ABSTRACT

MANUAL DISTANCE MEASURING IS ALWAYS DONE AT THE EXPENSE OF HUMAN

ERROR. PRECISE AND FIXED MEASUREMENT OF LOW RANGE DISTANCE, IS THE
MAIN OBJECTIVE FOR THIS PROJECT. THIS DEVICE CAN MEASURE DISTANCE IN
THE RANGE OF 2CM TO 100CM WITH THE ACCURACY OF1CM.THIS PROJECT IS
USED TO MEASURE THE DISTANCE BY USING ULTRASONIC SENSORS. IT WORKS
BY TRANSMITTING AN ULTRASONIC WAVES AT 40 KHZ. THEN, THE TRANDUCERS
WILL MEASURE THE AMOUNT OF TIME TAKEN FOR A PULSE OF SOUND TRAVEL
TO A PARTICULAR SURFACES AND RETURN AS THE REFLECTED ECHO. AFTER
THAT, THE CIRCUIT THAT HAS BEEN PROGRAMMED WITH MICROCONTROLLER
WILL CALCULATE THE DISTANCE BASED ON THE TIME TAKEN BY THE
ULTRASONIC SOUND WAVE SENT BY THE TRANSMITTER TO TRAVEL TO THE
OBSTACLE AND RETURN BACK TO THE RECIEVER. THE DISTANCE THEN WILL BE
DISPLAY ON A 7 SEGMENT DISPLAY IN CENTIMETERS.

INTRODUCTION
NOWADAYS, WE HAVE SOME DIFFICULTIES IN OBTAINING THE DISTANCE THAT
WE WANT TO MEASURE. EVENTHOUGH, WE HAVE A MEASURING TAPE, BUT THIS
KIND OF TOOL WILL HAVE A LIMIT FOR US TO MEASURE A DISTANCE. BEFORE
THIS, ENGINEERS HAVE TO PRODUCE A RANGE FINDER MODULE BUT IN THE
END, THEY FOUND OUT THE MODULE HAS MANY DISADVANTAGES LIKE
LIMITATION FOR DISTANCE, DIFFERENT RESULT FOR DIFFERENT COLOURED
OBSTACLES, AND NEED A CALIBRATION EVERYTIME BEFORE MEASURING.

OBJECTIVES
FROM THE ISSUES THAT HAVE BEEN DISCUSSED IN THE PREVIOUS SECTION, THE
OBJECTIVES OF THIS PROJECT WERE SET OUT AS BELOW :
1. PRECISE AND FIXED MEASUREMENT OF LOW RANGE DISTANCE
2. TO MEASURE A DISTANCE AT ANY OBSTACLES.
3. OPERATING RANGE OF 2CM UP TO 100CM WITH AN ACCURACY OF 1 CM.
4. DESIGN A SIMPLE CIRCUIT AND FIND A SUITABLE HARDWARE FOR THIS
PROJECT.

ULTRASONIC RANGE FINDER USING 8051

A SIMPLE ULTRASONIC RANGE FINDER USING 8051 MICROCONTROLLER IS
PRESENTED IN THIS ARTICLE. THIS ULTRASONIC RANGEFINDER CAN MEASURE
DISTANCES UP TO 1 METER WITH AN ACCURACY OF 1 CENTIMETER. AT89S51
MICROCONTROLLER AND THE ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCER MODULE HC-SR04
FORMS THE BASIS OF THE CIRCUIT. THE ULTRASONIC MODULE SENDS AN
ULTRASONIC WAVE TO THE OBJECT, THEN PICKS UP ITS ECHO AND OUTPUTS A
WAVE FORM WHOSE TIME PERIOD IS PROPORTIONAL TO THIS DISTANCE. THE
MICROCONTROLLER ACCEPTS THIS ECHO SIGNAL, PERFORMS NECESSARY
PROCESSING AND DISPLAYS THE CORRESPONDING DISTANCE ON THE 2 DIGIT
SEVEN SEGMENT DISPLAY. THIS CIRCUIT FINDS A LOT OF APPLICATION IN
PROJECTS LIKE AUTOMOTIVE PARKING SENSORS, OBSTACLE WARNING
SYSTEMS,
TERRAIN
MONITORING
ROBOTS,
INDUSTRIAL
DISTANCE
MEASUREMENTS ETC.

BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW

OVERVIEW
ALL MAJOR DVICES AND COMPONENTS USED IN THE PROJECT ARE DISCUSSED
AND EXPLAINED BELOW.

