There are many different sensors that can be used to detect motion in a given environment. Passive InfraRed (PIR) sensors are the most used today, as they work by detecting moving heat signatures. However, they are less reliable in the hotter days and obviously only work for animals and humans.
Sensors like the one shown in the above picture started to appear on the internet, they use the doppler effect to detect motion. I (limpkin) designed the electronics you need to add in order to get them to work.
Here is a simple explanation of the doppler effect: if you send an RF signal at a given frequency to a moving target, the reflected signal’s frequency will be shifted. It is commonly heard when a vehicle sounding a siren or horn approaches, passes, and recedes from an observer. The received frequency is higher (compared to the emitted frequency) during the approach, it is identical at the instant of passing by, and it is lower during the recession.
The Doppler motion sensor I bought only outputs a non-amplified signal of a few micro-volts, whose frequency represents the speed at which an object is moving towards or away from the sensor. The output can be very noisy, so in addition to amplifying the signal, I needed to filter out frequencies that don’t match what you can expect from ordinary objects.
I even made a simple video showing off the result:
All the files can be downloaded from my website, and I also made a fundraiser where I mention the predicted costs.Filed under: hardware
