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How HC-SR501 PIR Sensor Works & How

To Interface It With Arduino

8-10 minutes

Every mad scientist’s lab, or teenager’s secret room,

needs advanced protection against intrusion by rogue
agents or siblings. If you are one of them, you should
probably consider getting a Passive infrared (PIR) sensor
for you. PIR sensors allow you to detect when someone
is in your room when they shouldn’t be.

Though it may seem like something out of a spy movie,

you likely use PIR sensors every day. This sensor is the
same you will find in most modern security systems,
automatic light switches, garage door openers and
similar applications where the operation of some
electrical device is necessary only in the presence of
humans.

How PIR Motion Sensor Works?

If you didn’t know, all objects with a temperature above
Absolute Zero (0 Kelvin / -273.15 °C) emit heat energy in
the form of infrared radiation, including human bodies.
The hotter an object is, the more radiation it emits.

PIR sensor is specially designed to detect such levels of

infrared radiation. It basically consists of two main parts:
A Pyroelectric Sensor and A special lens called Fresnel
lens which focuses the infrared signals onto the
pyroelectric sensor.

A Pyroelectric Sensor actually has two rectangular slots

in it made of a material that allows the infrared radiation
to pass. Behind these, are two separate infrared sensor
electrodes, one responsible for producing a positive
output and the other a negative output. The reason for
that is that we are looking for a change in IR levels and
not ambient IR levels. The two electrodes are wired up
so that they cancel each other out. If one half sees more
or less IR radiation than the other, the output will swing
high or low.

When the sensor is idle, i.e. there is no movement

around the sensor; both slots detect the same amount of
infrared radiation, resulting in a zero output signal.
But when a warm body like a human or animal passes
by; it first intercepts one half of the PIR sensor, which
causes a positive differential change between the two
halves. When the warm body leaves the sensing area,
the reverse happens, whereby the sensor generates a
negative differential change. The corresponding pulse of
signals results in the sensor setting its output pin high.

HC-SR501 PIR Motion Detector

For most of our Arduino projects that need to detect
when a person has left or entered the area, or has
approached, HC-SR501 PIR sensors are a great choice.
They are low power and low cost, pretty rugged, have a
wide lens range, easy to interface with and are insanely
popular among hobbyists.

HC-SR501 PIR sensor has three output pins VCC, Output

and Ground as shown in the diagram below. It has a
built-in voltage regulator so it can be powered by any DC
voltage from 4.5 to 12 volts, typically 5V is used. Other
than this, there are a couple options you have with your
PIR. Let’s check them out.

There are two potentiometers on the board to adjust a

couple of parameters:

Sensitivity– This sets the maximum distance that

motion can be detected. It ranges from 3 meters to
approximately 7 meters. The topology of your room
can affect the actual range you achieve.
 Time– This sets how long that the output will remain
HIGH after detection. At minimum it is 3 seconds, at
maximum it is 300 seconds or 5 minutes.

Finally the board has a jumper (on some models the

jumper is not soldered in). It has two settings:

Making HC-SR501 PIR Sensor more

versatile
The HC-SR501 circuit board has solder pads for two
additional components. These are usually labeled as ‘RT’
and ‘RL’. Note that on some boards the labels may be
covered by the “dome” lens on the side opposite the
components.

RT– This is meant for a thermistor or temperature-

sensitive resistor. Adding this allows the HC-SR501
to be used in extreme temperatures, it also increases
the accuracy of the detector to some degree.
RL– This connection is for a Light Dependant
Resistor (LDR) or Photoresistor. By adding this
 component the HC-SR501 will only operate in
darkness, a common application for motion-sensitive
lighting systems.

The additional components can be soldered directly to

the board or extended to remote locations using wires
and connectors.

HC-SR501 PIR Sensor Pinout

The HC-SR501 has a 3-pin connector that interfaces it to
the outside world. The connections are as follows:

VCC is the power supply for HC-SR501 PIR sensor which

we connect the 5V pin on the Arduino.

Output pin is a 3.3V TTL logic output. LOW indicates no

motion is detected, HIGH means some motion has been
detected.
GND should be connected to the ground of Arduino.

Using PIR Sensor as a standalone

unit
One of the reasons of HC-SR501 PIR sensor being
extremely popular is the fact that HC-SR501 is a very
versatile sensor that is pretty capable all on its own. And
by interfacing it to some microcontrollers like an Arduino
you can expand upon its versatility even further. For our
first experiment we will use the HC-SR501 on its own to
illustrate how useful it is by itself.

The wiring for this experiment is very simple. Batteries

are connected across VCC and GND of the sensor and a
small Red LED is connected to the output pin through a
220Ω current limiting resistor. That’s it!

Now when the PIR detects motion, the output pin will go
“high” and light up the LED!
This illustrates how a PIR Sensor can be used in standalone
applications.

Remember once you power up the circuit you need to

wait 30-60 seconds for the PIR to acclimatize to the
infrared energy in the room. During that time the LED
may blink a little. Wait until the LED is off and then move
around in front of it, waving a hand, etc, to see the LED
light up!

Wiring – Connecting PIR Sensor to

Arduino UNO
Now that we have a complete understanding of how PIR
sensor works, we can begin hooking it up to our Arduino!

Connecting PIR sensors to a microcontroller is really

simple. The PIR acts as a digital output so all you need
to do is listen for the output pin to flip HIGH (Motion
Detected) or LOW (Not Detected). Power the PIR with 5V
and connect ground to ground. Then connect the output
to a digital pin #2.

You will want to set the jumper on the HC-SR501 to the H

(Retriggering) position for this to work correctly. You’ll
also need to set the TIME to the minimum of 3 seconds,
turn the TIME potentiometer as far counterclockwise as
it will go. Set the sensitivity anywhere you like, set it to
midpoint if you are not sure.

With that, you’re now ready to upload some code and get
the PIR working.

Wiring PIR Sensor to Arduino UNO

Arduino Code
The code is very simple, and is basically just keeps track
of whether the input to pin#2 is HIGH or LOW.

int ledPin = 13; // choose

the pin for the LED
int inputPin = 8; // choose
the input pin (for PIR sensor)
int pirState = LOW; // we
start, assuming no motion detected
int val = 0; //
variable for reading the pin status
void setup() {
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT); // declare
LED as output
pinMode(inputPin, INPUT); // declare
sensor as input

Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop(){
val = digitalRead(inputPin); // read
input value

if (val == HIGH) // check if the

input is HIGH
{
digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH); // turn
LED ON

if (pirState == LOW)
{
Serial.println("Motion
detected!"); // print on output change
pirState = HIGH;
}
}
else
{
digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); // turn LED
OFF

if (pirState == HIGH)
{
Serial.println("Motion ended!"); //
print on output change
pirState = LOW;
}
}
}
At the end we will print a message on the serial monitor
when motion is detected.

PIR Sensor output on serial monitor

Things to consider before designing

PIR based applications
As with most PIR sensors the HC-SR501 requires some
time to acclimatize to the infrared energy in the room.
This takes from 30 to 60 seconds when the sensor is
first powered up.

In addition the sensor has a “reset” period of about 5 or

6 seconds after making a reading. During this time it will
not detect any motion.
When designing a system based upon the HC-SR501 you
will need to take these delay periods into account.