ULTRASONIC WAVES
THERE IS A REASON OF WHY WE USED ULTRASONIC WAVES INSTEAD OF OTHER
WAVES. FIRST OF ALL, IT IS BECAUSE OF ITS SPEED. ULTRASONIC WAVES
TRAVELLED AT SPEED OF SOUND WHICH IS, 343 M/S. THIS KIND OF SPEED IS NOT
TOO FAST FOR MCUS IN ATMEGA TO MEASURE ACCURATELY. SO, PRACTICALLY
IT WILL TAKE ABOUT 20 NS ( NANO SECOND ) TO GO AND BOUNCE BACK FROM
AN OBSTACLE WHICH IS 1 M AWAY. NEXT, ULTRASONIC WAVES TRAVELS MORE
NARROW, LIKE BEAM THAN NORMAL SOUND WAVE. THIS ACTUALLY HELPS THE
SENSOR DETECT THE OBSTACLES THAT ARE EXACTLY IN LINE WITH IT ONLY.
BESIDES THAT, ULTRASONIC WAVES DO NOT DISTURB ANY HUMANS THAT IS
NEARBY.

HC-SR04 ULTRASONIC MODULE.

HC-SR04 IS AN ULTRASONIC RANGING MODULE DESIGNED FOR EMBEDDED
SYSTEM PROJECTS LIKE THIS. IT HAS A RESOLUTION OF 0.3CM AND THE
RANGING DISTANCE IS FROM 2CM TO 100CM. IT OPERATES ON A 5V DC SUPPLY
AND THE STANDBY CURRENT IS LESS THAN 2MA. THE MODULE TRANSMITS AN
ULTRASONIC SIGNAL, PICKS UP ITS ECHO, MEASURES THE TIME ELAPSED
BETWEEN THE TWO EVENTS AND OUTPUTS A WAVEFORM WHOSE HIGH TIME IS
MODULATED BY THE MEASURED TIME WHICH IS PROPORTIONAL TO THE
DISTANCE.
THE SUPPORTING CIRCUITS FABRICATED ON THE MODULE MAKES IT ALMOST
STAND ALONE AND WHAT THE PROGRAMMER NEED TO DO IS TO SEND A
TRIGGER SIGNAL TO IT FOR INITIATING TRANSMISSION AND RECEIVE THE ECHO
SIGNAL FROM IT FOR DISTANCE CALCULATION. THE HR-SR04 HAS FOUR PINS
NAMELY VCC, TRIGGER, ECHO, GND AND THEY ARE EXPLAINED IN DETAIL
BELOW.
1) VCC : 5V DC SUPPLY VOLTAGE IS CONNECTED TO THIS PIN.

2) TRIGGER: THE TRIGGER SIGNAL FOR STARTING THE TRANSMISSION IS GIVEN

TO THIS PIN. THE TRIGGER SIGNAL MUST BE A PULSE WITH 10US HIGH TIME.
WHEN THE MODULE RECEIVES A VALID TRIGGER SIGNAL IT ISSUES 8 PULSES OF
40KHZ ULTRASONIC SOUND FROM THE TRANSMITTER. THE ECHO OF THIS SOUND
IS PICKED BY THE RECEIVER.
3)ECHO: AT THIS PIN, THE MODULE OUTPUTS A WAVEFORM WITH HIGH TIME
PROPORTIONAL TO THE DISTANCE.
4) GND: GROUND IS CONNECTED TO THIS PIN.

FROM THE ABOVE TIMING DIAGRAM, YOU CAN SEE THAT THE 40KHZ PULSE
TRAIN IS TRANSMITTED JUST AFTER THE 10US TRIGGERING PULSE AND THE
ECHO OUTPUT IS OBTAINED AFTER SOME MORE TIME. THE NEXT TRIGGERING
PULSE CAN BE GIVEN ONLY AFTER THE ECHO IS FADED AWAY AND THIS TIME
PERIOD IS CALLED CYCLE PERIOD. THE CYCLE PERIOD FOR HC-SR04 MUST NOT
BE BELOW 50MS. ACCORDING TO DATASHEET, THE DISTANCE CAN BE
CALCULATED FROM THE ECHO PULSE WIDTH USING THE FOLLOWING
EQUATIONS.
DISTANCE IN CM = ECHO PULSE WIDTH IN US/58

AT89S51 MICROCONTROLLER

THE MICROCONTROLLER IS USED TO GENERATE 40 KHZ SOUND PULSE. IT READS

WHEN THE ECHO ARRIVES; IT FINDS THE TIME TAKEN IN MICROSECONDS FOR TO
AND FROM TRAVEL OF SOUND WAVES. USING VELOCITY OF 330 M/S, IT DOES
THE CALCULATIONS AND SHOWS ON THE SEVEN SEGMENT DISPLAY AND
DISPLAY THE DISTANCE IN CENTIMETRES.
FEATURES OF 8051 MICRCONTROLLER
THE 8051 MICROCONTROLLER IS A VERY POPULAR 8-BIT MICROCONTROLLER
INTRODUCED BY INTEL IN THE YEAR 1981 AND IT HAS BECOME ALMOST THE
ACADEMIC STANDARD NOW A DAYS. THE 8051 IS BASED ON AN 8-BIT CISC CORE
WITH HARVARD ARCHITECTURE. ITS 8-BIT ARCHITECTURE IS OPTIMIZED FOR
CONTROL APPLICATIONS WITH EXTENSIVE BOOLEAN PROCESSING. IT IS

