Lesson 28--Microduino & Raindrop Sensor

Microduino & Raindrop Sensor

Purpose Let’s talk about raindrop sensor in this course and make some interesting applications with Microduino and the sensor. Equipment Microduino-Core Microduino-Core is the 8-bit single-chip development core board with Atmel ATmega328P as the core, which is an open and Arduino Uno compatible controller. Microduino-USBTTL Microduino-USBTTL is the program download module, capable of connecting with Microduino-Core or Microduino-Core+ and making the modules communicate with the computer. It uses MicUSB as the download interface, which is also the smallest part of Microduino. Microduino is just as small as a quarter. Besides, the download cable is just like the USB cable of most smart phones, easy to use. Other Equipment Related hardware Number Function Raindrop sensor One Raindrop sensor can output both high and low-level digital quantity as well as analog voltage. LED For indicating the electrical level of D2 port. 510 Ω resistor One LED current-limiting USB cable One For connecting Microduino modules and the computer. Breadboard One All components gather here. Jumper One box Connector Raindrop sensor When raindrop falls on the sensor, the digital quantity output port of the sensor can output low electrical level. The analog quantity output port can change output voltage according to the quantity of the rain. The more the raindrop gets, the lower the voltage is. When the sensor detects no water, the port will output high electrical level and the output voltage is Vcc(Supply voltage). There are two LED lights on PCB board, one is for power indicator and the other is for raindrop indicator. When the raindrop indicator goes on, it means the digital output of the module is low and Microduino can detect the electrical level and then handle it. Besides, you can also adjust sensitivity of the potentiometer. With different sensitivity, one or two raindrop can have the same effect. Schematic Microduino's A0 port is connected with the analog output of the raindrop module, whose D2 port is connected to LED via a 510 Ω resistor. (LED's cathode is connected to the ground.) Program void setup() { pinMode(2,OUTPUT); Serial.begin(9600); } void loop() { int value=analogRead(A0); Serial.println(value); if(value<800)//You can change this value to fit for your app digitalWrite(2,HIGH);//Open the led else digitalWrite(2,LOW);//close delay(1000); } Debugging Copy the program to Arduino IDE. Compile the program and choose the right board and the corresponding serial port. Click Upload. Watch the raindrop indicator on PCB board of the raindrop sensor, the red LED on the breadboard and the readings on the serial monitor of Arduino IDE under different circumstances(no raindrop, one drop and several drops ) Adjust the sensitivity potentiometer on PCB board and watch again. Result We can utilize the electrical level change or analog quantity output of the raindrop sensor based on different requirements. Eg. we can control the change of Microduino's PWM duty cycle as well as motor speed according to the change of the raindrop sensor's analog port output voltage. Video