[chris] sent in this inexpensive personal radar project. It uses a servo mounted IR range finder to locate and display the distance to an object. (Lake a parked car as shown in the demo video) The project is destined for some robotics projects – and who doesn’t love LED display proximity sensors. It makes me think of the direction finders in every other 80’s action movie. It’s gotten some attention on Digg, but I like it for the inexpensive build and the excellent use of a PIC 18F452.
12 thoughts on “Personal (IR) Radar”
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Since it doesn’t use radio waves you can’t really classify it as “radar”.
“Lidar” then. I think that’s the term for it. But it looks really cool.
Hello. I have done exactly the same, about one year ago and altough the name LIDAR (light detecting and ranging) was the same !!! It was based upon Pic16F628 but using a stepper motor, not a RC servo. I suggest to mount the sensor in the vertical way, because is much more accurate if you span horizontal way (see the sensor PDF). If you want take a look to the picture of my lidar version, this is the address: http://www.robotop.biz/images/lidar.jpg
It’s really not lidar either :) Instead of timing the light’s reflection, it uses an infrared led and a long ir sensor behind a plastic aperture to measure the distance as a triangle.
Anyone recommend a place to purchase these IR modules? I dont think Digikey or mouser has them :-(
nm, digikey has a whole bunch of them.
That was a horrible demo in the vehicle.
“Lake a parked” rather “Like a parked”
In the second part of the video, I thought it was going to be a zombie attack!
Yeah, lake a parked car, that kind of sounds fun.
This project is EXACTLY what I was planning on doing with my fadora and a heads up display. Thank you [chris]
would be cool to have it send data to a computer remotely
“Lake a Parked Car”. Essentially this involves becoming God, picking up a lake, and then dropping it over some poor guys (put in favorite supercar).
I like this kind of crazy project.