Ligne follower 4353

Hello, I use for my line follower a digital sensor 961
QTR-8RC Reflectance Sensor Array with a PICO microcontroller. Can I upgrade to 4353 with 13 sensors? Why does it consume less than the 961? How to wire it with its 2-row outputs? Thank you for the information!

Hello.

As long as you have enough free pins on your Raspberry Pi Pico, it should be fine to use the #4353 QTRX-MD-13RC Reflectance Sensor Array.

As far the current draw, the #4353 sensor array uses different sensors than the #961 QTR-RC Sensor Array; they are high-performance, low-current QTRX sensors with lenses.

I’m not entirely sure I understand your concern with how to wire it; aside from the VCC and GND connections to power the board, you would just use jumper wires to connect each sensor output on the sensor array (numbered 1-13) to the GPIO pin on the PIco that you want to use to read it. The #4353 has some additional control options for adjusting the brightness of the emitters, but that is more of an advanced option that you do not need if you just want to use the sensor.

Brandon

Thank you very much, No problem for the connection. Do not lose too much time reading the 13 sensors compared to 8 sensors? Is this a real advantage for a super fast line follower in tight turns?

The sensors are basically read in parallel, so it shouldn’t take significantly longer to read 13 sensors than it would to read 8.

With a well-tuned line follower, even 2 sensors (one located on either side of the line) could be enough to follow a line tightly; however, more sensors can give you more information. For example, if your course has sharp 90-degree turns, it is useful to have more sensors further away from the line to help detect and identify those.

Brandon