GP2Y0D805 sensor

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1

Hi. I am using Pololu GP2Y0D805 distance sensor. I have 16 of these sensors connected to Vdd in parallel (5V). I did buy them along with the carrier board for these sensors. Now My question is: There is a LED on the back of the carrier board. Is it supposed to constantly blink? When i am only connecting one sensor. The LED remains off, unless sensor detects something. As soon as i connect two or sensors. the sensors are still working fine but the back LED starts blinking fast. Is that normal? I am just scared of that fact that i don’t wanna burn out the sensor, if in case i am not supplying enough current to the sensor.

Is the blinking LED for GP2Y0D805 a normal thing? Also each sensor has three pins (Vdd, Gnd, Output) . i have connected all the vdd to the power supply vdd and all the grounds to the power supply ground. Is that the right way to connect 16 sensors?

they are kinda like this: [|]—> each pin
||||||…____||||| + (5v)Vdd (16) total pins
||||||…____|||||-(0V) Gnd (16) total pins
||||||…___||||| Sensor output (16) total pins

so all the sensor’s vdds are connected in parallel to each other with the Power supply VDD.
and all the Gnd of the sensors are connected in parallel to each other with the power supply.

and then the 16 outputs go in micro-controller. One thing to mention is my micro-controller also takes power from the same Power Supply.
thanks for your help

Zohaib Khan

2

Hello.

The schematic for the carrier board is on its page, and on it, you can see the LED is connected to the sensor output. Though the sensors could be interfering with each other optically, I suspect you have a power problem. Since you are concerned about power, too, why did you not provide some details about your power supply? Also, if the problem appears with two units, let’s just focus on that. I don’t understand your drawing; can you attach a picture of your setup with two sensors? You might just need to add some caps across the power supply at each sensor.

- Jan