Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

i'm making a robot that can follow a line by two optical sensor ( reflection of the light ). The question are: How does the optical sensor work, How to make then work?
go see https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #procedure

Hi noecool10,

You can read more details about the optical sensor on its product page at Jameco Electronics and the official datasheet:

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores ... 1872628_-1

http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/Products/P ... 872628.pdf

The short explanation is that the sensor consists of two parts, an infrared light emitting diode (LED) and a phototransistor. The LED emits infrared light, which cannot be seen by the human eye. When this light bounces off a reflective or bright surface (like white paper), it is "detected" by the phototransistor.

We actually have two line-following robot projects - look at Figure 2 in this version of the project, it shows a little more about how the sensor works:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... background

I'm making a line follower (a robot that follow a line by the reflection of the light). In the project I have to use a breadboard and a lot of wire. My question is: Does the example of where the cable should is right ?
the project https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #procedure
the example http://www.cdn.sciencebuddies.org/Files ... sample.jpg

Thank you if you answer

Hi noecool10,

Are you asking about a specific part of the diagram, or the entire diagram in general? That diagram was created by one of our scientists, so it should be correct, and you should be able to follow it exactly to build your robot. The only different might be that the colors of the jumper wires you have available do not match the colors in the diagram exactly, but this is OK.

-Ben

Hello. We noticed you had two different threads going for the same topic. We merged the two into a single thread. Please keep all questions to one thread so that our experts can best help you based on what has already been discussed.

Good luck, and thanks for using Science Buddies!