In this session, we'll talk about sensors and time. First, a little about the nature of sensors and how they connect to microcontrollers these days. I'll review the SPI and I2C protocols that are common to many sensors today, and give you some background on how Arduino libraries are written for them. Second, we'll talk a little about timekeeping on microcontrollers and on the internet. If there's time left, we'll also look at some useful optional techniques, like putting your microcontroller to sleep when it's not doing anything, or writing to an SD card.

Resource Links:

• Sensors - the Basics
• Sensor change detection
• APDS9960 Color/gesture/proximity sensor
• IR Temperature sensor
• Rotary Encoder
• Accelerometers, Gyros, and IMUs- the Basics
• IMU from Nano 33 IoT
• Distance Sensors - The Basics
• Ultrasonic Distance Sensor
• Tangible Interaction Sensor Reports
• A list of recommended sensors on Octopart
• my Sensor Examples repository
• A list of light sensors, detailed by Noah Pivnick
• How to Pick a Library

Since most of my work these days is with light sensors, most of the examples will use sensors for color and light.

For this session I'll be using the Nano 33 IoT mentioned in my other sessions, which is my main tool these days. There's an intro to its features on the ITP physical computing site.