Ultrasonic sensing is one of the best ways to sense proximity and detect levels with high reliability. Our technical support gets emails all of the time about how our sensors work and what environments our sensors work (or don’t work) in. This guide was created as an introduction to ultrasonic sensing, it’s principles, and…
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Technology is altering many industries to increase the profitability and efficiency of core functions of businesses. You may have read in the Internet of Things article how we have worked closely with companies in smart waste management and smart parking. After speaking with a few trucking companies, we’ve realized there are important updates we can make to the use…
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2019 First Robotics Teams – Welcome! We are excited to support your team this year with a free sensor! This year we are giving each team one of our best ultrasonic proximity sensors, the MB1013 MaxSonar Sensor from our HRLV-MaxSonar-EZ line. This small, lightweight sensor is designed for easy integration into your project, and it is a great…
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What do we mean by fully calibrated beam patterns? All of our sensor beam patterns are factory calibrated to fit into a wide variety of applications. In our product lines, each model number comes with a different beam pattern that reflects the sensitivity and the detection zone of how it sees a target. Additionally, we…
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IOT Sensors | Connecting Ultrasonics with the Internet Our sensors have been used worldwide in IoT applications. Our most popular applications for IoT sensors include parking sensors, liquid level detection sensors, as well as waste bin sensors.   While they aren’t a plug and play solution for IoT,  they are a reliable integration as an…
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Ultrasonic sensors are a great fit for many applications, but it’s always good to understand that every product has limitations on what it can do. This article goes into the advantages and limitations of ultrasonic sensors so that you know if our sensors are right for you. Advantages of Ultrasonic Sensors These are a few…
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From level monitoring to ultrasonic profiling – ultrasonic sensors can be used in a variety of applications. MaxBotix offers a wide selection of indoor and outdoor sensors that are used in many of the below applications. We offer sensors with features such as condensation control, weather resistance, narrow and wide detection fields, cross-talk and interference…
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Frequently Asked Questions about Ultrasonic Sensors   Advantages of Ultrasonics Main advantages of using ultrasonic sensors vs. others include. High Frequency, high sensitivity and high penetrating power, it can easily detect external or deep objects. These sensors easily interface with microcontrollers or any type of controller. Ultrasonic sensors are easy to use and not dangerous…
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MaxBotix Inc. provides beam patterns for all of our ultrasonic sensors to assist users in choosing the correct sensor for their application, target size, and distance. Each beam pattern diagram is a 2D representation of the detection area of the sensor. In reality, the actual beam pattern is shaped like a 3D cone (having the…
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What is Home Automation? Home automation is the way all our devices and appliances can be networked together to provide simple and convenient control of your home. Full control of your home can now be achieved from anywhere in the world.  With a smart home, you decide what devices react to, when and why.  You…
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Recommended Sensors for Level Sensing: MB7052 XL-MaxSonar-WRM1 Features of the weather resistant MB7052, XL-MaxSonar-WRM1, include small target rejection providing range information to the target with the largest acoustic return, a stability filter, centimeter resolution, short to long distance detection, range information from 20cm to 765cm, a 6.7Hz read rate, and various output options: pulse-width, analog…
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Connecting the Internet of Things and the Real World There’s increasing popularity of the use of wireless networks as tech advances.  Wireless sensor networks (WSN)  allow the ability to collect data remotely for review.  We’ve already written about the Internet of Things (IoT), and it’s real-world applications.     In this article, we’ll cover exactly…
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Use an Ultrasonic Sensor with a Pixhawk or Ardupilot for collision avoidance We’ve written quite a bit about how to use our sensors with Arduino and Raspberry Pi.  There are other microcontrollers to consider when developing your application. Other popular microcontrollers include the Pixhawk and the Ardupilot Mega (APM).   The Pixhawk is an independent,…
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These are important factors to consider when mounting your sensor in a tank. Avoidance of obstructions – The wall of the tank or other obstructions in the tank will give inaccurate readings. Placement can affect readings – Our filtering protocol allows the sensor to prioritize large targets over small targets and noise. This is beneficial…
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Ultrasonic Vs Infrared (IR) Sensors Your choice of a sensor in your application can be challenging for any project.  The performance of your system depends greatly on the reliability of your sensor and other components of the application. In order to determine the right sensor for your application, there are things that need to be…
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IoT isn’t slowing down and there’s an increase in the development of Smart Cities.   At the time this was written, Bill Gates announced his plans to develop Belmont, a smart city in Arizona, just west of Phoenix. “Belmont will create a forward-thinking community with a communication and infrastructure spine that embraces cutting-edge technology, designed…
