Adeel Javed - Internet of Things

IoT Sensors - #8: Capacitive Touch Sensor

This article is the eighth in a series on Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. It teaches you about various sensors available and how to read data from them.

Hardware

  • Arduino Uno
  • Capacitive Touch Sensor
  • Jumper Cables

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Software

Circuit

Step 1: Make sure your Arduino is not connected to a power source.

Step 2: Using jumper cables connect power (VNC) and ground (GND) ports on Arduino to power (+) and ground (-) ports on the breadboard.

Tip: It is a good practice to use red jumper cable for power (+ / VNC) and black jumper cable for ground (- / GND).

Step 3: Now that your breadboard has a power source, using jumper cables connect power (+) and ground (-) ports of your breadboard to power and ground ports of the Capacitive Touch sensor.

Step 4: To read capacitive touch sensor values, you will need to connect a jumper cable from signal (SIG) port of Capacitive Touch sensor to D3 (Digital) port of your Arduino.

Your circuit is now complete and it should look similar to figures below.

CodifyThings - Internet of Things (IoT) Sensors

Arduino Code

Next, you are going to write Arduino code that will read sensor data. Start your Arduino IDE and either type the code provided below or download it from GitHub. All the code goes into a single source file (*.ino) but in order to make it easy to understand and reuse, it has been divided into 3 sections.

  • External Libraries: includes all libraries required to run the program
  • Sensor Setup: code for reading sensor data
  • Standard Arduino Functions: implementation of standard Arduino functions setup() and loop()

[code lang="js"]
/***************************************************************************
* External Libraries
**************************************************************************/

#include <SPI.h>

/*****************************************************************************
* Sensor Setup - Variables & Functions
****************************************************************************/

int CAPACITIVE_SENSOR_PIN = 3;
int capacitiveSensorValue = 0;

void readSensorData()
{
//Read Sensor Value
capacitiveSensorValue = digitalRead(CAPACITIVE_SENSOR_PIN);

//Display Readings
Serial.print("[INFO] Capacitive Touch Sensor Reading: ");
Serial.println(capacitiveSensorValue);
}

/***************************************************************************
* Standard Arduino Functions - setup(), loop()
**************************************************************************/

void setup()
{
pinMode(CAPACITIVE_SENSOR_PIN, INPUT);

// Initialize serial port
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop()
{
readSensorData();

delay(1000);
}
[/code]

Final Product

Make sure your Arduino is powered on and code from above has been deployed. As soon as you touch the sensor value of 1 will displayed.

CodifyThings - Internet of Things (IoT) Sensors