Day 18 Arduino Advent Calendar
First published at Monday, December 18 2017
Let's Get Started with the Day 18 Guide!
Arduino Advent Calendar Day 18 - Alcohol Sensor, Hic!
If you're under the age of 18, you will need to enlist Mum or Dad to help with "acquiring the data".
Today we're going to have a look at an alcohol sensor. These sensors detect how much alcohol gas is in the air.
Behind the mesh of the sensor is a sensing element made out of tin dioxide (SnO2). This element is heated up and when we breathe on it, (assuming we've got some alcohol on our breath), any Ethyl alcohol present is oxidized into acetic acid which decreases the resistance of the tin dioxide element. Internally a voltage divider then outputs this change in resistance as a change in voltage.
Yup, enough talking about it let's go and build up the circuit over at guides.littlebird.com.au !
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If you find you're getting stuck with today's guide, hit up our team of highly trained Arduino ninjas on this forum thread.