer applications where the highest levels of visual fidelity are required....

Manufactured by Spectra Symbol, these are nice little ribbon controllers (also known as 'soft potentiometers') with an adhesive backing. There is a nominal 10K resistance across the two outer leads. The middle pin resistance with respect to either of the outer pins changes depending on where on the strip one presses. When no pressure is applied, the middle pin...

This pressure sensor from Freescale is a great low-cost sensing solution for measuring barometric pressure. At 1.5 hPa resolution, it's not as precise as our favorite pressure sensor, the BMx280 series, which has up to 0.03 hPa resolution so we don't suggest it as a precision altimeter. However, it's great for basic barometric pressure sensing. The sensor is soldered...

The AGS02MA is a MOX-based TVOC sensor equipped with a miniature ADC chip that converts the readings into I2C for gas resistance output and parts-per-billion (ppb). This resistance can be correlated with ambient volatile organic compounds (TVOC) - higher ppb means more organic compounds in the air. It's a simple sensor and doesn't perform any additional filtering or...

This pressure sensor from Freescale is a great low-cost sensing solution for precision measurement of barometric pressure and altitude. The MPL3115A2 has a typical 1.5 Pascal resolution, which can resolve altitude at 0.3 meters (compare to the BMP180 which can do 0.17m). It has some upsides compared to the BMP280, such as interrupt outputs for ultra-low power usage,...

Measure liquid/water flow for your solar, computer cooling, or gardening project using this handy basic flow meter featuring a fully clear plastic body. This sensor sits in line with your water line and uses a pinwheel sensor to measure how much liquid has moved through it. The pinwheel has a little magnet attached, and there's a hall effect magnetic sensor on the...

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 8" long 3-JST interface wire. These sensors are good for detection between 20cm-150cm. For over 1 m distance, we suggest using sonar sensors. To use, connect black wire to ground,...

One of the perks of working at adafruit is you get to request hardware - and you'll probably get fast turnaround! One of our adafruit.io developers requested "an easy way to chain DS18B20 sensors for testing with adafruit.io's wippersnapper service" at 11:54am one Monday morning, and after a few back-and-forth's we came up with the Adafruit Chainable DS18B20 Extender...

Hobby-level microcontrollers are finally getting big and powerful enough to start handling camera modules that historically would have required a full computer or FPGA to handle. The RP2040 and ESP32-Sx series of chips, for example, have enough pins to communicate with the 8-bit data output, DMA to quickly grab a frame, and the necessary RAM to buffer a raw snapshot....

Control the flow of fluid using the flow of electrons! This liquid valve would make a great addition to your robotic gardening, aquarium, or pool project. There are two 1/2" (British Standard Pipe / German Thread) outlets. Normally, the valve is closed. When 12VDC is applied to the two terminals, the valve opens and water can flow. Unlike the plastic solenoid valve,...

That's one tiny microphone! At about the size of a mature aphid, this wired Electret Microphone is perfect for your FONA. This microphone's very similar to our PCB-mount Electret Microphone but is significantly smaller and has pre-attached 65mm long wires. We don't have a specific datasheet for it but it can be biased with 2V and 2K impedance. You do need an electret...

This is a low sensitivity, directional vibration-induced trigger switch. Inside is a very soft spring coiled around a long metal pin. When the switch is bumped from the side only, the spring attached to the first pin touches the center pole to make contact with the second pin. So when there's a bump, the two pins will act like a closed switch. When everything is...

Punch in your secret key into this numeric matrix keypad. This keypad has 12 buttons, arranged in a telephone-line 3x4 grid. It's made of a thin, flexible membrane material with an adhesive backing (just remove the paper) so you can attach it to nearly anything. The keys are connected into a matrix, so you only need 7 microcontroller pins (3-columns and 4-rows) to...

This electret capsule microphone is the same one we use in our great microphone amplifier board. It contains a small vibrating element that will output a few millivolts peak-to-peak. You will need an op-amp to amplify the signal, some chips are designed with the amplifier built-in in which case you can wire it up directly. This is an "omnidirectional" microphone,...

PIR sensors are used to detect motion from pets/humanoids from about 5 meters away (possibly works on zombies, not guaranteed). This sensor is much smaller than most PIR modules, which makes it great for unobtrusive projects. It's also fully-contained - only needs power, ground and a resistor to set the delay time - and breadboard or perfboard friendly. Runs on 3.3V...

Secure your project with biometrics - this all-in-one optical fingerprint sensor will make adding fingerprint detection and verification super simple. It's easy to use and more affordable than ever! These modules are typically used in safes - there's a high powered DSP chip that does the image rendering, calculation, feature-finding, and searching. Connect to any...

Hobby-level microcontrollers are finally getting big and powerful enough to start handling camera modules that historically would have required a full computer or FPGA to handle. The RP2040 and ESP32-Sx series of chips, for example, have enough pins to communicate with the 8-bit data output, DMA to quickly grab a frame, and the necessary RAM to buffer a raw snapshot....

*sniff* *sniff* ... do you smell that? No need to stick your nose into a carton of milk anymore, you can build a digital nose with the ENS160 Gas Sensor, a fully integrated MOX gas sensor. This is a very fine air quality sensor from the sensor experts at ScioSense, with I2C interfacing so you don't have to manage the heater and analog reading of a MOX sensor. It...

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky Are also in this sensor, controlled by you and I! Detect trees of green, and red roses too with the new Adafruit AS7262 6-Channel Visible Light / Color Sensor Breakout. This sensor from AMS has 6 integrated visible light sensing channels for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. These channels can be read via...

Add a tiny joystick to your project with this PSP thumbstick. This is a replacement component for PSP1000's, but we think they'd make for a great little joystick/thumbstick add-on for a wearable, or portable project. The joystick is a 'self-centering' analog-type. That means it basically acts like two 10K potentiometers, one for up/down and another for left/right....

Sometimes a simple analog control device can be the perfect tactile solution for your project, but they can be surprisingly hard to come by. Luckily we've found a low cost, quality PSP 3000 2-Axis Analog Thumb Joystick to fulfill your directional analog input needs! This is a replacement component for the PSP 3000, but we think they'd make for a great little...

This camera module can be a pretty neat project addition. It was designed to be used in security systems and does two main things - it outputs NTSC video and can take snapshots of that video (in color) and transmit them over the TTL serial link. You can snap pictures at 640x480, 320x240 or 160x120 and they're pre-compressed JPEG images which makes them nice and small...

Bosch has been a leader in barometric pressure sensors, from the BMP085. BMP180, BMP280, BMP388, BMP390... now we've got the next generation, the Adafruit BMP580 Precision Barometric Pressure and Altimeter Breakout. It can even be used in either I2C and SPI configurations. The BMP580 is the next-generation of sensors from Bosch and is the upgrade to the BMP2xx and...

Our 2-Axis Joystick can be used to add analog input to your next project. The 2-Axis Joystick contains two independent potentiometers (one per axis) for reporting the joystick's position, with wiring options for voltage or resistance outputs. The modular form-factor allows you to plug the 2-Axis Joystick directly into a breadboard for easy prototyping. The 2-Axis...

Upgrade any Feather board with precision motion sensing with the ST 9-DoF IMU, an all-in-one sensing 'Wing. It sports two fantastic sensors from ST to provide 9 degrees of full-motion data. The board includes an LSM6DSOX, a 6-DoF IMU accelerometer + gyro. The 3-axis accelerometer can tell you which direction is down towards the Earth (by measuring gravity) or how...