Comments: Piezo Vibration Sensor Hookup Guide
Looking for answers to technical questions?
We welcome your comments and suggestions below. However, if you are looking for solutions to technical questions please see our Technical Assistance page.
If you've found an issue with this tutorial content, please send us your feedback!
Could you explain the theory behind putting the resistor in parallel with the sensor to reduce the voltage? I did some testing with the circuit with smaller and larger resistor values, and it seems that when you increase the resistance, the measured voltage on the Arduino's pins increases, and when you decrease the resistance, the measured voltage is decreased. This would seem to mean that the piezo is acting like a really large resistor and the resistor in parallel is actually making the circuit a voltage divider, where the arduino is measuring the voltage across the resistor. But if that's the case, why not use a larger resistor and measure the voltage across the sensor instead?
Unfortunately, that is a tutorial in itself. However, here are some resources on that topic to get you pointed in the right direction:
I was wondering if there was a modification to have the piezo vibration sensor away from the breadboard? I'm trying to create a vibration sensor that could be placed on the body with medical tape...with it being attached to the breadboard, that doesn't seem possible. I'm a newbie to Arduino...any advice would be appreciated!
I am trying to site this article as a source for a report and I need the author's last name and date it was published, if that information is possible. Thanks so much.
Looks like it was posted 5/5/16 and written by Jim Lindblom.