Hooking up a PIR sensor to the Arduino and Max/MSP

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

I'm a complete rookie to the Arduino, so please excuse the question.

I'm working on a project that requires that I hook up a PIR sensor to an Arduino. I need to then hook up the Arduino to a computer running a Max/MSP patch.

All I need to do is have the sensor tell my Max/MSP patch if it is sensing presence in its range of view. From what I understand, the sensor outputs a high signal if there is presence, and a low signal if there is no presence.

I have an Arduino Diecimila board and I'm picking up the sensor today.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some good tutorials or offer some advice as to how to make this thing work?

Thanks in advance.

Dave.

2
3

OK, so I've got this PIR sensor (PIR Motion Sensor (JST) - SEN-13285 - SparkFun Electronics) working with Arduino.

It's giving me a low reading when it detects motion and a high reading when it detects nothing.

The problem I'm having is that I need to know if someone is standing in front of the sensor, even if that person is standing still.

Is this an issue with the sensor? I was hoping the sensor would give me a consistent low reading if it detected a person in it's field of view.

4

I've got 3 of them I bought a while ago but haven't had a chance to play with them.

My understanding is, the PIR's only detect "movement". So I'm guessing if a person stands still for a second, irrespective of their distance, the output goes high.

If you want to detect objects at a certain distance, I think you'll need something like an ultrasonic range finder.

5

Is this an issue with the sensor?

It's a motion sensor. It's doing what it was designed to do: dectect motion.

I've been using the PING sensor to detect if a human is in front of the sensor. I'm not very far along on this project but so far it's working well.

  • Brian