AVAILABLE AS A 40-PIN DIP CHIP AND WORKS AT +5 VOLTS DC. THE SALIENT
FEATURES OF 8051 CONTROLLER ARE GIVEN BELOW.
SALIANT FEATURES:THE SALIENT FEATURES OF 8051 MICROCONTROLLER ARE
I.
4 KB ON CHIP PROGRAM MEMORY (ROM OR EPROM)).
II.
128 BYTES ON CHIP DATA MEMORY (RAM).
III.
8-BIT DATA BUS
IV.
16-BIT ADDRESS BUS
V.
32 GENERAL PURPOSE REGISTERS EACH OF 8 BITS
VI.
TWO -16 BIT TIMERS T0 AND T1
VII. FIVE INTERRUPTS (3 INTERNAL AND 2 EXTERNAL).
VIII. FOUR PARALLEL PORTS EACH OF 8-BITS (PORT0, PORT1, PORT2, PORT3)
WITH A TOTAL OF 32 I/O LINES.
IX.
ONE 16-BIT PROGRAM COUNTER AND ONE 16-BIT DPTR ( DATA
POINTER)
X.
ONE 8-BIT STACK POINTER
XI.
ONE MICROSECOND INSTRUCTION CYCLE WITH 12 MHZ CRYSTAL.
XII. ONE FULL DUPLEX SERIAL COMMUNICATION PORT.

THE MICROCONTROLLER TOP VIEW.

THERE IS A REASON WHY WE USE AT89S51 IN THIS PROJECT. FIRST OF ALL,

AT89S51
IS
A
LOW-POWER,
HIGH-PERFORMANCE
CMOS
8-BIT
MICROCONTROLLER WITH 4K BYTES OF IN-SYSTEM PROGRAMMABLE FLASH
MEMORY. THE DEVICE IS MANUFACTURED USING ATMELS HIGH DENSITY

NONVOLATILE MEMORY TECHNOLOGY AND IS COMPATIBLE WITH THE

INDUSTRY STANDARD 80C51 INSTRUCTION SET AND PINOUT. THE ON-CHIP
FLASH ALLOWS THE PROGRAM MEMORY TO BE REPROGRAMMED IN-SYSTEM OR
BY A CONVENTIONAL NONVOLATILE MEMORY PRO-GRAMMER. BY COMBINING
A VERSATILE 8-BIT CPU WITH IN-SYSTEM PROGRAMMABLE FLASH ON A
MONOLITHIC CHIP, THE ATMEL AT89S51 IS A POWERFUL MICROCONTROLLER
WHICH PROVIDES A HIGHLY FLEXIBLE AND COST EFFECTIVE SOLUTION TO
MANY EMBEDDED CONTROL APPLICATIONS.

THE BLOCK DIAGRAM OF AT89S51 MICROCONTROLLER

SCOPE OF STUDY
DESIGNING COMPLETE MODEL OF ATMEGA ULTRASONIC RANGE FINDER IS
NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR THIS PROJECT BECAUSE OF TIME CONSTRAINTS AND
LIMITED RESOURCES. SCOPE OF THIS PROJECT IS NARROWED INTO FEW ITEMS
AS FOLLOW:
i.
ii.
iii.

TRANSMISSION OF ULTRASONIC WAVES.

ATMEGA PROGRAMMING FOR ARITHMETIC OPERATION.
MEASUREMENT OF A DISTANCE FROM ANY OBSTACLES.

WITH THIS SMALLER SCOPE OF STUDY THE REALIZATION OF THE PROJECT

OBJECTIVE BECOME ACHIEVABLE.

FLOWCHART OF THE PLAN FOLLOWED

FLOWCHART OF PLAN FOLLOWED

BLOCK DIAGRAM

FLOWCHART
START

SEND 10 MS TRIGGER INPUT TO

SENSOR

NO

IS ECHO
AVAILABLE

YES

START TIMER TO
COUNT 59
MICROSECONDS

INCREMENT RESISTER TO
COUNT DISTANCE

YES

Is Echo
available?
NO

DIVIDE DISTANCE
OBTAINED BY 10
SEND IT TO FIRST SEVEN SEGMENT
DISPLAY
SEND THE REMAINDER TO SECOND SEVEN
SEGMENT DISPLAY
WAIT
RESET