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Problem Solving Ultrasonic Sensor Projects  We started manufacturing ultrasonic sensors in 2004 to fulfill a need.  The problem we aimed to solve was to provide a high-quality sensor at a manageable price point.    For that reason, we’ve been widely used for applications as original equipment manufacturers (OEM’s), in Nonrecurring engineering (NRE), as well as…
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Using IoT for Smarter Waste Management and Better Business According to Wikipedia, “Waste management or waste disposal is all the activities and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes amongst other things, collection, transport, treatment, and disposal of waste together with monitoring and regulation. It also encompasses the…
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Agriculture is not crop production as popular belief holds – it’s the production of food and fiber from the world’s land and waters. Without agriculture it is not possible to have a city, stock market, banks, university, church or army. Agriculture is the foundation of civilization and any stable economy. Allan Savory   Taking so…
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Automation is for manufacturers to streamline factory processes and remain profitable.  The goal is to increase output versus input because labor cost is rising in our industrial world.  Automation is now replacing many manual actions.  For markets with a shortage of labor, automated operations can reduce the need for a labor force. We’re going to…
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The Importance of Wastewater Management Gwinnett County residents will be asked to keep water on their mind for the rest of the month. The Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources announced a series of events that it will hold throughout the remainder of the month to highlight water issues and what its crews do on…
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Introduction to The Internet of Things. According to Wikipedia, The Internet of Things (IoT) is “The network of physical devices, vehicles and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators and network connectivity enabling these objects to collect and exchange data.   The Beginning of IoT The first IoT first appeared as early as 1982…
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3rd Time Honoree on Elite List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies MaxBotix Inc is pleased to announce that we ranked #2221 on our third consecutive appearance on the Inc. 5000 list (appearing both in 2015 and 2016), and that for the second year in a row, our company holds the title of the fastest growing,…
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  A robot without an ultrasonic sensor is blind. Ultrasonic sensors allow our robots to react to the world around them like we do with our eyes and ears. There are many types of ultrasonic sensors, and they provide your robot with new or improved senses. At MaxBotix Inc., we know how to best leverage…
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MaxBotix Inc., proudly announces that we made the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest–growing private companies in America for the second time! Moving up from #3616 to #1752 due in large part to our astounding sales growth of 213%. When ranking by state on the Inc. 5000, we have been ranked #22 for Top Minnesota…
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MaxBotix Inc., Continues to Expand Production began in 2004 in the office of the owner’s house. With exponential growth in the first three years, the company made their first move in 2007 followed by yearly moves to bigger spaces over the next three years. MaxBotix Inc., headquarters and production operations moved to a larger facility…
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Key Takeaways Customer satisfaction is our first priority Striving to innovate new products Continuous improvement along with future thinking has helped our continued growth Our community mission is “Better Jobs for a Better Community” MaxBotix Inc Continues Strong Growth August 12, 2015, Inc. 5000 recognized MaxBotix Inc., with a rank of #3616 overall. Our growth…
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Key Takeaways FAQs by Tech Support Tips for sensor selection Troubleshooting tips Technical support services help solve sensor problems, wiring, and mounting as well as application-based sensor selection. Technical support for MaxBotix may be delivered over the phone (218-454-0766 ext 2), by e-mail ([email protected]), or by the contact tab on the MaxBotix Inc., webpage. Details…
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Acoustically Soft vs. Acoustically Hard Key Takeaways Acoustic properties limit the detection range of certain targets Understanding a target’s acoustic properties helps with sensor selection Targets that absorb more sound are more difficult to detect with ultrasonic sensors The Reflection of Sound All targets reflect sound to a varying degree. To better understand this, a…
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MaxBotix Inc., Ranks No. 3616 on the 2015 Inc. 5000 with Three–Year Sales Growth of 87% MaxBotix Inc., is proud to announce that we have made the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest–growing private companies in America! This achievement places us in select company. Honorees, over the years, include companies such as Microsoft, Timberland, Vizio,…
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This guide outlines the process of working with MaxBotix from concept to product design, testing, and deployment and full production. The guide gives you valuable information and Design Tips to help you complete a successful ultrasonic sensor implementation. Phase 1: Concept & Requirements We start the process by developing a mutual understanding of your application,…
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Making your Design experience so much Better – Download and utilize MaxBotix 3D CAD Models Good news Designers – we now have downloadable 3D CAD models (in multiple formats) of our ultrasonic sensors! Designers and Engineers can utilize these models for system integration design or free designing, which will save you time, money, and resources….
