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Home | Product Categories | Flex / Force | SEN-08606

Flex Sensor 4.5"

sku: SEN-08606 RoHS Compliant In Fritzing Library

Description: A simple flex sensor 4.5" in length. As the sensor is flexed, the resistance across the sensor increases. Patented technology by Spectra Symbol - they claim these sensors were used in the original Nintendo Power Glove. I love the Nintendo Power Glove. It's so bad!

The resistance of the flex sensor changes when the metal pads are on the outside of the bend (text on inside of bend).

Connector is 0.1" spaced and bread board friendly.  Check datasheet for full specifications.

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In stock

12.95
11.66
10.36

359 in stock

price
10-99
100+



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images are CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

ASCII version


Comments 17 comments

  • Ookseer | about 2 years ago 2

    Take care how you mount these in your project.
    I was really surprised when I had two of these fail after only about 700 flexings. Looking at the failed sensors I noticed what I would call a design flaw. Most of the sensor has a thick plastic backing which helps keep it from bending too far/sharply to cause damage. However the reinforcing strip ends abruptly about 2mm before the connectors and the remaining material will easily bend far enough to destroy the sensor. (If you look closely at the back product shot you can see where the strip ends.)
    After applying strain relief to the connection area (gluing a couple of thick pieces of plastic across it) the life of the sensor has been dramatically improved.

  • Headbonk | about 4 years ago 1

    Here’s some shots of an interesting use of these things for contact detection on a robot over at Hacked Gadgets:
    http://hackedgadgets.com/2008/04/13/map-bot-floor-mapping-robot/

  • Exonerd | about 2 years ago 1

    Bravo on the “Wizard” reference. Lucas would be pleased… :)

  • Rob R. | about 2 years ago 1

    Any idea where to get the connectors for these?
    Thanks.
    — Rob

    • Nate | about 2 years ago 1

      The pins are 0.1" spaced so it’ll plug into a breadboard, or any of the female connectors or jumper wires. I’ll get them into the related items list.

  • Alex V, | about 2 years ago 1

    These things are terrible. Absolutely terrible. I bought two a week ago to add to an e-textile project, and before I could finish, both the sensors decide that they only like to work when the “unprotected” end where the pins are is at a certain position. For sensors that are meant to be used with a lot of motion, these things are poorly designed. VERY POORLY DESIGNED.

    • RobertC. | about 2 years ago 1

      Sorry to hear that. Email techsupport@sparkfun.com if you need help with them. They should be more stable than that, although the pins can be finicky.

    • St.Eligius | about a year ago 1

      See the comments here: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10264
      It’s all about strain relief.
      I hate to say it but perhaps components that move or that are physically manipulated by the end user should have a disclaimer about needing proper strain relief.

  • WheelerSounds | about 2 years ago 1

    The datasheet link is broken. :(

  • yror10 | about a year ago 1

    when are these back in stock??

  • Member #44928 | about a year ago 1

    I want to like these… but they definitely are not designed that well. My biggest problem is that I need to re-calibrate them after a couple weeks of use. The resistance seems to change and it effects the way my projects work. I will try to strengthen the weak joint and maybe that will help.

  • BrandonB | last year 1

    I bought one of these and I am struggling to get a decent range of values from straight to fully bent. The range difference from max value to min value is about 50 on a scale of 0 to 1023. I have tried anything from a 10k Ohm pull-down to a 390k Ohm pull-down resistor and the resistor values only change where the min and max values are within the range of 0 to 1023 while the difference between the min and max values never deviates much from 50. Is there a way to get these sensors to output a range from 0 to 1023 or is this just the nature of the device?

    • alfmar | last year 1

      This is quite a nice toy. Some 10kOhm when not flexed, going up to some 18k when bent at 90 degrees, and some 24-25k when at 180 degrees.
      Flexing in the opposite direction shows less effect (down to some 9.4k). Apparently it can show far more than 50 different resistance values.

  • Funda | about 11 months ago 1

    The schematic in the datasheet is wrong. it should say “Vout = Vin * (R2 / (R1 + R2))”. not “(R1 / (R1 + R2))”.

  • Member #123542 | about 10 months ago 1

    this items is absolutely unreliable, it’s I just waste 8 sensor after sometime using it. It’s just worth about 100 flex?

  • kurt_ek | about 4 months ago 1

    i installed three of these and their resistance (laying flat) changed from 10k to 40k in just a few weeks. I’m not sure if it was due to temperature issues or i damaged the small unprotected part…
    I’m installing new ones, but I’m using the plastic part of the old ones to reinforce them :) just an idea i had and wanted to share :)