how to use a Flex Sensor

Flex Resistor

In this "How to" tutorial you will learn how to use a flex sensor with Arduino uno.
A flex sensor uses carbon on a strip of plastic to act like a variable resistor. The resistance changes by flexing the component.
The sensor bends in one direction, the more it bends, the higher the resistance gets.
In this example we will use a flex sensor to fade an led.

What you will need - Hardware

For this tutorial you will need: Arduino uno Breadboard Flex Sensor Led 10KOhm & 220 Ohm resistors

The Circuit

The connections are pretty easy, see the image above with the breadboard circuit schematic.

The code ::

Here's the code,!A flex sensor has a range from about ~10K to ~35K, that means it won't give us a full 0-5 volt range (or 0-1023 analog value). Try to use the serial monitor below to find out what analog value you will take while you bending the sensor. It supposed to be between 700 to 900.

How it works:
Read analog value from flex sensor
-> value=analogRead(flexPin);
Map analog values 700-900 to pwm values 0-255
-> value = map(value, 700, 900, 0, 255);
Send pwm value to led
-> analogWrite(ledPin, value);

********************************************************************

/* How to use a flex sensor/resistro - Arduino Tutorial

   Fade an LED with a flex sensor

 */

//Constants:

const int ledPin = 3;   //pin 3 has PWM funtion

const int flexPin = A0; //pin A0 to read analog input

//Variables:

int value; //save analog value

void setup(){

  

  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);  //Set pin 3 as 'output'

  Serial.begin(9600);       //Begin serial communication

}

void loop(){

  

  value = analogRead(flexPin);         //Read and save analog value from potentiometer

  Serial.println(value);               //Print value

  value = map(value, 700, 900, 0, 255);//Map value 0-1023 to 0-255 (PWM)

  analogWrite(ledPin, value);          //Send PWM value to led

  delay(100);                          //Small delay

  

}

********************************************************************

Well done!

You have successfully completed one more Arduino "How to" tutorial and you learned how to use a flex sensor with Arduino. I hope you liked this, let me know in the comments.

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