Summary
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The ESP32 rotates the HC-SR04 in one step to create a continuous 360° ultrasonic radar.
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Angle and distance pairs are passed over TCP to the Generation UI, which plots the live radar on the PC.
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The ESP32 controls everything; the source code is clear and documented – read it instead of just copy-pasting.
For years, tinkerers have helped us answer the age-old question: what’s going on around us? Okay, sure, you can turn your head and look, but it’s not nearly as cool and fun as making a device that improves its appearance. for you So we’ve seen all kinds of projects, from motion sensors to security cameras, to help us see more than we normally can.
But what about the humble sonar? Can you build one of these at home? Yes, as it turns out, you can; all you need is an ESP32, some motors, batteries and a rotating platform and you have something that looks like scanners. Alien.
This ESP32-powered 360° ultrasonic radar is focused on you
It even has its own pair of “eyes”.
This cool project was the brainchild of SciCraft, who uploaded a YouTube video showing how to build it and what it looks like in action. They were also kind enough to upload the source code and instructions to GitHub, so you can follow along if you want to do it at home.
Here’s how SciCraft describes the project:
This is not a fancy sensory integration project. It’s a clean, minimal system that answers one question: Where are the objects around me at each angle?
The ESP32 drives a stepper motor that rotates the HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor in a continuous 360° sweep. It reads and transmits the distance at regular angular intervals
angle,distancePairs with a Generation-based radar UI running on a PC over a TCP socket. The UI plots these readings in real-time and gives you a live radar screen.
The developer also says that the ESP32 controls everything you see in this project. No auxiliary board works as a backup; everything works from the microprocessor, which is really nice to see.
Fortunately, the developer has also compiled the source code in a way that is easy to read. They also took the time to explain each part of the code the project’s GitHub pageso you can understand what each part does and why. While the developer understands that you’re just copying and pasting the code and continuing, it recommends familiarizing yourself with what it does so you can better troubleshoot and adapt it to different sensors or engines.