Circuit diagram

ASSEMBLY LEVEL PROGRAM

ORG 00H

// ORIGIN

MOV DPTR,#LUT

// MOVES THE ADDRESS OF LUT TO DPTR

MOV P2,#00000000B

// SETS P2 AS OUTPUT PORT

MOV P0,#00000000B

// SETS P0 AS OUTPUT PORT

CLR P3.0

// SETS P3.0 AS OUTPUT FOR SENDING TRIGGER

SETB P3.1

// SETS P3.1 AS INPUT FOR RECEIVING ECHO

MOV TMOD,#00100000B

// SETS TIMER1 AS MODE 2 AUTO RELOAD TIMER

MAIN: MOV TL1,#207D

// LOADS THE INITIAL VALUE TO START COUNTING

MOV TH1,#207D

// LOADS THE RELOAD VALUE

MOV A,#00000000B

// CLEARS ACCUMULATOR

SETB P3.0

// STARTS THE TRIGGER PULSE

ACALL DELAY1

// GIVES 10uS WIDTH FOR THE TRIGGER PULSE

CLR P3.0

// ENDS THE TRIGGER PULSE

HERE: JNB P3.1,HERE

// LOOPS HERE UNTIL ECHO IS RECEIVED

BACK: SETB TR1

// STARTS THE TIMER1

HERE1: JNB TF1,HERE1

// LOOPS HERE UNTIL TIMER OVERFLOWS(48 COUNTS)

CLR TR1

// STOPS THE TIMER

CLR TF1

// CLEARS TIMER FLAG 1

INC A

// INCREMENTS A FOR EVERY TIMER1 OVERFLOW

JB P3.1,BACK

// JUMPS TO BACK IF ECHO IS STILL AVAILABLE

MOV R4,A

// SAVES THE VALUE OF A TO R4

ACALL DLOOP

// CALLS THE DISPLAY LOOP

SJMP MAIN

DELAY1: MOV R6,#2D

// JUMPS TO MAIN LOOP

// 10uS DELAY

LABEL1: DJNZ R6,LABEL1

RET

DLOOP: MOV R5,#100D

// LOADS R5 WITH 100D

BACK1: MOV A,R4

// LOADS THE VALUE IN R4 TO A

MOV B,#10D

// LOADS B WITH 10D

DIV AB

// ISOLATES THE FIRST DIGIT

ACALL DISPLAY

// CALLS DISPLAY SUBROUTINE

MOV P0,A

// MOVES THE DRIVE PATTERN FOR 1ST DIGIT TO P0

ACALL DELAY

// 1US DELAY

ACALL DELAY
MOV A,B

// MOVES THE REMAINDER OF DIVISION TO A

ACALL DISPLAY
MOV P2,A

// MOVES THE DRIVE PATTERN FOR 2ND DIGIT TO P2

ACALL DELAY
ACALL DELAY
DJNZ R5,BACK1

// REPEATS THE DISPLAY LOOP 100 TIMES

RET

DELAY: MOV R7,#250D

LABEL2: DJNZ R7,LABEL2
RET

// 1uS DELAY

DISPLAY: MOVC A,@A+DPTR

// GETS THE SEVEN SEGMENT DIGIT DRIVE

//PATTERN

RET
LUT: DB C0H
DB F9H
DB A4H
DB B0H
DB 99H
DB 92H
DB 82H
DB F8H
DB 80H
DB 98H
END

// LOOK UP TABLE (LUT) STARTS HERE

CONCLUSION
THE ULTRASONIC RANGE FINDER USING AT89S51 HAS ACHIEVED THE
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PROJECT IS
CALCULATING ACCURATE DISTANCE FROM ANY OBSTACLE THAT WE WANT TO
MEASURE. THE DEVICE CAN BE USED IN MANY DIFFERENT FIELDS AND
CATEGORIES LIKE DISTANCE CALCULATION IN CONSTRUCTION FIELD, ROBOTS,
CAR SENSOR TO AVOID OBSTACLES AND MANY OTHER APPLICATIONS. THE
BUILDING PROCESS OF THE DEVICE WAS BASED ON USING AS MUCH AS
POSSIBLE FROM THE COURSES TAKEN IN THE UNIVERSITY, LIKE MICRO
PROCESSOR, BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, MULTIMEDIA AND SYSTEMS
AND ELECTRONICS DEVICES AND ALSO PRACTICAL WORK IN THE
LABORATORIES.

REFERENCES
1. HTTPS://WWW.GOOGLE.CO.IN/
2. HTTP://WWW.CIRCUITSTODAY.COM/
3. THE 8051 MICROCONTROLLER AND EMBEDDED SYSTEMS BY MUHAMMAD ALI
MAZIDI, JANICE GILLISPIE MAZIDI, ROLIN D.MCKINLAY.