Arduino Tutorial 53: Understanding and Connecting the HC-SR04 Sensor

HC-SR04
This is our HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor Connected to our Arduino Nano.

In this lesson we explore using the HC-SR04 from our Arduino Kit to measure distance. The sensor sends out a ping, and then waits to hear the echo. It measures the time between when the ping is sent and when the echo is heard. Knowing pingTravelTime, allows you to calculate distance from the sensor. In this lesson we will show you how to connect the sensor, and program it to read pingTravelTime. In future lessons we will show you how to change this into distance.

Notice we used an Arduino Nano, which allows the entire project to be build on a single breadboard. This allows a neater, smaller build, and one less likely to have problems from poor or loose connections. The build neatness is also facilitated by using small straight jumper wires, which you can get HERE.

Connecting up the HC-SR04 sensor is simple, as illustrated in this diagram:

HC-SR04-Schematic
Schematic for Connecting the HC-SR04 to an Arduino

This video will take you through our build and initial work step-by-step.

The simple code below is what we used in the video to begin making measurements with the sensor.