HC-SR04 Ultrasonic sensor Mini Pump Interaction

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

Hello,

I tried to run a pump when the distance to the ultrasonic sensor is too high/low. I copied something together from various examples. The sensor works and so does the pump, but when I combine both, the sensor does not measure reliably (sometimes only very small or very high values) and the pump runs irregularly or all the time. Can you take a look at the programming and structure and tell me what could be the problem?

UltraPump
UltraPump736×711 97.1 KB

The relay: Relay
The pump: Pump

int PUMP = 11;
int ECHO = 6;
int SEND = 7;

long Distance= 0;

void setup() 
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(SEND, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ECHO, INPUT);
  pinMode(PUMP, OUTPUT);
  

  
}

void loop() 
{
  
  digitalWrite(SEND, LOW);
  delay(5);


  digitalWrite(SEND, HIGH);
  delayMicroseconds(10);
  digitalWrite(SEND, LOW);

 
  long Time= pulseIn(ECHO, HIGH);


  Distance= (Time/ 2) * 0.03432;

  Serial.println(Distance);
  delay(1000);
  

  if (Distance>10) {
  digitalWrite(PUMP, HIGH);
  delay (3000); 
  digitalWrite(PUMP, LOW);
  }

  else if (Distance<10) {
  digitalWrite(PUMP, LOW);
  delay (3000); 

  }

}
2

@lukas12345678
Disconnect the pump and see if the LED on the relay board turns on and off when you think it should

4

When the pump is disconnected, the relay LED turns on/off when it should....

5

Then the pump is the problem.
Let's see if we can fix it.

6

First try this:
Make sure that the pump and pump wires and the battery are far away from the Uno and ultrasonic sensor.
See if it works OK

7

Good advice! I made sure the pump wires and the battery are far away from the Uno and the ultrasonic sensor and now the pump does not turn on when the distance is less than 10cm (like it should) :). However, the serial monitor did not show anything after a few loops (but the pump still turned on/off as it should) and the pump partially ran too short (only a second).

8

Many people have problems with that pump causing interference with the Arduino and other parts.
To permanently fix the problem, you will need to buy a 0.1uF ceramic capacitor (C1) and a 1N4002 diode (D1).
Connect like shown below.
Don't use a 9V battery, the voltage is too way too high for that pump.

image
image983×647 98.7 KB

9

Thank you! I will try it out and get back to you :slight_smile:

10

No hurry

11

I have just used one of these Power Supply instead of the battery, but the serial monitor shut down again and the loops did not work after a few loops...

12

You need to do what I recommended in post #8

13

I have added a 6V power supply, the 0.1uF ceramic capacitor and a 1N4002 diode and now it works better! :slight_smile: Thank you so much! However, sometimes the ultrasonic sensors shows odd values like 802 or 803, but I dont understand why... :frowning:

14

If there is nothing in front of the sensor so that it can measure a distance, it will time out and return a large Time value and that will result in a large distance being shown

15

Thank you for all the help, Jim! I really appreciate it! After adjusting the code it works without problems.

Here is the final code.


int PUMPE = 11;
int ECHO = 6;
int SENDEN = 7;

long Entfernung = 0;

void setup() 
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(SENDEN, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ECHO, INPUT);
  pinMode(PUMPE, OUTPUT);
  

  
}

void loop() 
{
  
  // Sender kurz ausschalten um Störungen des Signal zu vermeiden
  digitalWrite(SENDEN, LOW);
  delay(5);

  // Signal senden
  digitalWrite(SENDEN, HIGH);
  delayMicroseconds(10);
  digitalWrite(SENDEN, LOW);

  // pulseIn -> Zeit messen, bis das Signal zurückkommt
  long Zeit = pulseIn(ECHO, HIGH);

  // Entfernung in cm berechnen
  // Zeit/2 -> nur eine Strecke
  Entfernung = (Zeit / 2) * 0.03432;

  Serial.println(Entfernung);
  delay(1000);
  

  if (Entfernung>10 && Entfernung <200) {
  digitalWrite(PUMPE, HIGH);
  delay (3000); //3000 ist die Zeit in Millisekunden, die die Pumpe laufen soll
  digitalWrite(PUMPE, LOW);
  }

  else if (Entfernung<10 || Entfernung >=200) {
  digitalWrite(PUMPE, LOW);
  delay (3000); //3000 ist die Zeit in Millisekunden, die die Pumpe laufen soll

  }

 
}

ULTRAPUMP FINAL
ULTRAPUMP FINAL703×643 88.6 KB

16

Glad it worked.
Have fun!

17

This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.