A111 Pulsed Radar Sensor to USB cable

Support Product Questions
1

Hi,
Very new to this scene and looking to implement an idea I have had for a while. I am wondering if anyone could provide me help on what I need to purchase to connect the A111 Pulsed Radar Sensor to a USB cable so I can do all testing / dev on a laptop or is this not possible?

Sorry if this is simplistic I am coming from a low base (be kind)

Thanks in advance.

1 Like
2

Welcome to the forum Justin!

I don’t think its possible without a lot of work, I think your best bet would be to pick up a Pi and use the libraries for the module.
The sensor itself outputs via SPI or I2C, I haven’t come across direct translators for the two protocols to USB.

What were you looking to do with the sensor?

3

I am looking to measure the speed of an object running through a gate (this is small scale like a remote-controlled car), there will be other sensors and cameras added in time but speed capture is the most critical feature.
The reason for USB was to connect to the laptop as the power source, For the raspberry pi I would need some sort of external battery I guess? I had a Dell USBC power pack that could be used. That is an out loud question :slight_smile:

I also appreciate the response

4

Hey Justin,

If that’s what you are hoping to achieve, I think the better option would be using 2 separate sensors at a distance from each other to measure the time between the object passing sensor 1 and sensor 2, this can mean with a known distance between sensors, you could simplify the measurement into speed. This may even be able to be done using an Arduino or other microcontroller making it much easier to interface it with a laptop for portability.

Cheers,
Blayden

5

Thank you again.

It needs to be front on and the object coming towards it.

I will go down the RPi path and try using the Dell battery pack which is rated 65w so should be able to run for a little bit of time.

6

Hey Justin,

I think you are on the right track then with that module and the Raspberry Pi.
Best of luck with the project, let us know how it all goes.

Cheers,
Blayden