New Sharp GP2Y0A60SZ0F compact distance sensor

Sharp just came out with new compact analog distance sensor. It is half of the previous ones size (22 x 8 x 7.2 mm), and has 10 to 150 cm range.
Would you please consider carrying those?

see http://www.sharp-world.com/products/device/lineup/selection/pdf/opto200907_e.pdf page 36

Hey,

Thanks for pointing those out; we’ll be sure to put in an order soon. If these are anything like their other sensors, though, lead times are going to be 20 weeks or more.

- Jan

I spotted a data sheet at http://www.dema.net/pdf/sharp/GP2Y0A60SZ0F.pdf
The connection is more complex than in case of their analog rangefinders.
Would be nice if someone (Pololu?) develops a carrier board.
Has anyone seen GP2Y0A60SZ0F on sale yet?

Thanks for following up on this. We have been trying to get more information from Sharp about these sensors, but they have generally discontinued their distance sensors, at least in the US, and it’s been difficult getting any information from them. Having a datasheet should help.

- Jan

Has anybody been able to address this issue?

Hello.

Nothing came of this the when we originally looked into it a few years ago, but we will look into it again (thank you for the reminder). This is certainly an interesting sensor!

- Ben

The GP2Y0A60SZ0F sensor is now available. Digikey has about 1500 of them. See http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?mpart=GP2Y0A60SZ0F
I attach datasheet here. gp2y0a60szxf_e.pdf (399 KB)

I also suggest to carry GP2Y0D340K - a popular compact 40cm digital sensor. It is somewhat noisy, so a clever carrying board would help. gp2y0d340k.pdf (36.9 KB)
Interestingly, Sharp’s current catalogue does not list these two sensors any longer. Are they not in demand in other applications or they are preparing to introduce something new?

Hey, after all these years, we finally have these sensors available! We are offering them with a carrier that is available in a 5 V version and in a 3 V version.

After playing around with these for the past few days, I am quite excited about these sensors since they have a great range and a higher update rate than some of the older Sharp distance sensors. It looks like our initial batch of the 3 V version is already almost sold out, but we should have many more within a few weeks.

- Jan

Hey,
this sensor seems to be very nice by looking into the datasheet. But can you tell me by your own experience if sensor range is really between 10 to 150 cm? I connected the sensor to an 5 V power supply (5V sensor version) and observed output signal with a scope. Within 10 to 90 cm output signal is very fine. Above 90 cm it starts to flicker. I mounted sensor ca. 10 cm above table surface and pointed it to a white surface (white box/carton). Tried to reduce light coming into the sensor from side by putting a dark shape around it and I covered the table with a black blanket. This reduced flicker a bit but at the moment it is not really possible to measure reliable values between 100 and 150 cm. So usable range is 1/3 smaller than datasheet promises. Couldn’t be true??

Thanks for reply in advance.

Best regards,
Stefan Helm

Hello, Stefan.

It sounds like noise is interfering with your readings at longer distances. You might try implementing some sort of filter, like a moving average, on the sensor readings.

- Grant

Thank you Grant, for fast response.
Using a filter is a good idea for an appropriate signal. But in this case using a moving average or something like this wouldn’t help because the signal doesn’t look like there is a useful average. What I mean is that voltage output values doesn’t differ so much in a sensing range between 100 to 150 cm. They are somewhere between 800 and 600 mV. I see on the scope that voltage fluctuates between 800 and 500 mV when pointing sensor to an object that is in a distance between 100 to 150 cm.
To avoid other influences my set up is very simple: 5V supply, short cables and a scope to see output voltage of sensor. In addition I put a 100uF capacitor between Vcc and Ground but this made no difference.

At the moment I am at one’s wits’ end :neutral_face:
This evening I will be back in laboratory and I am going to examine output signals of our other Sharp IR sensors (e.g. older GP2Y0A02YK0F with range 20 - 150 cm). I am looking forward to see the difference to the new sensor. During the last years we used older GP2Y0A02YK0F a lot with good results. But the new sensor could be great because it is smaller and has a faster sensing rate.

Stefan

Hi, Stefan.

I am interested to hear the results of your comparison. I know it might seem like averaging the readings won’t help, but have you actually tried it? If I recall correctly, when we tested this with the sensor output connected to a multimeter, we were able to see discernable changes in the readings all the way out to 150 cm.

- Ben

Ok, I will try that with GP2Y0A60SZ. During last days we have tested three older sensors and they work pretty well: GP2Y0A02 (20 - 150 cm), GP2Y0A41SK0F (4 - 30 cm) and GP2Y0D815Z0F (digital < 15 cm).
I am going to give some more details about our experiences during next week.

Kind regards,
Stefan

Hi Stephan,

I know this is an old post. I am having the same issue as yours, as much as 800mv output ripple at longer distance for the GP2Y0A60SZLF. I am not sure if you got a fix for it. If so, do you mind sharing?

Thank you


Hello.

It looks like the ripple you are seeing could be from the emitter on the sensor firing (a 300-400mA current burst). Have you tried to add a large electrolytic capacitor (>=100uF) to your circuit close to the sensor? That might not completely eliminate the ripple, but it should help.

-Nathan