Understanding Sensors How to connect them?

40 years ago, the sensors are something that is very expensive and comes with only a limited variety. But with the advance of semiconductor technology, sensors are getting cheaper and smaller in size. The prices drop even more tremendously with the mobile phone bloom from the 90s. Hundreds of millions of mobile phones have been made every year. Every generation of new phone needs sensors that are even smaller, more sensitive, cheaper and with more functions. Gyroscope and acceleration meter in the size of a piece of wheat is something not imaginable before. We call all these sensors the MEMS sensors or the NEMS sensors, the acronyms of Microelectromechanical systems and nanoelectromechanical systems.

40 years ago, the sensors are something that is very expensive and comes with only a limited variety. But with the advance of semiconductor technology, sensors are getting cheaper and smaller in size. The prices drop even more tremendously with the mobile phone bloom from the 90s. Hundreds of millions of mobile phones have been made every year. Every generation of new phone needs sensors that are even smaller, more sensitive, cheaper and with more functions. Gyroscope and acceleration meter in the size of a piece of wheat is something not imaginable before. We call all these sensors the MEMS sensors or the NEMS sensors, the acronyms of Microelectromechanical systems and nanoelectromechanical systems.

Although there are many ways to work with the sensors, the easiest way is to use the analog SVG system. SVG is the short form of Signal, Voltage, and Ground. Usually one has to apply 3.3v or 5v to the voltage pin and the ground pin and a corresponding voltage (from 0 volt to “V” volt) can be detected from the “S” signal pin depends on the environmental value like brightness, temperature or humidity etc. For the Microbit system, voltage up to 3.3v can be accepted. Other systems like Arduino or Raspberry Pi would have different acceptable voltage. The process to map the sensor reading to actual standard value is called calibration. We are going to discuss how to calibrate different sensors in the next article.

The Muselab sensor system uses symbols to illustrate SVG pin for the purpose of easy understanding.

A dialog box is used for “S", thesignal pin.
A plus symbol is used for the positive voltage pin.
A minus symbol is used for the ground pin.
The green color and double square wave symbols ⎍⎍ indicate that it is a digital sensor or actuator.
The red color and the double sinus curve symbol ∿∿ indicates that it is an analog sensor or actuator.
An upwards triangle with a stroke underneath △ indicates that it is an output actuator.
A downwards triangle with a stroke underneath ▽ indicates that it is an input sensor.
The single dot next to the plus symbol indicates a voltage of +3.3V.
The double dots next to the plus symbol indicates a voltage of +5V.
The triple dots next to the plus symbol indicates a voltage of +7.4V.
The clock symbol indicates the clock signal, e.g. in the I²C system
The music note symbol indicates that this pin can output music via loudspeaker and active buzzers.

The standardized MuseLab Pin Layout makes it easy to use our sensors. It is plug and play!