Ultrasonic Range Finder - Maxbotix LV-EZ4

This is the fantastically easy to use sensor from Maxbotix. We are extremely pleased with the size, quality, and ease of use of this little range finder. The serial interface is a bit odd (it's RS232 instead of TTL), but the PWM and Analog interfaces will allow any micro to listen easily enough. The sensor provides very accurate readings of 0 to 255 inches (0 to 6.45m) in 1 inch increments with little or no dead zone!

Maxbotix is offering the EZ0, EZ1, EZ2, EZ3, and EZ4 with progressively narrower beam angles allowing the sensor to match the application. Please see beam width explanation below.

Control up to 10 sensors with only two pins! Checkout the Maxbotix FAQ listed below.

Ultrasonic Rangefinders Feature Custom Beam Width

Users of ultrasonic rangefinders have found that the beam widths of low cost ultrasonic sensors do not always match their application. Wider beam width (and more sensitivity) is better suited for obstacle detection, people detection, collision avoidance, detecting small objects, and more robust detection in the central beam area. Narrower beam width (and less sensitivity) is useful for clutter rejection, high acoustic noise environments, directional ranging, room mapping, or using an ultrasonic sensor to locate an opening such as a door. Some users require very long long detection and ranging, while others only care about performance only out to one meter. In addition, users of ultrasonic sensors, even sensors that have a narrow beam width, still desire detection of small objects within the central beam, stable range measurements (even when ranging moving objects), small size, low power, and the sensor must be easy to use. Both narrow or wide beam sensors can be useful for all of the mentioned uses but in general a specific beam width will perform better, than another, for a given user application.

The beam width of the LV-MaxSonar sensor line up is factory calibrated and precisely controlled. This allows the precision beam angles that users of the EZ1 have come to depend on. The beam width of the LV-MaxSonar-EZ1 balances robust people detection ability with a narrow beam width. This compromise does not fit all users as some users have reported that, for their application, they desire either a wider or narrower beam. To address this, MaxBotix Inc., has added four additional ultrasonic rangefinders to the LVMaxSonar  sensor lineup, each calibrated to a specific beam width. This allows users to select the sensor that provides the beam width of choice. Beam plots or each sensor type are shown in Figure 1 on a one-foot grid background. Detection distance for 5V operation is shown in black lines, and distance for 3.3V operation is shown with red dots. The sensor beam width is widest for the EZ0 where it is well suited to users desiring a high sensitivity or a wide beam width. Each sensor, the EZ1, EZ2, EZ3 and EZ4 is progressively narrower.
For example, the EZ4 provides users with a narrow beam width for much better clutter or acoustic noise rejection.

• 42kHz Ultrasonic sensor
• Operates from 2.5-5.5V
• Low 2mA supply current
• 20Hz reading rate
• RS232 Serial Output - 9600bps
• Analog Output - 10mV/inch
• PWM Output - 147uS/inch
• Small, light weight module

Documents:

• Beam Width Explanation
• LV-EZ4 Datasheet
• Maxbotix FAQ
• Sensor Selection Guide

Checkout Mikey Sklar's flame-based trampoline, the high-lighter, using the EZ1!