I've been using a parallax ping))) using the way described in the tutorial, but I would like to start optimizing my code. I am already using timing events instead of delays between ping measurements to allow processing between ping measurements. I also understand the arduino may hang up to a second while waiting for an echo to not arrive. I believe this is due to the default timeout in the pulseIn command. Is there any difference between just changing this timeout to a maximum distance and using your library (other than the interrupt method)?
For example
duration = pulseIn(pingPin, HIGH, 5800) // 29 us per centimeter * 200 cm max distance