Sharp IR distance sensors broken?

Hello eveybody,
I recently bought two Sharp GP2D120 IR distance sensors and, after conecting them to my board (ChipKit UNO) and checking that the three wires are connected as they should (5v, GND and an alagog pin), I cant get correct values from them when trying a basic program that prints the values. I’ve tried with the sensors of a friend (that are the same model as mine) and they do work, so I think the problem has to be in the sensors and not in anything else, as the sensors of my friend worked.
The values I get from my sensors are everytime the same, so I know they are connected (because when the wires aren’t connected I get random values).
I soldered a 10 uF capacitor between Vcc and GND in the sensors as the Pololu page of the product recommended, but the sensors didn’t work anyway. The sensors worked at the beggining (the first day), but then they stopped working.

Does anybody know what could be the problem and how it could be solved?

Thank you very much!

Hello.

When you used your friend’s sensors, were they the exact same model? Also, did you test them with the same setup? If so, then your sensors are probably damaged.

  • Grant

Same model (but bought in a different place at a different time), same setup…
Do they usually break easily? Which are the ways in which they can break?

Thanks

All electronics like this are easy to break. They can break from things like static discharge or simply connecting things incorrectly.

  • Grant