I am currently working on a project that requires a device to make a buzzing noise when gets a certain distance say 10 feet away from another device.
My understanding of electronics is very limited, this the first time I have had to do anything like this.
I have found a way to do this using an ir sensor on a Arduino board, the problem with this is any interruption to the beam sets off the buzzer, which is not quite the idea ( I don’t want it to be set off by some walking in front of it for instance). I Have unfortunately hit brick wall, this is probable due to not understanding the process involved. My thinking at the moment is that it should use some sort of radio wave.
So my question: is this even possible with an arduino board or am I barking up the wrong tree? If it is possible could you nudge me in the right direction?
This question comes up fairly often, you might do a little searching to get a complete answer. The short answer is that it’s not easy. Trying to use the strength of an RF beacon has a lot of uncertainties and might work if your tolerance is 10-50 ft. You could try using an ultrasonic method, they are several that might work (sonar, time-of-flight). Using a webcam you could measure the apparent size of the the object and, knowing the true size, compute the distance.
A lot depends on the mystery objects and their environment and how many $$s you want to spend.
Chaz197825:
I am currently working on a project that requires a device to make a buzzing noise when gets a certain distance say 10 feet away from another device.
My understanding of electronics is very limited, this the first time I have had to do anything like this.
I have found a way to do this using an ir sensor on a Arduino board, the problem with this is any interruption to the beam sets off the buzzer, which is not quite the idea ( I don’t want it to be set off by some walking in front of it for instance). I Have unfortunately hit brick wall, this is probable due to not understanding the process involved. My thinking at the moment is that it should use some sort of radio wave.
So my question: is this even possible with an arduino board or am I barking up the wrong tree? If it is possible could you nudge me in the right direction?
Cheers
Work on the physics problem first... the medium to use- infrared on/off, infrared on a modulated carrier liek 38KHz (read up on RC5), ultrasonic like the robot guys use for range to blockage, etc. RF methods - not recommended.
If this is a student assignment, the above should be step 1 in engineering. Requirements definition, the rank-order solutions, then worry about how to implement using, say a microprocessor or not. But that’s well after the physics part which is what a prof. wants to see - that you knew enough to read/research “prior art”.