Viewing Sensor Values

[MarkBrown]

What is the best method to view the values a sensor is sending to my controller?  Do I have to set up some sort of wireless something or other to view what the controller is receiving?  Is this what UART is for?  Can I use a digital display to send the values I want to observe to?


With photo sensors, like the ones created in the $50 tutorial, what value is being sent to the controller.  It seems to me it would be the voltage with the resistance from the photo resistor applied.  I am trying to determine the range of values I could get from a photo resistor in what ever value the controller would receive.

Thanks very much for your help,

Mark

[pomprocker]

use uart to send it to a com port, then u connect to your robot via hyperterminal and it prints your values to the screen

[airman00]

or just use a serial LCD display

[Iron Man]

or you could create a binary LED display... that's always fun.

[Brandon121233]

you could use LEDs set at a PWM signal equal to the analog values you are getting off of your sensors ADC ports, thats a little less accurate but it beats lugging a computer around tethered to your robot to see what value its printing

[pomprocker]

unless you have a BlueSMiRF 

[Gertlex]

Aye. A bluetooth serial connection is one of the wireless ways to go.  I haven't gotten around to it myself since the one i have is a PITA to setup (i.e. power it on and wait 15 seconds before pairing x_x)

[Admin]

If its an analog sensor, like a photoresistor, you could put a multimeter across it . . .

[MarkBrown]

If its an analog sensor, like a photoresistor, you could put a multimeter across it . . .

Would that be across ground and and the sensor wire then?

[Admin]

yup

but if you did power to sensor output wire, that would also work too

[Brandon121233]

Why the heck would you pay $65 for a bluesmirf when you could just as easily put a chip of 1/20 the size and cost, with less power consumption, and further range that does the exact some thing? Like the Nordic nRF24L01 http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=690.