Hello,
I have a project using 2 of the 38khz prox sensors, and they need to be placed several inches away from the arduino project box. What would you recommend that I can encase them in? They are very sensitive, so even if I find a case for it I’m wondering if the light will just bounce around inside and cause a false positive. Any help would be greatly appreciated. They are wonderful little sensors.
Hello.
You might try shrouding the sensor with heat shrink tubing or electrical tape. Some engineers here have had some success using those materials as shrouds. I recommend using a dark color, like black, because lighter colors sometimes reflect the IR light back to the detector.
- Grant
I have the high brightness model and it cannot be shrouded with black tape or black shrink tubing. The only way I can see mounting it would be to have it protrude from the body of my project which would make it vulnerable. I would like to see a photo of someone successfully mounting this sensor without protruding it from their project. This product needs to ship with shrouding or list a way to shroud it.
Hello.
The emitter on those modules has a wide beam angle, which makes it easy for the IR signal to bounce back to the sensor but difficult to put in a housing, so making it not protrude might be tough. You might be able to 3D-print something that fits tightly around the front and sides of the board, or for something more crude, you might be able to cut a shroud out of black antistatic foam.
By the way, a good way of using the sensors is to have two or more of them with one emitting and the others just receiving. If you do it that way, the sensors are easier to shield, and you can alternate which one is emitting to get more information about your surroundings. You can disable the emitter on the sensor by pulling the ENABLE pin low.
- Grant
Sounds like it would be better to sell the emitter and detectors separately.
We do sell the detector separately: the Vishay TSSP58038 IR Detector Module is a through hole version of the sensor used on our 38KHz IR proximity sensor. Our board has both the emitter and sensor because it is not that much more to integrate the sensor into the emitter module. At the point you are using two or more of the 38KHz IR proximity sensors, the enable line basically allows you to use the emitters and detectors independently.
- Grant