Circuit drawing

of Ultrasonic Range Meter unit

 Parts explanation
of Ultrasonic Range Meter

Case

I made the case with the acrylic board.

I made the color of the cover purple for the display of the LED to be
easy to see.
I used the transparent yellow acrylic board in the part of the bottom
for the inside be able to be seen.

You can jump to the page of making of the case when you click the photograph on the left.

Variable resistor

The propagation speed of the sound wave changes with the

temperature.
This variable resistor is used to revise the error of the display by the
change of the temperature.

Knob

This is the knob to have put to the variable resistor for the
temperature revision. I used the small one.

Sound horn
 I put the sound horn with the 5-cm length to make the ultrasonic
have the directivity.
This horn is put for the decrease of the ultrasonic which was
reflected at the thing except the measurement object and for the
prevention from transmission pulse's entering the receiver sensor.
I rolled up and made the paper. The color is OK as well as the black,
too.

I put the horn, making a hole in the front panel using the reamer. Let
out the tip of the horn about 5 mm from the front panel.

Back panel

I put the panel which wrote the name at the

back.
It is the one which was printed in the color to the OHP sheet.
I put in the white paper for the letter be able to be clearly seen.

AC adapter

This is the power supply adapter to get DC +12V from AC 100V.

The 300-mA electric current can be passed. Because the circuit this
time is less than 100 mA, it is enough. It is the cheap one. So, I think
that the inner circuit is composed of the small transformer, the rectifier and the simple ripple filter
circuit.
The one that I resolved before became like this. The output voltage in case of the no-load was to
+15V be.
At the expensive adapter, the switching regulator is used for the circuit inside. The output voltage of
this type is stable.
 Power supply connector

This is the connector to connect the AC adapter.

There are some sizes in the plug of the AC adapter. The size of the
connector and the plug must be fit. When there is not a connector
which fitted the plug, cut off the plug and change into the plug which fitted the connector.
The connection of the power supply must be careful so as not to make a mistake in the polarity with
the voltage.

LED mount

The LED for the distance display is mounted on the printed board.
However, I put the mount to have made with the acrylic board to the
printed board for the LED to be easy to see from the top of the case
and mount the LED onto it.
Of course, the lead wires of the LED are short. I soldered to the printed board using the tin plating
wire of 0.32 mm. I put on the Teflon pipe of 1 mm in the tin plating wire to prevent from lead wire's
touching. Generally, because they don't touch, the Teflon pipes are unnecessary.
The acrylic mount was put to the printed board using the glue.

Terminal cover

This is the cover which protects the connection part of the wiring.
Because the connection part is the circuit inside, it isn't touched. I used because I looked pleasant.

Leg

This is the leg to have put to the part in the bottom.

When measuring, you have the measurement equipment with the
hand and use it. These legs are to protect the case when putting the
measurement equipment.

Bench mark line

The bench mark point of the range meter is the diaphragm of the
ultrasonic sensor.
Because the sensor is housed in the case, it is difficult to confirm from outside. Therefore, I pictured
the bench mark line on the top of the case. I put the ditch with the acrylic cutter and I painted the
fluorescence paint.

Performance evaluation
of Ultrasonic Range Meter
I evaluated the efficiency of the ultrasonic range meter which was made this time.
I put the sound horn but when doing the long-range measurement, it has sometimes detected the
reflection from the object nearby.

Adjustment of the range

meter
It adjusts the display of the range
meter. Establishe the VR3 in the
middle. If making the VR3 in the
middle in case of the average
measurement environment temperature, it is possible to revise the display near the temperature.

Separate the range meter from the object by 1 m and adjust the VR2 for the display to become 1.00.
After that, the adjustment of the VR2 is unnecessary except for the case with the special temperature.

When turning the VR3 after doing above adjustment, the display changed as follows.
Dis
Condition Temperature *1
pla
of VR3 which displays 1.00
y
When finishing
0.97 3.0 °C
Counterclockwise
Middle 1.00 20.0 °C
When finishing
1.04 42.7 °C
Clockwise

*1:The maximum and the minimum are the value which was calculated from the display.

Measurement of the most short distance

When bringing the range meter close to gradually the object, display's change stopped at about 34
cm.
The circuit this time is using 0.1µF as the capacitor of the reception signal detector for the mis-
detection prevention. At less than 34-cm distance, the reception pulse is guarded with the mis-
detection prevention circuit too.
To measure the short distance more, making the sending-out time of the transmission pulse short, the
value of the capacitor for the mis-detection prevention must be made small.
But, the energy of the ultrasonic becomes little when making the sending-out time of the
transmission pulse short and it becomes not possible to do the long-range measurement.

Most long-range measurement

 The long-range measurement is difficult a little. To measure the correct distance, following condition
is necessary.

The object be perpendicular to the range meter.

The surface of the object be flat.

There is not object which reflects the ultrasonic around.

I could measure the about 8-m distance. The 10-m distance seems to be able to be measured if
arranging the condition.
When becoming the distance more than 10 m, the figure to 10 m isn't displayed because there is not
an indicator. However, as for the 3 digits below, it displays the measurement result.
Because the transmission energy isn't big, about 10 m are the measurement limit of this range meter.

Attention in case of the measurement

When measuring, the range meter and the object must

be right-angled.
When not right-angled, it sometimes measures the
distance to the object of the destination that the
ultrasonic was reflected, too.

[Menu]>[Application]>[Range Meter]

The photograph
of Ultrasonic Range Meter
Front

Top Left side

 Back

Bottom
You can jump to the page of the explanation when you click the part where the
pointer become the hand.
You can see 3D photo at "3D photograph of the ultrasonic range meter".