RadSense1 setup and options
Radsense 1 is ready to use out of the box, but you’ll need a USB power supply. We don’t supply this to let you select your own. Any USB charger will work as long as it can supply 1000mA. You’ll typically find a label on the device that tells how many mA it can deliver. 1000mA = 1A.
Inside the wall of the box, you can find a tiny screwdriver as well as a USB Type C cable. Use these to adjust and power your device. To start using the device, plug the USB cable into the USB adapter and the device and after a few seconds, the device will light up (unless this has been turned off by another user of the device).
By default, the device is setup to display the color green when you are close and a dim white when nothing is detected. Place the device safely on a table or a chair to test it. When you are within the detection zone of 3m (9ft), the light should be green. If you move further away, the light will fade to a dim white. When you are in the zone that the device can see, Output 1 will be opened or closed. This allows you to either make or break a connection. See wiring in the menu to the right.
If you only want to turn something on/off when someone enters the detections zone, you won’t need to do anything but to connect the wire you want to connect/disconnect. You do however have several options:
- You can select from multiple LED color combos using the Settings (below).
- You can tweak the precision/speed of the sensor using the Settings (below).
- You can detect two zones (near and far) and make/break two connections.
- For a more precise zone setup, use the Bluetooth BLE option.
Jump to
Changing settings
Press the button once to show the current mode of the builtin LED light. Default is RGB Mode (Red/Green/Blue) so the device will blink these three colors to show that. Press the button again within 5 seconds to change to the next mode – Designer mode (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow). Next is American mode (Red/Blue/White). This mode will also output debug information in Imperial units over Bluetooth. The third mode is Reggae mode (Green, Yellow, Red). Press again to change to No Light Mode (LED is always turned off). The device will remember the current setting the next startup.
Pressing the button twice within a second (double-click) will change the sensor precision. Once a double press is detected, the device will show it’s current mode. The default mode is Precise Mode, indicated by two green blinks of the LED. Precise Mode will gather 30 samples over one second before changing detection zone. This mode is well suited for Presence detection to trigger video or audio playback. If you double-click the button again (within 5 seconds), you’ll see a single green blink to indicate that you’re now in Fast Mode. In Fast Mode, the device will only gather about 10 samples before making a selection. This feels more responsive, but it might give false positives sometimes. This is thus best suited for lighting or other applications where a false detection does not matter much. Double-press again (within 5 seconds) to progress to the Slow Mode, indicated by three green blinks. In this mode, the device will require 60 samples over 2 seconds to change the detection zone.
If you keep double-clicking the button (within 5 seconds), you’ll start to see Red blinks instead of green. This enables three modes with similar precision as above, but the first relay is now “sticky”. So when the user moves from Zone 1 to Zone 2, the first relay will stay on. It will stay on until the user moves out of Zone 1.
Detection zones 1 and 2
The device can detect presence in a range of 0-300cm (0-9 feet). The device has two relays that will close when someone is present. By default, the device is setup to only use a single relay since this is the easiest to understand and use.
A typical use case is to start a video or turn on a light when someone moves close. The device does however have the capability to trigger one relay when a person is 330cm away and another to trigger at another distance. This way, you can trigger a video player to get someones attention by playing a trailer. Once you know the user is in front of the display, you can play the full movie.
We call these detection zones 1 and 2. You can place the start of these at less than 330cm as well, so if you want relay 1 to turn on when a user is a meter away, you can do this as well. Then you can use relay 2 to turn another light on when the user is even closer.
Technically, the device can detect movement and people up to 500cm distance, but it cannot reliably detect Presence at that range, so we’re limiting the range to what the device will always be able to detect. Also – the device cannot precisely detect the first 0-30cm (from nothing to one foot), but it will know if someone is present or not within the range.
The detection angle is about 60 degrees to each side. Note that the device may also detect in the edge zone to a certain degree, so be mindful about placement. Aim the sensor towards what you want to see.
Adjusting the detection zones manually
You can tune when the relays activate by using the supplied screwdriver. You adjust by rotating the tiny potentiometers that are behind each screw terminal, but please be careful not to use too much force. The default settings (where only the first detection zone is used) is achieved by turning both potentiometers against the clock until they stop. This sets the first zone to be the full range of the device.
To precisely setup two zones, we recommend using Bluetooth. You can however do it without an app using the visual feedback provided by the LEDs. By default, this feedback consist of 4 colors. If the device cannot see anyone, it’ll display a very dim purple light. Once it sees someone in Zone 1 (closest to the device) it’ll show a green light and close the leftmost relay. Unless you change the settings, this is the default behavior.
