Hello, I am trying to interface a Glass Break Sensor with my ardunio. It is a standard sensor that is used on most aftermarked car alarm systems. Basically, there is a +12, ground, and output wire. When the unit detects broken glass, the output wire is connected to ground.
The unit will be connected directly to my vehicles battery. My question is how would I attach this to the arduino? The arduino is powered by a battery pack, and the glass break is powered by the car battery.
If anyone has any ideas, that would be greatly appreciated.
Tommy
Use a transistor, collector to arduino input, base to 1K resistor, other end of the resistor to your sensor. Emitter to ground. 12V to your sensor, ground of the 12V supply to ground of the arduino.
It might be worth tying to see if the sensor works off 5V if so you could then connect it directly to the arduino without the transistor. The pin you use as an input - enable the internal pull up resistor.
Thank you for the idea. I didnt have a transistor, so I thought I would post what I did incase other newbees (like me) wanted to know...
On the glass break sensor, there is an LED that lights when broken glass is detected. I just ran the two wires from the LED to my ground and analog 0 pin on the Arduino. Normally it reads numbers around 240, but when the glass break is activated, it reads 0.
Tommy