MKR Sensor Shield

This documentation includes hardware info, installation guidelines and sample code for your hardware.

Overall Info

Turta MKR Sensor Shield is a multi-sensor carrier for Arduino MKR series boards. It combines an environmental sensor, ambient light & proximity sensor, accel & tilt sensor, and a micro SD card slot.

Illustration

Connections

• Stackable Headers

• Micro SD Card Slot

Specifications

Turta MKR Sensor Shield's specifications are as follows:

ST HTS221 Temperature and Relative Humidity Sensor

Measures temperature and relative humidity.

• Temperature: Measures -40 °C to 120 °C temperature with ±0.5 °C accuracy (inside 15 to 40 °C).

• Humidity: Measures relative humidity within 0% to 100% range, in ± 3.5% rH, 20 to 80% rH (± 5% rH, 0 to 100% rH)

• Factory calibrated.

The sensor uses 0x5F address over the I2C bus for communication and A0 pin for DRDY interrupt.

Broadcom APDS-9960 Ambient light, RGB, Gesture and Proximity Sensor

Measures ambient light, RGB values and proximity. Detects hand gestures.

• Ambient Light: Measures ambient light with UV and IR blocking features.

• Color Detection: Measures RGBC channels with UV and IR blocking features.

• Hand Gesture Detection: Detects left, right, up and down directions within 30cm to the sensor.

• Proximity Detection: Detects distance to the object up to 30cm from the sensor.

The sensor uses 0x39 address on the I2C bus for communication and D7 pin for interrupt.

NXP MMA8491Q Accelerometer & Tilt Sensor

Measures 3 axis acceleration. Generates interrupt on tilt detect.

• Acceleration: Measures +/- 8g acceleration data with 1 mg accuracy.

• Tilt Detection: Generates interrupt over 0.688g acceleration or 43.5 degrees of tilt.

The sensor uses 0x55 address over the I2C bus for communication and A1, A2, A3 pins for interrupts.

User LEDs

There are two LEDs on-board for user-defined purposes.

Blue LED is connected to the D2 pin, and Red LED is connected to the D3 pin.

Micro SD Card Slot

There is a micro SD card slot for data logging purposes. The slot is a push-pull style which eliminates external card eject.

The micro SD data line is connected to the SPI bus and CS is connected to D4 pin.

Prerequisites

To get maximum performance from your hardware, please make sure you'll meet the following requirements.

Compatibility

This shield works with Arduino MKR series boards.

Board	Compatibility	Notes
Arduino MKR WiFi 1000	Not tested
Arduino MKR WiFi 1010	Yes

Software

To program your device, a recent version of the Arduino IDE should be installed on your computer. Go to www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software and then select your operating system to download and run Arduino IDE.

Arduino Libraries

A library is responsible for communicating with sensors and other components on board to read values and control them. The shield comes with easy to use methods and examples.

Set-up

1. To download the library content, go to github.com/Turta-io/MKR_SensorShield address and download the library files to your computer.

2. Locate the "libraries" folder inside the Arduino sketch folder.

3. Copy the library folders inside the "libraries" folder.

4. To check the installation, start the Arduino IDE and go to File > Examples folder. You should see the library names you copied in Examples folder.

Programming

You can find detailed documentation of each module in the subsections.

pageHTS221 Temp RH SensorpageAPDS-9960 Light SensorpageMMA8491Q Accel Tilt SensorpageUser LEDspageMicro SD Card

Troubleshooting

If you're experiencing difficulties while working with your device, please try the following steps.

Problem: The libraries do not communicate with the sensors or the LEDs blink randomly. Cause: There may be an incompatible shield connected between Arduino and the shield. Solution: Please make sure the shield is the only one board connected to the Arduino, and temporarily remove all the connections from any pins. Retry uploading the sketch again.