FLEX SENSOR

The flex sensor pictured below are the sensors which change their resistance when bent
.The change is resistance is linear in forward direction ie., out of the screen in relation to the picture
below. An unflexed/unbent the sensor has a resistance few hundred ohms. As the flex sensor is
bent, the resistance increases to kilo ohms . The sensor measures 1/4 inch wide, 4-1/2 inches long
and 0.19 inches thick.

Flex Sensor

Flex sensor circuit

Flex Sensor circuit

 If R2 = 33 kohm, and the input voltage is 5 volts, then the output voltage will be in
the range from 2.8 to 4 volts. The positive power to the op-amp can be 5 volts and the
negative power to the op-amp can be 0 volts.

Features

 Angle Displacement Measurement

 Bends and Flexes physically with motion device
 Possible Uses
 Robotics
 Gaming (Virtual Motion)
 Medical Devices
 Computer Peripherals
 Musical Instruments
 Physical Therapy
 Simple Construction
 Low Profile

Operation of Flex Sensors

Flex Sensors are sensors that change in resistance depending on the amount of bend in the
sensor. They convert change in bend to electrical resistance - the more the bend, the more the
resistance value. They are usually in the form of thin strips from 1”-5” long that vary in resistance
from approximately 10 to 50 kilo ohms. They are often used in gloves to sense finger movements.
Flex sensors are analog resistors. They work as variable analog voltage dividers. Inside the flex
sensors carbon resistive elements are placed with in a thick flexible substrate. More carbon means
less resistance. When the substrate is bent the sensor produces a variable resistance output, relative
to the bend radius. With a typical flex sensor a flex of 0 degrees will give 10K resistance with a flex
of 90 degrees will give 30-40 K ohms. The bend sensors lists resistance of 30-250K ohms.
 Variation in Resistance of Flex Sensors

Available in three resistance ranges

 FLX-01-L Low resistance range, nominal resistance between 1K - 20K
 FLX-01-M Medium resistance range, nominal resistance between 20K - 50K

 FLX-01-H High resistance range, nominal resistance between 50K - 200K

The application of the Flex Sensor are

 Collision detection on mobile robots
 VR Gloves and VR suits

 Physics applications and experiments

 Fig-FLEX SENSORS UNIT

Interfacing with the Microcontroller

The o/p of flex sensors can be amplified can be given to an ADC to get the digital value.

This digital/p of ADC can be fed to microcontroller for further operations.

The Common circuit is as shown below.

 +5V

1
U 7
150k

U 9

2
2 F LE X1
1

F LE X_S N S R

+5V

U 1
F LE X4 1 2 8 F LE X3
2 IN 3 IN 2 2 7
F LE X5 IN 4 IN 1 F LE X2
3 2 6 F LE X1
4 IN 5 IN 0 2 5
IN 6 AD D A A D C 09_M U X_A
5 2 4 A D C 09_M U X_B
6 IN 7 AD D B 2 3
STAR T AD D C A D C 09_M U X_C
7 2 2
8 EO C ALE 2 1
2 (5 ) 2 (1 )M S B A D C 7
9 2 0 A D C 6
1 0 O /P E N 2 (2 ) 1 9
AD C 09_STA R T C LK C LO C K 2 (3 ) A D C 5
AD C 09_E O C 1 1 1 8 A D C 4
1 2 VC C 2 (4 ) 1 7
AD C 09_O P_EN V R E F (+ ) 2 (8 )L S B A D C 3
AD C 09_ALE 1 3 1 6 A D C 2
1 4 G N D V R E F (-) 1 5
2 (7 ) 2 (6 ) A D C 1
A D C 0
AD C 0809
+5V

C LK

+5V

+5V
1

R 1
100E U 2
2
1

C 1 0 .1 u F 1 8 1 R 2 1K 2
2 1 2 G N D VC C 7
T R IG D IS C H J5
2

3 6 1 R 3 1K 2
4 O U T TH R ES 5 1 2 B U R G _ 2 P IN
R ESET C O N T 0 .1 u F C 2
5 5 5 T IM E R

ADC0809
FLOW CHART

Flex sensor – connect one end to pullup other end

to GND

O/P of sensor is connected to I/P of ADC.

If Sensor is forced to any change in shape ,

The Sensor Analog is converted to Digital and sent to micro-controller

The math operation is done by the controller to respective value form

Finally the sensor reading is sent to O/P device like LCD