If you carefully rotate the left potmeter from minimum to maximum, you can “feel” the range. If you change it to about half of the possible range, you’ve now created two zones. Zone 1 is closest to the device. If you now move within 1.5 meters (5 feet) of the device, it’ll show a green light and close the left relay. You are now in Zone 1. If you go 2.5 meters (8 feet) away from the device, it’ll show a blue light and close the rightmost relay to show that you’re now in Zone 2.
Up until now, we have not changed the right potmeter at all. If you set the left potmeter somewhere in the middle of it’s travel and then adjust the left potmeter, you are effectively reducing the size of Zone 2. The device will still detect up to 3 meters away (10 feet) and it will show this using a red light. Once you enter into Zone 2, the light will turn blue and when you enter into Zone 1 (closest to the device) the light will turn green.
This way of adjusting the range may work well in many cases. If you want higher precision, you should use the Bluetooth tool to view precisely what the device can “see”.
Adjusting the detection zones using Bluetooth
To activate Bluetooth for two minutes, press the Settings button once. You’ll find the button just above the USB connector. This will turn on a BLE Device called “RadSense1” that can be used with any general BLE reader app. We currently recommend using the app called “BLE Scanner” – available for both iPhone and Android devices. Be adviced that for some reason, Apple has allowed two apps with the same name. The one you want to download is from Bluepixel Technologies.
(Video of how to use the App)
The device will publish a service that sends out a text string like this: “Zone 1 330cm, Zone 2 330cm, Detect 30cm”. Zone 1 is the zone closest to the device. Zone 2 is the zone furthest away from the device. Detect is the distance where the device can currently see someone.
Let’s do an example: if you want to close the left relay when a user is very close to the device, set it to 150cm. If you want to close the right relay as soon as the device sees anyone, set it to 330cm. This should produce a BLE output “Zone 1 150cm, Zone 2 330cm, Detect 30cm”.
If you’re in the USA, Liberia or Myanmar (The three countries using Imperial units as standard), you can change the device to American mode (see Settings). This will show the zones using Red/White/Blue LED colors as well as the measurements in inches so the output reads “Zone 1 130in, Zone 2 130in, Detect 12in”.
This also offers insight into what the sensor “can see”. Note that it is normal for the “Detect” value to jump a lot. This shows the raw data from the radar sensor at any given time. We create an average from this value over time. The amount of samples required can also be adjusted since this is a tradeoff between speed and precision.
Wiring
Each relay has three screw terminals. These are not marked on the device, but the connections may be obvious for anyone that has ever used relays before. The left connection on each terminal is NO (Normally Open), the middle is COM (Common) and the right is NC (Normally Closed).
So if you are making a Halloween experience where more light turns off the closer you get to the target, you’ll want to use the “Sticky Mode” and connect you light from Common to NC. Be aware that the device is made for DC lighting. Never connect AC power (as you’ll find in your wall sockets) to the device as that can kill you and destroy the device. Be sure to disconnect the light before cutting the wire. Never work with live wires! Also make sure that the device you are connecting does not pull more than 1A at 30 VDC. If we use a 12V lamp as an example, this means that the lamp must be 12 watts or less (Volt * Amp = Watts).
Now that the warnings are out of the way: Turn off the device and your light source by unplugging them. Then cut one of the wires from the 12V DC light into two like this:
Now we want the relay in the sensor to act like a button. When we press the button, the light should turn off. Insert one wire into the COM terminal and use the supplied screwdriver to tighten it. Give the wire a light tug to make sure you tightened the screw well. Don’t overtighten though as this may destroy the screw terminal. Then connect the other part of the cut wire to the NC (Normally Closed) connection. If the wire is connected to the NC terminal, the light will normally be on. When a person moves into the detection zone, the relay triggers to turn the light off since that opens the relay and breakes the connection.
To get the opposite effect (light turns on when you are detected), use COM with the NO (Normally Open) connection.
General hints and tips
Using very small zones can be tricky. Experiment with the speed settings (double-click the settings button) to get the best result. Keeping the zones above 1 meter (3 feet) will yield best results. The Slow Mode works best for small zones.
If the sensor does not give solid results, keep in mind that there are limits to what materials a radar such as this can “see thru”. If the radar is placed behind a thick material, you can try to unscrew the upper part of the box
Have a look in the FAQ in the Support section for more hints and tips.