Bot Bench I'd Rather Be Building Robots
HiTechnic have released a new sensor, the Magnetic Sensor.
It can detect magnetic fields when oriented in the correct direction. Depending on how the field passes through the sensor, the value it returns increases or decreases.
You could use this to detect small magnets you have put in your obstacle course or maze to mark specific positions, like cross roads, for example. Maybe use it to find a pipe in your wall or a buried treasure on a beach (watch out for sand and water, though).
A driver for this sensor has been written and will be part of the next release of the ROBOTC Driver Suite.
When I get my hands on one, I’ll be sure to take it apart and post pictures on my blog!
I like the price at $22.95. All most worth it just to use the enclosure for your one’s own custom sensors as due to a Lego agreement, HiTechnic can’t sell the enclosures. A 3D Printer to produce my own parts would be handy!
I’d be very interested in how sensitive and it’s response time. If it’s based on a standard Hall-Effect Silicon device, you should be able to use it as a high speed tachometer and rotation sensor.
Rare-earth magnets are very cheap nowadays and available as small as 1-1.5mm diameter & thickness. There’s lots of possibilities for exercising one’s grey-matter!
Actually, where CAN you get that kind of sensor case? I know I’d like access to them. Or print them on a CNC. Or print a mold on a CNC. OK, I need a CNC.
You can’t. It’s as simple as that.
Come to think of it, if I ordered spare sensors, I could take them apart and reuse the case. This is more likely to happen with a broken sensor, if I ever do it.
Been lookin’ around the HiTechnic magnetic field sensor page and found it can be read up to 300 times a second… I know it’s a bit late, but still..
DiMastero
Ok, I’ve done a bit of experimentation and, using the average of 25 measurements, I end up with a bit less than 326 readings per second!
DiMastero
Any info about the sensor sensitivity. The Vernier magnetic field sensor is capable of detecting the Earth’s magneti field and so also works as a compass sensor…
Jetro, the sensor is designed for magnets and can handle powerful rare-earth type magnets at close proximity without saturating its value. It is not sensative enough for earth’s magnetic field. For that we have the Compass sensor :).
Its actually kind of interesting. The biggest magnet within Earth’s atmosphere isn’t nearly as powerful as smaller magnets on the same planet. At least from the surface, anyway.
“Size matters not.” -Yoda
[…] and it’s precision, to see if it can be used as angle sensor. These tests were inspired by a comment on mightor’s blog by Sparra […]