Chapter 2. Basic Sensors

Get ready to wire a few more sensors and learn a bit more theory. The circuits you will build in this chapter do not need to be programmed, which is to say, they will not use an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi. The sensor’s data will be “interpreted” by the electrical properties of each component in the circuit design.

A sensor is a physical input to a circuit. Sensors are transducers. The process of converting sensed energy into another form is called transduction. For example, a light sensor transduces luminosity into resistance.

Another type of transducer is an actuator. Rather than reacting to something in the environment, an actuator makes something happen. An actuator is a physical output of a circuit. An LED, ...

Get Getting Started with Sensors now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.