Introduction to Arduino Sensor Shield

Hi Guys! Hope you’re well today. I welcome you on board. Happy to see you around. In this post today, I’ll detail the Introduction to Arduino Sensor Shield.

Arduino Sensor Shield is a board compatible with the Arduino Boards and comes with the standard header layout. It is used to connect sensors, servos, LCD with the Arduino board without soldering. This board is connected with the Arduino Board using the jumper wires.

I suggest you read this post all the way through as I’ll be discussing the complete Introduction to Arduino Sensor Shield.

Let’s get started.

Introduction to Arduino Sensor Shield

• Arduino Sensor Shield is a board used to connect sensors, servos, LCD with the Arduino Board without the requirement of soldering.
• Using Arduino Board separately you’ll find a few of 5V and GND connections. Arduino Sensor Shield gives you the ability of dedicated one 5V and GND connection for every Arduino signal pin.

• Arduino.cc introduced the two versions of Arduino Sensor Shield i.e. V4 the old one and V5 the newer one. Both boards come with similar important connections, however, they appear different.

• The V5 latest sensor shield comes with an external power connector, helping you get rid of the overloading of the Arduino board while working with too many actuators and sensors.
• The 3-way male pin header is used to connect servo motors with the Arduino Board. This is a plug and play device. You can read data from the sensors connected with the shield and use it to drive servo motors with the Arduino boards.

1. Pins Distribution

Pins on the Sensor Shield are distributed into two main categories:

a: Digital Pins

b: Analog Pins

a. Digital Pins

Digital pins on the board are placed in the pack of three.

• Where top pin represents GND (0V)

• The middle pin represents Vcc (5V)
• The bottom pin represents Signal (Arduino Digital Signal Pin No.)

The following figure shows the numbering of digital pins that are arranged from right to left on the board.

The Digital Pins are configured from the following Arduino Language Instruction:

• digitalWrite (Pin4,1);

And for reading following Arduino Language Instruction is used:

• digitalRead(Pin4)

b. Analog Pins

The following figure shows the arrangement of Analog Pins that are sequenced from left to right.

• Similar to digital pins, analog pins are also arranged in the pack of three.
• Where the top one is GND (0V)
• The middle one is Vcc (5V)
• The bottom one is Signal (Arduino Analog Signal Pin No.)

2. Arduino Sensor Shield V5 Features

The following are the features of Arduino Sensor Shield V5.

• The Arduino Sensor Shield V5.0 is used to connect sensors, servos, buttons, relays, and potentiometers with the Arduino Board.
  Incorporates IIC interface
• Comes with RB URF v1.1 ultrasonic sensors interface
• It is compatible with Arduino UNO and Mega Boards

• Contains Bluetooth module communication interface
• Carries SD card module communication interface
• Contains APC220 wireless RF module communication interface
• Carries 32 servo controller interface
• Contains 128 x 64 LCD parallel interface

3. Connecting Sensors and Output Devices

When it comes to connecting the sensor shield with sensors and output devices, power pins must be connected the right way as follows

• G goes to 0V or G or Gnd or GND on the sensor
• V goes to 5V or V or Vcc or VCC on the sensor

• S goes to the signal pin – IN or OUT
• Some output-devices and sensors come with 2 signal pins (or more) with two or more 0V & +5V.
• In that case pick one of the signal pins to connect the Signal, 0V, and +5V with the S, G, and V pins on the sensor shield and choose the S pins on another port for establishing the other signal connections.

4. Photo-Resistor Sensor

Some sensors like 4-wire Photo-resistor Sensor comes with 2 wires for power, as above, but carry two signal pins, one is marked as “DO” and another is marked as “A0” This is the same signal available in two versions.

a. Analog Signal

• The AO is an analog signal that represents the light level where 0V shows the maximum light level and 5V shows the dark light.
• analogRead instruction is used to read this signal and is commonly connected to the analog input of the sensor shield.
• The A0 analog signal is read as 1023 for dark light and 0 for maximum light.

b. Digital Signal

• The DO is a digital signal that represents the light level and is available in two different states i.e. logic low (0V) and logic high (5V)
• The variable resistor available on the sensor module is used to set the switchover level. This digital signal is commonly connected to the digital input on the sensor shield.
• The digitalRead instruction is used to read this signal where 1 represents the dark and 0 represents the light.

That’s all for today. I hope you find this read helpful. If you have any questions you can ask me in the section below. I’d love to help you the best way I can. Feel free to keep us updated with your valuable feedback and suggestions, they help us create quality content customized to your exact needs and requirements. Thank you for reading the article.

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