Sorry for the headspin there, we reserve a dedicated thread for product questions related to each product on our site. The last 13 days of posting on the thread for the mmWave Radar - Human Presence Detection SKU: SEN0395 had actually been questions about a very similar product which is the Gravity: Microwave Sensor (Motion Detection) SKU: SEN0192
So that latecomers to the thread don’t get mixed up about which sensor is actually being discussed I’ve moved the chat about the part with SKU SEN0192 to the thread for SEN0192.
If you notice a discussion is off-topic to a particular thread in the future and think it would be better moved elsewhere you can always tag me with @Trent5487676 in the thread.
To be effective as a motion detector or radar the device must continually be transmitting pulses. I don’t know (read haven’t looked) if this device is “pulse echo” or “doppler”. But if pulse echo you will get a response from a target at every transmitted pulse which should be timed to maximum range to allow any echo to be able to return before the next pulse is transmitted. Doppler on the other hand will only produce output when the target is moving to or from the origin. If the target is moving at the time of observation multiple outputs will occur at the transmitted pulse PRF.
As said I have not looked into the operation of this device so don’t even know if this sort of information is available, probably not. Study of sample sketches may provide a clue. If there are any sort of TOF calculations required to measure distance the bet would be pulse echo or if not could be either and all the processing carried out on the breakout unit as a whole.
Cheers Bob
I copied this from another thread where your last post resided and I replied. Somehow the post and reply did not transfer together. I now have the reply on both threads.
I note that THIS device DOES specify Doppler operation (where the other one doesn’t).
Hi Michael, Trent & Bob,
Thank you all for you responses. I first would like to make clear my expertise is not electronics, professionally I am the software side. I understand from your response I need to drop the voltage from the sensor(5v) to the Pico’s 3.3v. To do that you said a voltage divider is required. I read the articles that you and mentioned. The article How to Choose the Right Resistor mentions using a logic level convertor. I happen to have a logic level converter could this be used instead of the voltage divider, which frankly I find confusing.
Yep! A logic level converter is usually bidirectional, and a voltage divider is only one way, so an LLC is a superset of a voltage divider in functionality.
