View source for ADC Interface with Ultrasonic Proximity Sensor

== Overview ==

The LV-MaxSonar-EZ0 ultrasonic sensor interfaces with your microcontroller using an ADC
interface. The microcontroller on your development board is equipped with an analog-to-digital 
converter. This converts an analog signal (continuous voltage that varies over time) into 
corresponding digital values (discrete integers that approximate the input voltage). For example, 
let’s say that a 12-bit ADC operates on 3.3V, which is the case for your SJSU One development 
board. This means that a voltage range between 0V and 3.3V can be divided into 2<sup>12</sup>
or 4096 discrete steps. If the ADC is returning an integer value of 2048, you can calculate that a sensor 
connected to the ADC is outputting a voltage of 1.65 volts.

== Pin Connections ==

The ultrasonic sensor has 7 pins. We will connect 3 of them to your board:
# Use a red wire to connect Pin “+5” on the sensor to Pin “3.3V” on your board. 
# Use a black wire to connect Pin “GND” on the sensor to Pin “Gnd” on your board.
# Use another color wire to connect Pin “AN” on the sensor to Pin “A0-4” on your board.

== Source Code Description ==

Add <font size = 3><code>#include “adc0.h”</code></font> to the top of your main.c. This gives you access to the ADC 
functions.

Your microcontroller has 80 pins but many more features. Therefore, one pin can do many 
different things. We will need to tell it to internally connect pin P1.30 to the ADC 
hardware as opposed to some other hardware. To do this we will need to write the 
appropriate value to a Pin Select Register:

<font size = 3><code>LPC_PINCON->PINSEL3 |= (3 << 28);</code></font>

Now, you can read values from the ADC with a call to:

<font size = 3><code>adc0_get_reading(4);</code></font>

The “4” represents that we are reading values from ADC channel 4. Your board has multiple 
ADC channels. For example, the light sensor is connected to channel 2, so we can’t use 
that one.

== Sample Code ==
<font size = 3>
<syntaxhighlight lang = "c">
#include “adc0.h”

int main(void)
{
    int reading = 0;

    // Initialization :
    LPC_PINCON->PINSEL3 |=  (3 << 28); // ADC-4 is on P1.30, select this as ADC0.4

    while(1) {
        reading = adc0_get_reading(4); // Read current value of ADC-4
        printf("\nADC Reading: %d", reading);        
        delay_ms(1000);
    }

    return 0;
}
</syntaxhighlight>
</font>

== Remaining Work ==

Your job is to turn the integer values you receive from ADC into numbers that are more 
useful. Do this by converting the ADC value into a voltage value. Next, convert the 
voltage value into a distance measurement value. The conversion rate needed to convert 
voltage to inches/centimeters is in the sensor data sheet, which I will leave for you to 
find. 

== Adding a second ADC type sensor == 

It is possible to connect a second sensor that uses ADC to your board using ADC Channel 
5. This will require a different pin select code so ask a TA for assistance.