Long Cable for Ultrasonic Sensor

Sensors Distance
1

I am using an Arduino Nano with a HC-SR04 ultrasonic distance sensor (and some other bits).

It is attached to the end of a linear actuator.

Everything works great. It measures distances, serial prints, prints to the LCD, and turns some relays on and off.

However, now the boss wants the Arduino (and LCD and relays) to remain stationary and only attach the HC-SR04 to the end of the actuator.

We are looking for about 3 feet of travel.

I was hoping telephone cord (the scrunchy kind) and some RJ11 sockets would solve this problem for me.

But the Arduino gets nothing back from the sensor over the telephone cord. I have tried a few different HC-SR04 sensors to make sure it wasn’t just a broke sensor.

Has anybody tried something like this before?

Am I barking up the wrong tree? Is there cable just too long or too light gauge to work with the sensor?

Thanks in advance

2

The wire gauge might be too light. Have you tried some regular, 22 or 24 AWG wire to see if the problem goes away? If it does, you might try switching to 6 conductor ‘scrunchy’* telephone wire and doubling up the power and ground wires for more current capacity.

* I used “scrunchy” because I’m not sure what the correct term is. :wink: