Can i use this as a range finder?

[Bubbles]

I have been looking for things i can use as obstacle avoidance in Australia (which is quite hard as Aus kinda sucks in this department) and i found this here:

http://jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=AU5550&CATID=&keywords=ultra+sonic&SPECIAL=&form=KEYWORD&ProdCodeOnly=&Keyword1=&Keyword2=&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=

can i hook this up to a microcontroller and use it to detect objects?

will it be able to give me the distance to the object?

if not, does anybody know where in Australia i can get such a thing?

[SmAsH]

hmm i might recomment ebay or futurlec.com as for the one at jaycar i dont really know....but have you considered photocells? and for the microcontroller forget me...wait till someone smart posts

[hazzer123]

I think this is just a basic ultrasonic speaker/mic, with no other built in electronics.

If it is, you will have to program your MCu to create the sonic burst and then listen for it to see how long it takes to return. This is pretty processor intensive and quite difficult to implement, since it requires very strict timing.

 I would suggest looking for a Sharp IR or a Devantech SRF04 Sonar instead. These are much more user friendly and less code is required to implement it.

Check this out - http://au.farnell.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=4142949

[SmAsH]

1.omg thats expensive. i thought they were like $15
2.the shipping costs would be too much like $10-$15
so yea. we both know how hard it is ey bubbles?

[Bubbles]

1.omg thats expensive. i thought they were like $15
2.the shipping costs would be too much like $10-$15
so yea. we both know how hard it is ey bubbles?

yeah

[hazzer123]

woops i didnt see the price on that one 

I think if you search hard enough you'll find one reasonable.

What is shipping from Japan like in australia?

[SmAsH]

depends on size....if its like photocell size for one it can vary around $5-15 and its for a freakin photocell....well i just got all the things i need for the $40 robot from futurlec.com for about $22.00 and $4 postage! now thats no rip off.       huh?


~smash

[Steel_monkey]

To put some valuable input, I attach schematicks found in net (sorry, I haven`t saved credits to sites). Schematics are mostly not very hard, but not simple also, the only real problem is transiever power supply- voltage should be as big as possible, but it is too complicated to have 5 and 9 Volts batteries on one robot same time.

[blackheart]

I found sharp IR's and PIC's and Servos and Ping's in Romania(my country) which is probably the shittiest pace you would want to be in. And nobody gives a damn about robotics in here.

There must be an electronics store in there. Or search online.

[SmAsH]

umm, date of last post much?