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Calibrator: An Arduino library to calibrate sensors hooked to analog inputs

Once you get past your first few projects with the Arduino, you soon realize that the calibration method they show on their webpage is just a sample and cannot be used with many sensors without polluting your code with a ton of variables.

So, here it is. My own take on sensor calibration library. You can download the source code and a more detailed explanation on the github Calibrator page.

This is how you use it:

#include <Calibrator.h>

Calibrator calibrator;

int sensorPin = A0; // The sensor we want to calibrate
int ledPin = 13;    // Will indicate when calibration is going on

void setup()
{
    pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
    digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH); // Turn LED on
    Serial.begin(9600);

    // Reset the calibrator. You only need to call reset() if you restart calibration again but
    // if calibration is only run once like in this example is not needed. It doesn't hurt to 
    // call it here though. 
    calibrator.reset();

    // Run calibration automatically during the first 
    // five seconds (or 5000 milliseconds) your code runs.
    // It is important that during calibration you "exercise" your sensors to measure both 
    // ends of their range.
    while (millis() < 5000) {
        calibrator.setValue(analogRead(sensorPin));
    }
    digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); // Turn LED off
}

void loop()
{
    // In your code analogRead(sensorPin) will give you the uncalibrated value
    // and calibrator.getValue(analogRead(sensorPin)) will give you the calibrated value 

    Serial.print("Sensor value: ");
    Serial.print(analogRead(sensorPin));
    Serial.print(" , Calibrator value: ");
    Serial.println(calibrator.getValue(analogRead(sensorPin)));
}

 

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