Zio Ultrasonic Distance Sensor Qwiic Start Guide

This post is part of our Zio Qwiic Start Guide Blog Series.

Introduction

The ultrasonic distance sensor is useful for applications that need effective measures to sense nearby objects and distance. Commonly embedded in robots to sense collisions. 

Table of Contents

1. Zio Ultrasonic Sensor Overview
2. Configuring your Ultrasonic Sensor
3. Connection Setup
4. Testing Example Codes

Zio Ultrasonic Sensor (HC-SR04) Overview

1. Ultrasonic Receiver Module (Echo)
2. Ultrasonic Transmitter Module (Trigger)
3. Power and Signal Pins
   1. Power Pins: 
      1. GND - Ground Supply
      2. 3V3 -3.3V Supply
   2. Signal Pins: 
      1. Trig- Trigger Input Signal (Transmit Signal)
      2. Echo - Echo Output Signal (Receive Echo)
4. STM8L051 MCU: 
   1. 8-bit ultra-low power STM8 MCU Core with I2C and SPI interface
5. Qwiic Connector:
   1. A system to easily connect to other qwiic compatible modules via Qwiic cable

Configuring your Ultrasonic Distance Sensor (HC-SR04)

 Difficulty Level: 

• Zio Youngling

Helpful Resources:

This qwiic guide has a separate post on our development board guides. Check them out below:

• Zuino M Uno Qwiic Start Guide
• Zuino XS PsyFi32 Qwiic Start Guide

Connection Set up

Hardware & Components

• Zuino M Uno
• Zio Qwiic Ultrasonic Distance Sensor (HC-SR04)
• Zio Qwiic 0.91" OLED Display (Optional)
• Qwiic Cable (100mm)
• Micro USB Cable
• Powerbank (Optional)

Setup

Testing Example Codes

We are going to demo our Ultrasonic Distance Sensor using the following example codes. The following examples work with our Zio development boards. Just select the right board and port from the  Arduino IDE platform.

1. HC-SR04 I2C Example Code

Step 1 Download and Install the following libraries for OLED display. 

• Adafruit GFX Library
• Adafruit SSD1306 Library

We also created a separate qwiic guide for our Zio 0.91” OLED Display. Check it out here!

Step 2 Download the following example code for Zio Ultrasonic Distance Sensor.

Download the example code from our Github page.

Extract and open the downloaded folder. Go to Arduino > Zio_Ultrasonic_Distance_Sensor_IIC_Test

Step 3 View Results

Open Serial Monitor to view results using a serial monitor.

Results on Zio 0.91" OLED Display

Got questions or suggestions? Or just want to greet us? Drop us a comment below!