Capacitive Sensor Add-On Library for Arduino

Communicate with capacitive sensor built with two Arduino pins in MATLAB

This add-on is supported for MATLAB R2019a or higher.

This add-on library extends MATLAB Support Package for Arduino Hardware to read from capacitive sensors built with two Arduino pins, a resistor, and a piece of foil. With this add-on, you can estimate the proximity or touch by reading the capacitance value measured in arbitrary units.

Sample usage:

Create arduino object with the add-on library

a = arduino('COM38', 'Uno', 'Libraries', 'PaulStoffregen/CapacitiveSensor');

Create capacitive sensor object

sensor = addon(a, 'PaulStoffregen/CapacitiveSensor', 'D9', 'D2');

Obtain sensed capacitance

cap = readCapacitance(sensor, 30);

It includes documentation and an example that demonstrates the use with the capacitive sensor to detect touch or proximity.

Important: Before using this add-on library in MATLAB, you need to install the CapacitiveSensor Arduino library. Here are the instructions:

Installation:

1. Download the zip file from https://github.com/PaulStoffregen/CapacitiveSensor/archive/0.5.1.zip
2. Unpackage the zip into local directory and rename the folder to ‘CapacitiveSensor’.
3. Move the ‘CapacitiveSensor’ folder into the "libraries" folder inside your Arduino sketchbook folder:

For R2019a:

• On Windows®, the default path is "Documents\Arduino\libraries\"
• On Mac®, the default path is "~/Documents/Arduino/libraries/"
• On Linux®, the default path is "/home/<username>/Arduino/libraries"

For R2019b and later:

• On Windows®, the default path is "Arduino IDE Path\portable\sketchbook\libraries\"
• On Mac®, the default path is "~/Documents/Arduino/libraries/"
• On Linux®, the default path is "Arduino IDE Path/portable/sketchbook/libraries/"

Note: Arduino IDE Path is returned by the following command in the MATLAB Command Window

arduinoio.IDERoot

For R2024a and later, across all operating systems, the library location can be determined by executing the following command:

fullfile(arduinoio.CLIRoot, 'user','libraries')

Troubleshooting tips:

1. After installing this add-on library and the required Arduino library, type "listArduinoLibraries" in MATLAB to see if the add-on is properly installed.
2. Wire up the Arduino board and the add-on device properly before creating the object to avoid a connection error in MATLAB.
3. Refer to the documentation for details on usage and syntax. It can be found under Supplemental Software in the product documentation.

Feel free to contact the MATLAB Hardware Team if you have questions about this add-on library:

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/profile/contact/4922363-mathworks-matlab-hardware-team