Example Code for Arduino-PC Serial Port Debugging

Hardware Preparation

• DFRduino UNO R3 x 1
• IO Sensor Expansion Board V7.1 x 1
• Serial port: USB to Serial x 1
• Dupont wires

Software Preparation

• Arduino IDE, Click to Download Arduino IDE from Arduino®
• DFRobot TF Mini Library, Click to download TF Mini Library

Wiring Diagram

Use PC-side serial port to display the detected distance and power the entire system.

Other Preparation Work

Users can also use multi-serial port devices such as Arduino Leonardo and Arduino Mega2560. Define D12 and D13 as software serial port.

Sample Code

/*
  * @File  : DFRobot_TFmini_test.ino
  * @Brief : This example use TFmini to measure distance
  *         With initialization completed, we can get distance value and signal strength
  * @Copyright   [DFRobot](https://www.dfrobot.com), 2016
  *             GNU Lesser General Public License
  *
  * @version  V1.0
  * @date  2018-1-10
*/

#include <DFRobot_TFmini.h>

SoftwareSerial mySerial(12, 13); // RX, TX

DFRobot_TFmini  TFmini;
uint16_t distance,strength;

void setup(){
    Serial.begin(115200);
    TFmini.begin(mySerial);
}

void loop(){
    if(TFmini.measure()){                      //Measure Distance and get signal strength
        distance = TFmini.getDistance();       //Get distance data
        strength = TFmini.getStrength();       //Get signal strength data
        Serial.print("Distance = ");
        Serial.print(distance);
        Serial.println("cm");
        Serial.print("Strength = ");
        Serial.println(strength);
        delay(500);
    }
    delay(500);
}

Result

Serial port software shows the data format as below:

 Distance = 1000 mm
 Strength =  688