How to connect a PIR sensor to a microcontroller

[SevenZero]

If you are familiar with the previous article How to work with PIR sensors, you can now read on how to connect that to a microcontroller board such as Arduino.

Connecting PIR sensors to a microcontroller is really simple. The PIR acts as a digital output so all you need to do is listen for the pin to flip high (detected) or low (not detected). Its likely that you'll want reriggering, so be sure to put the jumper in the H position!

Power the PIR with 5V and connect ground to ground. Then connect the output to a digital pin. In this example we'll use pin 2.

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The code is very simple, and is basically just keeps track of whether the input to pin 2 is high or low. It also tracks the state of the pin, so that it prints out a message when motion has started and stopped.

Code: Select all

/*
 * PIR sensor tester
 */
 
int ledPin = 13;                // choose the pin for the LED
int inputPin = 2;               // choose the input pin (for PIR sensor)
int pirState = LOW;             // we start, assuming no motion detected
int val = 0;                    // variable for reading the pin status
 
void setup() {
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);      // declare LED as output
  pinMode(inputPin, INPUT);     // declare sensor as input
 
  Serial.begin(9600);
}
 
void loop(){
  val = digitalRead(inputPin);  // read input value
  if (val == HIGH) {            // check if the input is HIGH
    digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);  // turn LED ON
    if (pirState == LOW) {
      // we have just turned on
      Serial.println("Motion detected!");
      // We only want to print on the output change, not state
      pirState = HIGH;
    }
  } else {
    digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); // turn LED OFF
    if (pirState == HIGH){
      // we have just turned of
      Serial.println("Motion ended!");
      // We only want to print on the output change, not state
      pirState = LOW;
    }
  }
}

Example:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cofqYukXTow[/media]