IR Proximity Sensor Module

IR Proximity Sensor Module

An IR Proximity Sensor Module is a sensor able to detect the presence of nearby objects without any physical contact.

An IR Proximity Sensor Module often emits an electromagnetic field or a beam of electromagnetic radiation (infrared, for instance), and looks for changes in the field or return signal. The object being sensed is often referred to as the proximity sensor’s target.

Different proximity sensor targets demand different sensors. For example, a capacitive proximity sensor or photoelectric sensor might be suitable for a plastic target; an inductive proximity sensor always requires a metal target.

IR Proximity Sensor Modules can have a high reliability and long functional life because of the absence of mechanical parts and lack of physical contact between the sensor and the sensed object.

IR Proximity Sensor Modules are also used in machine vibration monitoring to measure the variation in distance between a shaft and its support bearing. This is common in large steam turbines, compressors, and motors that use sleeve-type bearings.

An IR Proximity Sensor Module adjusted to a very short range is often used as a touch switch.

Use with smartphones and tablet computers

IR Proximity Sensor Modules are commonly used on mobile devices. When the target is within nominal range, the device lock screen user interface will appear, thus emerging from what is known as sleep mode.

Once the device has awoken from sleep mode, if the proximity sensor’s target is still for an extended period of time, the sensor will then ignore it, and the device will eventually revert into sleep mode. For example, during a telephone call, proximity sensors play a role in detecting (and skipping) accidental touchscreen taps when mobiles are held to the ear.

Proximity sensors can be used to recognise air gestures and hover-manipulations. An array of proximity sensing elements can replace vision-camera or depth camera based solutions for hand gesture detection.

How to use

We will illustrate the usage of the module with a NUCLEO-F103RB (STM32F103) or Arduino UNO development board. 1. Download the Demo code and extract it, then program the examples to your NUCLEO or Arduino development board. 2. Connect the development board to a PC via a serial wire and the module to the development board.

Then, power up the development board and start the serial debugging software (e.g. PuTTY or Serial Monitor). Here is the configuration of the connection between the module and the development board.

Here is the configuration of the serial port.

Expected result

• When a barrier is placed near the sensor, the signal indicator will turn on or else turn off.
• The serial output will change according to the distance between the module and the barrier.

This IR Proximity Sensor is a multipurpose infrared sensor which can be used for obstacle sensing, color detection, fire detection, line sensing, etc and also as an encoder sensor. The sensor provides a digital output.

The sensor outputs a logic one(+5V) at the digital output when an object is placed in front of the sensor and a logic zero(0V), when there is no object in front of the sensor. An onboard LED is used to indicate the presence of an object. This digital output can be directly connected to an Arduino, Raspberry Pi, AVR, PIC, 8051 or any other microcontroller to read the sensor output.

IR sensors are highly susceptible to ambient light and the IR sensor on this sensor is suitably covered to reduce effect of ambient light on the sensor. The sensor has a maximum range of around 40-50 cm indoors and around 15-20 cm outdoors.

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