misc sensors
AirMar Aug 28,2003
Airmar - submersible and waterproof transducers...
Analog Aug 28,2003
Analog Devices - Accelerometers, Digital Potentiometers, and many other electronic components.... Their ADXL202 and ADXL210 accelerometers are staples of the sensor world.
Bill Buxton's Input Directory Sep 13,2003
Bill Buxton's Directory of Input sources & devices - exhaustive list of ways to make the computer listen to people.
Brainfingers Aug 29,2003
Brainfingers - brain-activated screen control...
Clarostat Aug 28,2003
Clarostat - many resistive sensors, including 360-degree potentiometers.
Comus International Sensors Aug 29,2003
Comus makes relays, pushbuttons, switches, tilt switches, and more,...
DIY Touchpanels May 13,2006
Sasha Harris-Cronin gave a talk at O'Reilly's Maker Faire on DIY touchpanels. Her notes are online here.
Fascinating Electronics Nov 20,2004
Fascinating Electronics is a good source for anemometers, wind direction gauges, and other weather instruments.
Figaro Sensor Oct 21,2004
Figaro makes gas sensors of all kinds: Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) sensors for alcohol and organic compounds; combustible gas sensors; carbon monoxide sensors; and more.
Flexiforce Aug 29,2003
Tekscan/Flexiforce - more force-sensitive resistors...
Flexpoint Aug 29,2003
Flexpoint - Resistive flex sensor manufacturer...
HVW Technologies Aug 28,2003
HVW Technologies - Robotics sensors and motors, kits, and books. They carry some simple RF modules, and some nice accelerometers and FSR's, among other things.
Hacking Lego Mindstorms Aug 29,2003
Lego Mindstorms - using and hacking their sensors...
Happ Controls Aug 28,2003
Joysticks, Trackballs, etc. Their controls and input devices are very solid and very reliable. They also sell vending machine parts, coin switches, and so forth.
Heart Rate Monitor Circuit Nov 20,2004
Here's a heart rate monitor circuit built from an operational amplifier. Picotech also lists some other useful science experiments, which include a number of sensor circuits for biology, physics, and more.
IBVA Aug 29,2003
IBVA - a brain-activated controller...
Images Co. Aug 28,2003
Images Co. - They make Air muscles and more.
Interfacing Piezo Film to Electronics Jul 31,2005
Some good notes on using piezos as sensors. Thanks to Jamie Allen for the link.
Interlink Aug 29,2003
Interlink Electronics - They also make FSR's, but you'll have a hard time getting them to admit it.
Junun Robot Store Aug 29,2003
Junun Robot Store has many useful sensors and components for robots and non-robotic sensor applications. And they're inexpensive.
Low-Cost Sensing and Communication Using Bi-directional LEDs Oct 14,2004
This technical paper from Mitsubishi explains how LEDs can be used as input devices, to sense the light from other LEDs. It's not for the beginner, but it's a straightforward read for those who understand electronics and microprocessors, and it details a useful sensing technique that's cheap.
Mondotronics Robot Store Aug 28,2003
Mondotronics - lots of robotics kits; makers and distributors of muscle wire. Motors too.
Mouser Electronics Aug 28,2003
Mouser Electronics - Yet Another Electronic Component Manufacturer.
Non-Mercury Tilt Switch Feb 4,2007
Non-mercury tilt switches are handy for reading when motion's passed a threshold (and much cheaper than accelerometers), but sometimes hard to find. Here's one Hatti Lim found.
Piezo Sensors Aug 29,2003
Measurement Specialists, Inc. - They make piezoelectric sensors, which Digikey sells.
Polar Heart Monitors Jul 31,2005
Polar makes a number of health-related sensor products, including this OEM heart monitor kit. It gives nice readings of heart rate non-invasively and wirelessly.
Pololu Oct 4,2003
Pololu sells parts and electronics for robots, many of which are useful in physical computing. They have some nice motor control boards, gearboxes, and circuit boards.
Potentiometer Tutorial Sep 14,2003
A nice tutorial on potentiometers, explaining the difference between linear pots and logarithmic pots. Thanks to Scott Wolynski for the link.
Pressure Profile Systems Feb 25,2004
Presure Profile Systems makes pressure and force-sensitive resistors of many types, including fingertip-sixed FSR's, like the C500. Thanks to Liz Goodman for the link.
Quantum Touch Sensors Aug 29,2003
Quantum QT60320 Series Matrix IC See the rest of Quantum's sensors as well. They make some great touch and proximity sensors that are cheap and easy to use, especially the QT11x series.
Rechner Capacitive Sensors Aug 29,2003
DC Capacitive Proximity Sensors See also their Home Page...
Sensor Info Aug 29,2003
All kinds of sensor info...
Sensors in Pure Data Jan 23,2005
Ian Smith-Heisters wrote some excellent notes as an extension to our Physical Computing book for people interested in programming PIC microcontrollers in assembly and interfacing them with Miller Puckette's Pure Data (PD). Thanks to Ian and Dan O'Sullivan for the link.
Signal-lux Aug 28,2003
Signal-lux carries switches, pressure sensors, and other sensors.
SignalQuest Nov 20,2004
SignalQuest carries tilt sensors, 2- and 3-axis accelerometers, inclinometers, and other sensors for measuring the movement of a body to which the sensor is mounted. Thanks to Ryan Holsopple for the link.
Sil-Walker Aug 28,2003
Sil-Walker - Membrane keypads...
Solarbotics Aug 28,2003
Solarbotics - They sell parts for solar powered robots, including some good small motors, whisker switches, and more.
Steadlands Aug 29,2003
Steadlands - They make force-sensitive resistors and much more.
Stretch Sensors Aug 29,2003
Merlin Systems - makes some nice stretch sensors.
Synaptics Sep 14,2003
Synaptics - Clear Touchscreen overlays, using capacitive field sensing. Thanks to Kevin Walker for the link.
Tapeswitch Sep 14,2003
Tapeswitch - Simple floor sensors, for detecting footsteps. Controflex Under-Rug Switching Runner - this is a hard to find link within the site, but this is the cheapest sensing product.
The Laser Guy Aug 28,2003
The Laser Guy - His 12-tip Keychain lasers are popular with students of physical computing, for beam-break sensors.
The Magnet Source Sep 29,2003
The Magnet Source - An excellent source of magnet products of all sorts. Thanks to Jenny Lee for the link.
The Robot Zone Jan 21,2004
The Robot zone is yet another robotics retailer, with a good supply of servos, gearboxes, and more. Thanks to Ed Bringas for the link.
Thermometrics Nov 26,2004
Their MA series sensors are designed for body temperature sensing; in particular, the MA300 is designed to sensing temperature through skin contact. The datasheet for the MA series has a handy chart linking resistance value to temperature for the various sensors.
Touch Screen Technologies Oct 4,2003
A decent white paper on the basics of touch screen technologies. Thanks to Sasha Harris-Cronin for the link.
Touchscreens Aug 29,2003
Comparing Touchscreen Technologies...
Transistor Circuits Oct 31,2004
Kelsey Park School Electronics Club posted this in-depth but readable explanation of how transistors work. Useful if you want to understand how transistors act as current amplifiers.
VoiceDirect Aug 29,2003
VoiceDirect Speech Recognition kit - embedded speech recognition...
Zoflex conductive rubber Jun 26,2004
Zoflex is a conductive rubber material used in many force-sensing resistors.... It comes in sheet form and liquid form.