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The primary goal during the building of the original LV-MaxSonar-EZ1 was to make a high-performance ultrasonic range finder that provided readings, so stable, that unless the object moved, the readings didn’t vary. These goals have continued and been improved upon for all of our subsequent products. MaxBotix Inc has virtually reached that goal. The original…
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We are pleased to announce that all our parts are officially CE compliant! Our products are ready for European users! Declarations of conformity are available to be downloaded at this link. Through rigorous testing by engineers, we have revealed that our products have always been compliant with CE regulations. So the wait is finally over…
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When winter arrives at our production facilities in Minnesota, we see a lot of snow. Ultrasonic snow depth sensors are a great way to measure just how much snow winter brings. Ultrasonic sensors traditionally struggle to detect snow because it acts like a sound dampener. You can gain further understanding of how snow dampens sounds…
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MaxBotix Inc., thanks guest writer Tim Gallagher who shares his experience with the MB7369 while transporting heavy equipment. MaxBotix Inc., sensors have been successfully used in extreme duty conditions. Large multi-axle trailers, which are used to transport wind energy equipment across the country, hydraulically adjust the ride height of their payload throughout their journey to…
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Tank sensors are an important part of industrial automation. MaxBotix Inc. recently performed a liquid level measurement test at our facility. This test ran from July 13, 2012, until July 16, 2012. The test was conducted by filling a bin with water and recording readings from the ultrasonic sensor using the serial connection while the…
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Code example for BasicX, BX24p.Link Code example for the Basic Micro, Atom.Link Code example using Wright Hobbies, DevBoard-M32 (AVR using Bascom). Link  Code example using Parallax, Basic Stamp BS2, BasicStamp. Link  C Program Driver for MaxBotix MB7066. Link  Arduino I2C code Examples for I2CXL-MaxSonar sensors. Link   Code Example for BasicX, BX24p ‘BX24 ‘MaxSonar®-EZ1™ Code Example ‘By Chris…
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Manufacturing electronic components in the United States has been one of our most important aspects of our organization.  Customer service and Quality are very important as well. With the low prices we advertise when compared to our competitors, we have been asked where our products are manufactured. When employees state “Our products are made in…
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A look at our new product MaxBotix Inc. has released the HRLV‑MaxSonar‑EZ for sale to the public. As we continue to finalize the design and work through our initial production run we wanted to give our customers a look into some of our new product features. The HRLV-MaxSonar-EZ sensor line features 1 mm resolution, target…
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Human Safety Applications MaxBotix® Inc., products are not authorized for use as critical components in life support devices or systems. As used herein: Life support devices or systems are devices or systems which, (a) are intended for surgical implant into the body, or (b) support or sustain life, and whose failure to perform when properly…
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Test Setup MaxBotix Inc has recently tested operation of our MB7360 HRXL‑MaxSonar‑WR in a multi-sensor environment. The testing was conducted from 11/15/2012 to 11/19/2012. The following presents the test data from a four day, three sensor test to verify multi­sensor operation for the MB7360 ultrasonic sensor. The sensors tested were the MB7360 in free run…
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 It’s a little-known fact that all of our MaxSonar products have been designed with a high acoustic noise tolerance. This means that the MaxSonar sensors from all of our product lines work to reduce or eliminate false detections caused by external noise sources. While acoustic noise tolerance is only a small part of our “sensor…
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In the past three years, a few articles have been written about our sensors, but the latest one by Fred Eady, is the most detailed article to date. We first learned about this article after the June 2008 Servo Magazine arrived in our mailbox. This article takes up almost ten percent of the June 2008…
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