This is the high-tech version of hanging a tennis ball from the ceiling from a piece of string. Β Of course, if you have two different types of vehicles, that tennis ball isn’t going to land in the same place on both of them. Β This project can prevent hundreds of dollars in dry-wall repair and bicycle crank replacements, not to mention the shame of poor parking skills.
In this instructable, we’ll be making everything “plug-n-play.” Β This gives us three advantages. Β First off, you don’t have to worry about frying electronics with poor soldering technique. Β Second, modular impermanence means you can use almost all the parts again just by pulling them out of their sockets. Β Third, good Arduino hardware and breadboard practices are oriented towards pin-plugging, so we’ll include a technique that can be adapted to almost anything you want to plug into your Arduino (servos, motors, sensors, even speakers.)
To begin, gather your materials:
-An Arduino UNO board. Β (Duemillanoves and Megas should work just as well, I just haven’t tested them.)
-An HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Ping sensor. Β There are two types commonly available-you want the four pin type for this tutorial.
-One Red LED
-One Yellow LED
-One Green LED
-Two 8-pin Din sockets
-One 180Ξ© Resistor
-24 gauge solid 2-twisted Pair Telephone hookup wire.
-Eight #17 stick pins
-about 4 inches of 1/8″ heat-shrink tubing.
Tools:
-Soldering Iron and solder
-Angle snips
-Heat source for the heat shrink tubing (candle lighters or paint-remover guns work well.)
-Needle nose pliers and a “helping hand” work stand never hurt
