New products: more new QTR HD sensor arrays by student engineering interns

All the student engineering interns we had over the summer from out-of-town colleges are headed back to school, so I get to announce the release of products they worked on over the summer. The new QTR sensors we are releasing today include the 15-channel version laid out by seventeen-year-old Chris H.

Hadouken! (2018 summer engineering intern Chris couldn’t come up with a clever pun to use for this picture of him posing with a circuit board he designed.)

You can see more about our new line of QTR reflectance sensor arrays in the first blog post I wrote about them a few weeks ago. One cool design and manufacturing aspect I did not mention then is that we designed these boards so that they could be populated at various densities. For example, that lets us make an 8-channel version with 8 mm sensor pitch on the same board that also works as a 15-channel array with 4 mm sensor pitch:

QTRX-MD-08RC Reflectance Sensor Array.

Here are some diagrams showing some of the thought that went into the soon-to-be released 31-channel version, which can also be populated to be an 8 mm pitch, 16-sensor array; a 12 mm pitch, 11-channel array; and a 20 mm pitch, 7-channel array:

Diagram of emitters and drivers on a QTR-HD-31x sensor array board with all sensors populated.

Diagram of emitters and drivers on a QTR-HD-31x sensor array board with 1/2 sensors populated.

Diagram of emitters and drivers on a QTR-HD-31x sensor array board with 1/3 sensors populated.

Diagram of emitters and drivers on a QTR-HD-31x sensor array board with 1/5 sensors populated.

With so many combinations of sensor types and output circuits, we won’t make every one of the possible arrangements a stock product, but the idea is that if you have an application where a particular sensor pitch is ideal for you, we can quickly make some for you without having to lay out new PCBs.

We expect eight channels on an 8 mm pitch to be a popular variant, so those will be stock products. We have also added the corresponding 4-channel version (using the same boards used for the full-density, 7-channel product), so this new product announcement covers twelve new stock sensor arrays:

QTR-HD-15RC Reflectance Sensor Array QTR-HD-15A Reflectance Sensor Array QTRX-HD-15RC Reflectance Sensor Array QTRX-HD-15A Reflectance Sensor Array	QTRX-HD-15RC Reflectance Sensor Array.
QTR-MD-08RC Reflectance Sensor Array QTR-MD-08A Reflectance Sensor Array QTRX-MD-08RC Reflectance Sensor Array QTRX-MD-08A Reflectance Sensor Array	QTRX-MD-08RC Reflectance Sensor Array.
QTR-MD-04RC Reflectance Sensor Array QTR-MD-04A Reflectance Sensor Array QTRX-MD-04RC Reflectance Sensor Array QTRX-MD-04A Reflectance Sensor Array	QTRX-MD-04RC Reflectance Sensor Array.

Our introductory promotions are still going strong! Be one of the first 100 customers using coupon code QTRINTRO and snag any of these new sensors at half price! (Limit 3 per item per customer.)

Related products

	QTR-HD-15RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 15-Channel, 4mm Pitch, RC Output
	QTR-HD-15A Reflectance Sensor Array: 15-Channel, 4mm Pitch, Analog Output
	QTRX-HD-15RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 15-Channel, 4mm Pitch, RC Output, Low Current
	QTRX-HD-15A Reflectance Sensor Array: 15-Channel, 4mm Pitch, Analog Output, Low Current
	QTR-MD-08RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 8-Channel, 8mm Pitch, RC Output
	QTR-MD-08A Reflectance Sensor Array: 8-Channel, 8mm Pitch, Analog Output
	QTRX-MD-08RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 8-Channel, 8mm Pitch, RC Output, Low Current
	QTRX-MD-08A Reflectance Sensor Array: 8-Channel, 8mm Pitch, Analog Output, Low Current
	QTR-MD-04RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 4-Channel, 8mm Pitch, RC Output
	QTR-MD-04A Reflectance Sensor Array: 4-Channel, 8mm Pitch, Analog Output
	QTRX-MD-04RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 4-Channel, 8mm Pitch, RC Output, Low Current
	QTRX-MD-04A Reflectance Sensor Array: 4-Channel, 8mm Pitch, Analog Output, Low Current