"Ultra" Project

A basic tool needed for bulding robots is the distance measuring device. The Polaroid 6500 was first introduced in the mid 1970s for use in autofocusing cameras, but it can be easily interfaced to the PICmicro® microcontroller as is shown in this application. This application demonstrates how the PICmicro® MCU's with built in clocks and reset can be used to simply "prototype" and learn about external device interfaces.

This project differs from most of the others by its reliance on an external, 1 Amp +5 Volt powersupply.

Click Here to look at the application's source code.

The circuit used for this application is:

The bill of materials for this application is:

Part Description

U1 PIC12C509-JW

R1, R2 4.7K, 1/4 Watt

C1 0.1 uF, 16 Volt Tantalum Capacitor

C2 1000 uF, 35 Volt Electrolytic Capacitor

Polaroid 6500 Polaroid 6500 Ultrasonic Distance Finder with Transducer

Miscellaneous Breadboard Prototyping System, Wiring, 1 Amp 5 Volt Power Supply

The Polaroid 6500's interface pintout is:

Pin Description Function

1 Ground Connected to Cathode of 1000 uF Capacitor

2 BLNK When Asserted, the 6500 will "Blank" out any reflected signal

3 N/C Not/Connected

4 INIT When Asserted, the 6500 will output the Ultrasonic "Burst"

5 N/C Not/Connected

6 OSC 49.4 KHz Oscillator

7 ECHO Asserted after the Received Signal Returned

8 BINH When Asserted, the 6500 will ignore any Transducer "Ringing"

9 Vcc Connected to the Anode of 1000 uF Filter Cap