April 11, 2014

Hacking laser distance measurement tools with Arduino

Now and again you come across commercially-available devices which are surprisingly easy to interface with an Arduino. One example of this has been demonstrated by Andrew Fuller, who shows how to extract the data from a Uni-T distance measuring device.

It turns out that the device has a simple serial output at 115200 bps, allowing connection to almost any device with a serial input - including an Arduino. With some research people have created code to interpret and work with the data for other purposes such as logging or adding different displays.

The project could still be classed as experimental, however the theory is quite interesting - so visit Andrew's website to learn more. And for more, we're on facebookGoogle+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well. 

Have you been reading about Arduino and would like to understand more so you can work with projects like the example above, but not sure where to start? Then order one of our Experimenter's Kit for Arduino: 

The package includes a wide variety of parts, sensors and modules including: a servo motor, lights, buttons, switches, sound, sensors, breadboard, wires and more. Furthermore a Freetronics Eleven Arduino-compatible board is included to make this an extensive hobby experimenter, inventor and starter kit. 

However we don't leave you alone to figure it all out, included is a great project and instruction booklet, plus access to a supporting web page and software examples. In other words - this is everything you need to get started for a fun range of electronics and Arduino related projects! So to get started or for more information and to order, check out the product page.

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