Sensors / Proximity / Light & LIDAR

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 from 3 to 12V DC, there's an onboard regulator. Digital signal output...

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 power - so make sure if you're interfacing with an Arduino or other 5V...

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 5V-12V power (if you need to run it off of 3V you can do that by bypassing the...

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 currently supported), return the amount of red, blue, green, and...

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 very narrow light source, it is good for determining distance of only the surface directly in front of it. Unlike sonars that bounce ultrasonic...

Makers and robot lovers can use the tracking data to control almost anything – from flying drones and robotic arms to LEDs and 3D printers. You can integrate your Leap Motion Controller with an Arduino, map your hand motions to your favorite robot, or drive a remote-controlled car over Wi-Fi. Highly accurate hand and finger tracking with near-zero latency8 cubic feet of interactive 3D space135° field of view extending above the...

The VCNL4010 sensor is a nice way to add a small-distance proximity sensor to your microcontroller project. For longer distances (in the range of cm, you can use a SHARP IR distance sensor, but those are only good if the object is over 10 cm away. The VCNL4010 is designed for much shorter distances, no more than 200mm (about 7.5") and under our experimentation we found it worked best at distances of about 10-150mm. It would be good for say...

The VL6180X (sometimes called the VL6180 ) is a Time of Flight distance sensor like no other you've used! The sensor contains a very tiny laser source, and a matching sensor. The VL6180X can detect the "time of flight", or how long the laser light has taken to bounce back to the sensor. Since it uses a very narrow light source, it is good for determining distance of only the surface directly in front of it. Unlike sonars that...

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 power - so make sure if you're interfacing with an Arduino or other 5V...

If you're like me, you've always wanted a smaller and faster way to sense an object between 2 and 10 centimeters away. If you're really like me, you've wanted the sensor to come with a low current draw and on a tiny carrier board with all of the external components required to make it work. The Pololu Carrier with Sharp GP2Y0D810Z0F Digital Distance Sensor fits those both needs and more. it's one of Sharp's fastest...

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...

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, red wire to 5V and white wire to analog input. The analog voltage out will...

If you're like me, you've always wanted a smaller and faster way to sense an object between 0.5 and 5 centimeters away. If you're really like me, you've wanted the sensor to come with a low current draw and on a tiny carrier board with all of the external components required to make it work. The  Pololu Carrier with Sharp GP2Y0D805Z0F Digital Distance Sensor  fits those both needs and more. it's one of...

Is your favorite robot currently in a mid-life crisis? Does it need a new purpose or perhaps, direction?  Well now you can find your way with the affordable and easy to use Slamtec RPLIDAR A1 You may have heard of LIDARs when people talk about self-driving cars. A LIDAR is a sensor that can detect distance precisely, using a laser. Unlike Time-of-Flight sensors, LIDARs are incredibly fast. Unlike sonar/ultrasonic sensors, they're...

You've heard about the sensors in the news, when used in self-driving cars, and now you can have your own! Garmin's LIDAR-Lite V3 is the ideal high-performance (but compact) optical distant measurement sensor solution for drone, rovers, robots, or interactive project. Garmin makes high quality sensors, they're renowned for their GPS sensors, and these LIDARs are nice and high quality devices. You can measure up to 40 meters away...

Garmin's LIDAR-Lite LED V4 is the latest, ideal high-performance (but compact) optical distant measurement sensor solution for robotics, Internet of Things, and unmanned vehicles – or any application where an ultrasonic sensor might otherwise be used. Garmin makes high-quality sensors. They're renowned for their GPS sensors, and these distance sensors are nice and high-quality devices. You can measure up to 10 meters away...

This extra-long-range 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 6" long 6-JST interface wire. These sensors are good for detection between 100cm-500cm (1-5 meters / 3-15 feet). The long range makes them a good alternative to sonar sensors. Please note: the wire colorings are not intuitive! Watch out...

We've got many distance sensors, and the TFmini Distance Sensor is a nice addition. This sensor bounces light off objects and returns the distance in centimeters. It's a nice compact plastic package, with UART serial output. Please note that the company calls this a "LiDAR" but it is not a true LIDAR. Instead, its a time-of-flight (ToF) infrared sensor like the VL53L0X. That said, it's easy to use, and since it spits out...