Vorpal Hexapod HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Rangefinder Bracket

This is an add-on accessory for the totally awesome Vorpal Combat Hexapod, If you haven't seen that yet, then this thing won't make sense, so visit there first:

• Thing 2513566: Vorpal Combat Hexapod

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not use the "download all" button to get the files, there seems to be a bug right now on thingiverse where you will get old versions of the files. Download the files one by one by clicking on the names under the files tab.

I made this all open source and respectfully ask you to consider supporting the project. We successfully funded on Kickstarter with hundreds of kits sold, and now we have our own store. We have more than just the Hexapod electronics, we have all kinds of things useful for small robotics and other projects:
Vorpal Robotics Store with Hexapod Kits

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Why do I need this for the Hexapod?

This is a bracket that allows you to attach an HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Rangefinder Sensor to your Vorpal Hexapod for use with Scratch programming. This allows Vorpal to measure the distance (in cm) to the nearest object in the direction the sensor is pointing.

For example, you could implement obstacle avoidance as show in this video:

Ultrasonic Obstacle Avoidance Video

This sensor is pretty darn accurate, roughly plus or minus 1 centimeter in the range 2-180 cm for reasonably hard objects that reflect sound well. Very soft objects like pillows may not reflect enough sound to get a good result though.

Connections

VCC goes to any unused VCC pin on the servo controller (red pin)
GND goes to any unusued GND pin on the servo controller (black pin)
TRIG goes to Nano digital IO 7
ECHO goes to Nano digital IO 8

It is convenient to run some 15cm Dupont F-F jumpers for these connections down to the bottom of the accessory port hole (if you don't already have them there). Make sure you choose good colors for the wires to avoid confusion. Standard is red for VCC, black for GND, green for D7, grey for D8. I usually put a rubber band around the sensor wire bundle and leave it right inside the accessory port's wiring access hole, you can pull the bundle out to make connections when you attach a sensor, or just tuck it away when you're not using a sensor.