Hello,
I want to build an automatic soap dispenser. I already tried those cheap IR sensors (see below) they work fine but only when there is no sun.
Sunlight triggers it. Are there some other cheap alternatives that have a short-range 5-10cm but also work in daylight?
Thanks!
There are some things you can do to deal with sunlight:
- put a (long) tube on top of the LEDS. So that the only valid path of light is from the sender to the receiver.
- send a known pattern via the sender, and only react when that known pattern is broken.
These low cost PIRPIR sensors work well:
The soap dispenser that I have here, sold by LIDL, has the receiver part at the top location, facing downward inside a tunnel, while the emitting led is at the bottom facing up. This way, there is very little ambient light coming towards the sensor.
You simply have to place your hand in that angled beam and the soap is pumped up.
So the first thing that I would try with the "cheap" version is to separate emitter and receiver to create a real barrier, not a reflection based sensor.
