OctosonarX2 - connect 16 x HC-SR04 to Arduino

Name: OctosonarX2 - connect 16 x HC-SR04 to Arduino
SKU: 10614
Price: 24.95 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.44 (4 reviews)

(4 Reviews)

Connect multiple HC-SR04 ultrasonic range sensors to an Arduino with I2C bus and one pin

Designed by Red Hunter in United States of America

OctosonarX2 - connect 16 x HC-SR04 to Arduino 1

OctosonarX2 - connect 16 x HC-SR04 to Arduino 2

OctosonarX2 - connect 16 x HC-SR04 to Arduino 3

OctosonarX2 - connect 16 x HC-SR04 to Arduino 4

OctosonarX2 - connect 16 x HC-SR04 to Arduino 5

OctosonarX2 - connect 16 x HC-SR04 to Arduino 6

2017-10-01T18:16:52.138Z-octosonarX2_1_0_0.jpg

2017-10-20T18:29:26.545Z-octosonarX2-12pack.jpg

2017-10-01T18:16:52.138Z-octosonarx2_1_0_0_kit.jpg

2017-10-01T18:16:52.138Z-octosonarx2_1_0_0_back.jpg

2017-10-01T18:16:52.138Z-octsonarx2_testjig.jpg

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Connect multiple HC-SR04 ultrasonic range sensors to an Arduino with I2C bus and one pin

What is it? This module - and the associated library - allow you to connect up to 16 HC-SR04 ultrasonic range sensors to an Arduino using the I2C bus and one hardware interrupt pin. NOTICE 3/25/2021:…

What is it?

This module - and the associated library - allow you to connect up to 16 HC-SR04 ultrasonic range sensors to an Arduino using the I2C bus and one hardware interrupt pin.

NOTICE 3/25/2021: Apparently not compatible with SAMD21 based Arduinos - output is flaky on these controllers. This is probably fixable in the library as it appears to be related to timing calculations not to do with the hardware. I'm investigating.

Why did you make it?

I wanted more sensors on my robot to help it navigate. I'm too cheap to buy a mega board with enough pins or smarter sensors that need less pins. My initial board supported 8 sensors which I placed around the robot, two on each of the four sides to allow the measurement of the alignment to the maze wall without moving. This left blind spots at the corners - which called for more sensors. As they make a 16 pin version of the chip, I figured: why not?

What makes it special?

The library handles all the timing, and the hardware interrupts provide surprisingly high accuracy. Each unit is individually tested using an Arduino test-bed and ships with separate pin headers. 12 sensors can be supported with 8 four-pin wires in combination with my Trimount brackets by plugging them in at right angles.

Notes:

I2C address is set to 0x20. This can be changed via solder jumpers.
Includes locations for I2C pullup resistors if you need them
separate 5V power pin for HC-SR04 sensors, provides for 5V and 3.3V controllers
support for 5V and 3.3V Arduinos.
electronically compatible with Raspberry Pi. This is not supported in software yet, feel free to help at https://github.com/arielnh56/SonarI2C-RPi
works well with all brands of HC-SR04 I can find - *including the dodgy ones that lock up when they get no echo. *

I am stocking some of the sensors and cables too, so you can get them at the same time. These are batch tested to verify that they are not the type with the echo-lock problem. See this thread on the Arduino forum

Please check out the Hackaday documentation and the github library for more info.

Base Package Includes:

one OctosonarX2 board
2 x 40-pin header strips

Robot pack includes the base pack plus:

12 sensors
8 cables (8 cables can drive 12 sensors - see pictures)
4 trimount brackets with standoffs
1 x 40-pin header strip
save on shipping - counts as one item for shipping calculation

A reviewer noted that the wiring for the trimount brackets is poorly documented. This is true! I will try to do better. In the mean time - the video below has the best available explanation at around 3:55

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Quantity	Price
1-4	$24.95
5+	$16.95

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.75)

Documentation: (3.00)

Shipping: (5.00)

Communication: (5.00)

Jeff | Dec. 3, 2019

Great idea and works perfectly

We are building a large robot for commercial demonstration purposes and needed a way to rapidly get from idea to prototype and as such have been looking for turn-key time savers and stumbled on the Octosonar x2. We have purchased the full kit and after a little start and stop in the "how do we connect it?" department everything is now working great. Very well built and the idea is very straight forward.

Lessons learned.. watch the video on YouTube (several times) and you will figure out that you only need the center rows of pins soldered and connected and not the outer ones. Look closely at the cables in the video and you will note that only two per corner board. We did not see this and wondered why we had been shorted on headers and cables. There is nothing printed and not so much in the way of a manual so be prepared to be a little self sufficient in this regard. It all became clear after a little messing about and now works perfectly.

For any that may be curious, we are using the Octosonar x2 as the front half sensors to compliment the Lidar and standard HC-SR04 for the sides and rear. All of this goes back to one dedicated Arduino.

We are very pleased and will soon be purchasing a second set as spare and plan for using it on our next design as well.

Well done creator!

Response from Red Hunter | Dec. 4, 2019

Thanks for the feedback, I'll try and make up a clear diagram for the connections to reduce the head-scratching!

Exalon | March 5, 2019

Neat product

Great for deploying auto sensing bot. It took longer than expected getting them to work on RPi (not enough guidances out there for new starter) with fastest response time, but easier on Arduino.

William | April 12, 2018

Works as advertised first try

I used this product to add obstacle avoidance to a chassis with skid steering.

Everything worked first try with no troubleshooting needed.

I had to intuit how to put it together from the parts photos but it wasn't hard. Assembly involved a bunch of soldering - if you're slow like me plan about an hour.

Getting the sensors at the right angles was tricky, most of mine are ~5 degrees above or below the horizon line. Did not appear to affect navigation. Mounted easily to actobotics pattern plate.

After setup you will need to manually identify the sensors one by one to know how to address them.

The refresh rate for the setup seems pretty slow, maybe 250ms? This is my first use of ultrasonics so maybe that's expected. Practically speaking it makes it tricky to do something like smoothly slow based on distance, you'll have to use sampling and interpolation to get an effect like that. The readings are quite consistent and stable.

The actual layout of the sensors, with 2 per Cardinal direction and 1 per diagonal, is not ideal for a larger bot - mine is 10" wide and a dead center table leg results in a collision. I plan on reconfiguring mine to rotate the front sensor clusters so that the center sensor in each cluster points forward, and the others point 45 degrees off of center, creating a protective triangle in front of the bot for emergency braking when it sees a table leg etc.

Overall I'm pleased with the kit for it's price and found it well designed. I would recommend it for a chassis that needs emergency braking capability in multiple directions. To use it for navigation/mapping shouldnt be super hard if you have the necescesary feedback about movement and rotation. I would not recommend this kit for bots intended to move faster than 0.5 m/s.

Roger | Oct. 16, 2017