LaserPING Distance Sensor

The LaserPING sensor measures the time it takes infrared light to make a round trip from the laser ping, to an object, and back and sends it to the microcontroller as a pulse (a brief high signal).  The amount of time the signal stays high indicates the time of flight.

Parts

(1) LaserPING 28041  
(1) Resistor 220 Ω (red-red-brown-gold)
Jumper wires: Red, black

Schematic

Wiring

Script

# test-laserping-distance

from microbit import *
import machine

pin8.set_pull(pin8.NO_PULL)
pin8.write_digital(0)

while True:
    pin8.write_digital(1)
    pin8.write_digital(0)
    t_pulse = machine.time_pulse_us(pin8, 1, 20000)

    dist_cm = t_pulse * 0.01715
    dist_in = t_pulse * 0.006752

    s = "%.1f " % dist_cm + "cm, " +"%.1f " % dist_in + "in"
    print(s)
    display.scroll(s)

    sleep(100)

Tests

Face the parts side of the laser ping at various target objects and compare their ruler measured distance to the micro:bit measured distance.