Distance US Bricklet¶

Features¶

• Measures distances from 2cm to 400cm with ultrasound

• 12bit resolution

Description¶

The Distance US Bricklet is equipped with an ultrasonic distance sensor and extends Bricks by the possibility to measure distances from 2cm to 400cm. The measured distance is reported as unitless value, not in mm. This is because the relation between the distance value and the actual distance depends on the exact value of the 5V supply voltage. Deviations in the supply voltage result in deviations in the measured distance values. With configurable events it is possible to react on changing distances without polling. Typical applications can be found in robotics, usage as light barrier alternative and so on.

Technical Specifications¶

Resources¶

• Schematic (Download)

• Outline and drilling plan (Download)

• Source code and design files (Download)

• 3D model (View online | Download: STEP, FreeCAD)

Test your Distance US Bricklet¶

To test a Distance US Bricklet you need to have Brick Daemon and Brick Viewer installed. Brick Daemon acts as a proxy between the USB interface of the Bricks and the API bindings. Brick Viewer connects to Brick Daemon. It helps to figure out basic information about the connected Bricks and Bricklets and allows to test them.

Connect the Distance US Bricklet to a Brick with a Bricklet Cable.

If you connect the Brick to the PC over USB, you should see a new tab named "Distance US Bricklet" in the Brick Viewer after a moment. Select this tab. If everything went as expected you can now see the measured distance.

After this test you can go on with writing your own application. See the Programming Interface section for the API of the Distance US Bricklet and examples in different programming languages.

Case¶

A laser-cut case for the Distance US Bricklet is available.

The assembly is easiest if you follow the following steps:

• Screw spacers to the Bricklet (each long spacer consists of 2x 9mm and 1x 12mm pieces),

• build up side plates and put them around Bricklet and sensor (the front plate is asymmetric, the wider margin goes to the right side, when viewed from the outside),

• screw bottom plate to bottom spacers,

• screw top plate to top spacers.

Below you can see an exploded assembly drawing of the Distance US Bricklet case:

Hint: There is a protective film on both sides of the plates, you have to remove it before assembly.

Programming Interface¶

See Programming Interface for a detailed description.