Programming for ultrasonic distance sensor

Hi.

I just bought a Make Controller Kit and some ultrasonic distance sensors.

The sensors are the Parallax Ping))) - here is a link:

http://www.parallax.com/Store/Sensors/ObjectDetection/tabid/176/ProductID/92/List/1/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName,ProductName

The Controller Kit must be programmed to give the sensors an impulse and then listen for

a returning echo-impulse.

If anyone has experience with using this type of (or similar) sensors together with the Make

Controller Kit I would really like to hear from you.

I am a total beginner in regard to programming controllers.

Best regards Jakob.

to tell ya the truth, i had bought a PING))) at first too, and returned it after i read more about the make controller and realized there are no combination I/O lines like are required for the ping))).  Instead it is easier to use a sensor that outputs a simple analog voltage, like a sharp GP2D12 IR sensor or the maxbotix line of ultrasonic sensors....

Once somebody adds in some pulse counting/timing to the API, this will be much easier Until then, it's a bit of a pain to use these particular sensors.

Ok.

Sounds like it is quite difficult to get up and running.

Well - at least it is not just me who is an idiot

I tried some different approaches including the use of the fast_timer class,

but nothing really seamed to work. I guess maybe it is because of the need of

an incredibly fast communication rate...?

A couple of quick questions... Has anyone been able to figure out what the resolution of the Ping sensor is? Looking at the code it appears to have a resolution of .5mm, but they never clearly state that. It looks like it is *almost* a perfect sensor for one of my applications, but I am sad to hear that it is non trivial to set up... My second question is what all comes on the board. I see the ultrasonic transducers, but it looks like there is nothing else on the board. Could someone who has bought the board look on the back and tell me if they only have some resisters and capacitors, or if they also have an IC. Turns out for one of my experiments I need water proof ultrasonic transducers -- and there is no reason to purchase theirs and replace the transducers if there is nothing else on the board! Depending on what I find I might look at hacking a pulse/counting API, but the Linux OSC/USB comes first...