Al-Mustaqbal University
College Of Engineering & Technology
Department of Computer Engineering Techniques
(Stage: 3)
Digital Control
Lecture 5
Arduino programming
Dr.: Fanar Ali Joda
HC-SR04 UltraSonic Hardware Overview
The UltraSonic is an affordable and easy to use distance
measuring sensor which has a range from 2cm to 400cm (about
an inch to 13 feet).
The sensor is composed of two ultrasonic transducers. One is
transmitter which outputs ultrasonic sound pulses and the other
is receiver which listens for reflected waves.
main specifications:
Operating Voltage 5V DC
Operating Current 15mA
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Operating Frequency 40KHz
Min Range 2cm / 1 inch
Max Range 400cm / 13 feet
Accuracy 3mm
Measuring Angle <15°
Dimension 45 x 20 x 15mm
HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor Pinout
Here’s the pinout of the sensor:
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The sensor has 4 pins. VCC and GND go to 5V and GND pins on
the Arduino, and the Trig and Echo go to any digital Arduino
pin. Using the Trig pin we send the ultrasound wave from the
transmitter, and with the Echo pin we listen for the reflected
signal.
How the HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Distance
Sensor Works?
It emits an ultrasound at 40 000 Hz which travels through the air
and if there is an object or obstacle on its path It will bounce
back to the module. Considering the travel time and the speed of
the sound you can calculate the distance.
In order to generate the ultrasound we need to set the Trig pin
on a High State for 10 µs. That will send out an 8 cycle ultrasonic
burst which will travel at the speed of sound. The Echo pins goes
high right away after that 8 cycle ultrasonic burst is sent, and it
starts listening or waiting for that wave to be reflected from an
object.
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For that purpose we are using the following basic formula for
calculating distance:
Distance = Speed x Time
We actually know both the speed and the time values. The time
is the amount of time the Echo pin was HIGH, and the speed is
the speed of sound which is 340m/s. There’s one additional step
we need to do, and that’s divide the end result by 2. and that’s
because we are measuring the duration the sound wave needs to
travel to the object and bounce back.
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How to Connect HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor to Arduino
Here’s how we need to connect the HC-SR04 sensor to an
Arduino board.
The Ground and the VCC pins of the module needs to be
connected to the Ground and the 5 volts pins on the Arduino
Board respectively and the trig and echo pins to any Digital I/O
pin on the Arduino Board.
HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor Arduino Code
Here’s a code for measuring distance using the HC-SR04
ultrasonic sensor and Arduino.
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/*
Ultrasonic Sensor HC-SR04 and Arduino Tutorial
*/
// defines pins numbers
const int trigPin = 11;
const int echoPin = 12;
// defines variables
long duration;
int distance;
void setup() {
pinMode(trigPin, OUTPUT); // Sets the trigPin as an Output
pinMode(echoPin, INPUT); // Sets the echoPin as an Input
Serial.begin(9600); // Starts the serial communication
}
void loop() {
// Clears the trigPin
digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);
delayMicroseconds(2);
// Sets the trigPin on HIGH state for 10 micro seconds
digitalWrite(trigPin, HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(10);
digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);
// Reads the echoPin, returns the sound wave travel time in
microseconds
duration = pulseIn(echoPin, HIGH);
// Calculating the distance
distance = duration * 0.034 / 2;
// Prints the distance on the Serial Monitor
Serial.print("Distance: ");
Serial.println(distance);
}
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Code Explanation
First we have to define the Trig and Echo pins. In this case they
are the pins number 9 and 10 on the Arduino Board and they are
named trigPin and echoPin. Then we need a Long variable,
named “duration” for the travel time that we will get from the
sensor and an integer variable for the distance.
// defines pins numbers
const int trigPin = 11;
const int echoPin = 12;
// defines variables
long duration;
int distance;Code language: Arduino (arduino)
In the setup we have to define the trigPin as an output and the
echoPin as an Input and also start the serial communication for
showing the results on the serial monitor.
void setup() {
pinMode(trigPin, OUTPUT); // Sets the trigPin as an Output
pinMode(echoPin, INPUT); // Sets the echoPin as an Input
Serial.begin(9600); // Starts the serial communication
}Code language: Arduino (arduino)
In the loop first we have to make sure that the trigPin is clear so
you have to set that pin on a LOW State for just 2 µs. Now for
generating the Ultra sound wave we have to set the trigPin on
HIGH State for 10 µs.
// Clears the trigPin
digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);
delayMicroseconds(2);
// Sets the trigPin on HIGH state for 10 micro seconds
digitalWrite(trigPin, HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(10);
digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);Code language: Arduino (arduino)
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Using the pulseIn() function we read the travel time and put that
value into the variable “duration”. This function has 2 parameters,
the first one is the name of the Echo pin and for the second is
the state of the pulse we are reading, either High or Low.
// Reads the echoPin, returns the sound wave travel time in microseconds
duration = pulseIn(echoPin, HIGH);
In this case, we need this set to it HIGH, as the HC-SR04 sensors
sets the Echo pin to High after sending the 8 cycle ultrasonic
burst from the transmitter. This actually starts the timing and
once we receive the reflected sound wave the Echo pin will go to
Low which stops the timing. At the end the function will return
the length of the pulse in microseconds.
For getting the distance we will multiply the duration by 0.034
and divide it by 2 as we explained this equation previously.
// Calculating the distance
distance= duration*0.034/2;
// Prints the distance on the Serial Monitor
Serial.print("Distance: ");
Serial.println(distance);
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Controlling LED's Using Ultrasonic
Distance Sensor
Turns the 2 LED's on and off by calculating the distance of the object
from the Ultrasonic Sensor.
#define Trigpin 7
#define Echopin 6
#define low_led 9
#define high_led 10
float distance;
int duration;
void setup() {
pinMode (Trigpin, OUTPUT);
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pinMode (low_led, OUTPUT);
pinMode (high_led, OUTPUT);
pinMode (Echopin, INPUT);
Serial.begin(9600);
digitalWrite (low_led, LOW);
digitalWrite (high_led, LOW);
}
void loop()
{
digitalWrite(Trigpin, LOW);
delayMicroseconds(2);
digitalWrite(Trigpin, HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(10);
digitalWrite(Trigpin, LOW);
duration = pulseIn(Echopin, HIGH);
distance = duration * 0.034 / 2;
delay (700);
Serial.println (" ");
Serial.print ("Distance = ");
Serial.print (distance);
Serial.print (" CM");
Serial.println (" ");
if (distance>=30)
{
digitalWrite (low_led, HIGH);
delay (500);
digitalWrite (low_led, LOW);
delay (500);
digitalWrite (low_led, HIGH);
}
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else
{
digitalWrite (high_led, HIGH);
delay (100);
digitalWrite (high_led, LOW);
delay (100);
digitalWrite (high_led, HIGH);
delay (100);
}
}
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