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Looking for potential Sensor Identification software

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Tom Aims
(@tom-aims)
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A friend, knowing my interest in "Arduino electronics", came across a box of numerous sensors at a flea market sale. They were scattered and not organized or labeled. Is there any software or electronic way to determine what these sensors are or any details about them? I took some picture and tried to search the internet, this was minimally successful, but very time consuming.  Any ideas about determining what these sensors are?

Tom


   
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GaryWeliver
(@garyweliver)
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Tom, yes everything that is a bargain I have found comes at a price. I do a lot of searching what "it is I have found", and yes I concur it is time consuming! I have not found an easier way, but look for numbers of relevance and search, alldata is a good source for data sheets, sometimes I search for a particular number on a component and search for data sheet, then within the data sheet sometimes they give list of what the component is used for or the device, rather?

hope this helps


   
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Robo Pi
(@robo-pi)
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Posted by: @tom-aims

I took some picture

Try posting your pictures in this thread.   Maybe someone will recognize something.   Also if you can make out any of the numbers on any chips on the modules be sure to type those in nice and clear as well.

DroneBot Workshop Robotics Engineer
James


   
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(@dronebot-workshop)
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Posted by: @robo-pi

Try posting your pictures in this thread.   Maybe someone will recognize something.   Also if you can make out any of the numbers on any chips on the modules be sure to type those in nice and clear as well

Exactly what Robo-Pi said - post the pictures here.  It sounds like it might be fun to try and identify them.

Do any of your mystery sensors have the letters "KY" in the part numbers stamped on them (assuming that they have numbers stamped on them, of course)?  The popular "37-sensors" kits use those numbers, and there is a wiki that identifies most of them.

Let's see those sensors!

?

Bill

"Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window." — Steve Wozniak


   
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Tom Aims
(@tom-aims)
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Topic starter  

Thanks for the input, yes bargains, especially free, come with baggage or hidden costs. I will do try and dribble the items pictures - there are about 100. Some have numbers on the board some are worn away, some are non existent.  But I will include what I can. Wouldn't it be nice if some ID  type software existed that scanned the component and gave relevant data about it? Surely databases exsist that catalogue all these items. Again I appreciate the input.


   
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Robo Pi
(@robo-pi)
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Posted by: @tom-aims

Wouldn't it be nice if some ID  type software existed that scanned the component and gave relevant data about it?

You would need more than just software.  You would also need a physical interface that connects I/O to all the pins.

There's also the huge problem that not all modules and chips use the same power and ground pins, etc.  Nor do they all use the same power requirements.

So it would be next to impossible to design a software and interface connection that could just identify anything you might hook up to it randomly.   How could it make any discoveries without powering the chips or modules up?   And it wouldn't even be able to determine how to do that.

I think you could design software and an interface to determine certain families of chips where you already know the power and ground requirements, and you also have some clue about how that particular family of chips is  typically designed.

But to expect software to just guess at all this stuff without having any clue as to what it's connected to would be virtually impossible as far as I can see.   Not even knowing what the power and ground requirements are would also be a game stopper.

In fact, if you could write a program that could determine which are the power and ground pins and how much power is expected (usually 3.3 or 5 volts).  That would certainly be a start.  You can often find the ground pin yourself by checking which pin is connected to an obvious ground.  You might even be able to determine which pin is the VCC pin.  But even then is it looking for 3.3 volts?  Or 5 volts?

And then once you get into data pins there's all manner of questions:

Are they Input pins?  Output pins?   I/O pins?

Are there an I2C address pins?

Does the chip take command codes?  If so what are they?

I wouldn't want to  have to write a program that tries to figure all that stuff out from total scratch.

If I had to do that to save my life my time would  be better spent carving out the granite headstone for my grave.  That's how confident I am that I couldn't do it. ?

Posted by: @tom-aims

Surely databases exsist that catalogue all these items.

There are databases that catalogue all this stuff.  But you need to have the numbers off the chips in order to use the database.   Even a database is going to want some numbers.

DroneBot Workshop Robotics Engineer
James


   
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(@dronebot-workshop)
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Posted by: @tom-aims

I will do try and dribble the items pictures - there are about 100.

A hundred unidentified sensors? Sounds like you have a great winter project ahead of you!

I assuming (or hoping) that you can at least identify what most of the sensors are supposed to do?  So you could divide them into categories, ie. light-sensing, sound-sensing, temperature-sensing, etc. 

In my teenage years there used to be a great electronics surplus store downtown that sold these "surprise boxes" for a couple of bucks.  You took your chances and never knew what parts you'd get in the box. I must have bought dozens of those, I picked one up every time I took the trip down to visit them.  I got some great stuff, as well as some bizarre parts that I never could use. But it was worth it for the fun I had!

Looking forward to seeing the first entry in the "name that sensor" contest!

"Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window." — Steve Wozniak


   
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(@dronebot-workshop)
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Posted by: @robo-pi

If I had to do that to save my life my time would  be better spent carving out the granite headstone for my grave

You could probably just 3D print that!

?

"Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window." — Steve Wozniak


   
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Spyder
(@spyder)
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@tom-aims

I found this to identify a bunch of I2C devices

https://learn.adafruit.com/i2c-addresses/the-list

Not sure how much it helps since, even if they are I2C, how would you know which pins to connect ?


   
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(@freddie43)
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@tom-aims

I hit a similar problem when I bought one of those cheap '37 in 1 sensor module kits' for my grandson.

It arrived with no documentation (I said it was cheap!), so I was greatly helped by the crib sheet at https://rydepier.wordpress.com/2015/06/13/list-of-keyes-boardssensors-for-arduino/

There are other similar sites, but 'Keyes' is a useful keyword to search for.

This post was modified 4 years ago by Freddie43

   
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(@pugwash)
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This one is dead easy!!

IMG 4241

It's an Elegoo Incontinence Detector! ? ? ? 


   
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Cap Electronics
(@cap-electronics)
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try looking for part numbers and see if you can find data sheets. it probably will still be time consuming but you might be more successful on identifying the type of sensors you have.


   
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TKBTheLegend
(@tkb)
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great idea!!


   
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