TMP006 Hookup Guide
CONTRIBUTORS: JORDANDEE
TMP006 Overview
The TMP006 is a temperature sensor that can detect the temperature of an
object without having to make direct contact with it. The sensor has a
thermopile which absorbs infrared energy from the object. The thermopile is
composed of several thermocouples in series which each produce a
voltage when heated. The total voltage is read and stored within the sensor
as a number in a register. This number can then be used to calculate the
object temperature.
The sensor can measure temperatures between -40°C and 125°C. It can be
powered with 3.3V or 5V or anything in between. It can be used with battery
powered applications as it is low power and has a typical idle (quiescent)
current of 240 µA. It sports a very tiny form factor. You can interface with
the chip using I C and can have up to eight of them on the same I C bus.
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Suggested Readin
g
These boards aren’t too hard to use. If you’ve done anything with Arduino
before, you’ll be prepared to work with the TMP006. If you’re not exactly
sure what this “Arduino” thing is, or if you’re not familiar with the topics
below, consider reading these tutorials:
• What is an Arduino
• I C Communication
• How to Use a Breadboard
• How to Solder
• Light
Hardware Hookup
This temperature sensor is easy to hookup and only requires a minimum of
four connections. Two for power, VCC and GND, and two for I C
communication, SCL and SDA.
We’re going to use the Arduino Uno as an example of how to hook up and
talk to this sensor, however, feel free to choose any Arduino or a favorite
microcontroller of your choice.
Connections:
•VCC → 5V (or 3.3V)
•GND → GND
•SCL → A5 (or SCL for R3)
•SDA → A4 (or SDA for R3)
Here’s a Fritzing diagram showing the physical connections:
Multiple Sensors
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If you want to communicate with more than one sensor using the same
microcontroller’s I C lines, you will have to give them different addresses by
using the address pins, ADR0 and ADR1. By default, both pins are
grounded, and the sensor’s address is 0x40. Here is a table showing what
the address pins should be connected to to establish a different address.
Table of I C Addresses
ADR1ADR0I2C Address
GND GND 0x40
GND VCC 0x41
GND SDA 0x42
GND SCL 0x43
VCC GND 0x44
VCC VCC 0x45
VCC SDA 0x46
VCC SCL 0x47
As an example, if you wanted to use two sensors, you could leave one of
them as the default address 0x40 and connect the second sensor’s ADR0
pin to VCC to change its I2C address to 0x41. This will allow you to talk to
both sensors using just one microcontroller.
Data Ready?
The DRDY pin is unnecessary for most applications, however, if you really
need to know exactly when a sensor measurement is complete and ready
for reading, you can monitor this pin to see when it goes LOW. You can
then immediately acquire the temperature measurement data afterward.
Talking to the Sensor
Now that the hardware is set up, how do we actually receive temperature
data from the sensor? Well, we’ve got to do some coding. Luckily for you,
there isn’t much you have to modify if you want to get up and running
immediately, however we’ll explain the overall gist of how the code works in
this section.
Here is the download of the example code we’ll be using. You can also find
the most up-to-date code on GitHub. Feel free to dive right in and try to use
it or follow along for an overview.
In the beginning, we have two global variables. One stores the I C address
of the sensor, and the other stores how many times we’d like the sensor to
sample per temperature reading/calculation. Feel free to try the defaults
right away with the hardware setup described in the last section, no
changes necessary. Here they are:
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uint8_t sensor1 = 0x40; // I2C address of TMP006, can be 0x40
0x47
uint16_t samples = TMP006_CFG_8SAMPLE; // # of samples per rea
ding, can be 1/2/4/8/16
If you’d like to use multiple sensors, you’ll need to declare another sensor
variable and give it the appropriate address. Feel free to change the sample
rate regardless. Just keep in mind, the more samples it takes, the longer
you have to wait for a reading. It’s about a 1 second wait per 4 samples.
Next, let’s examine the setup loop. Here we initialize serial output so we
can display our readings. We also call a configuration function for our
TMP006 sensor. It sets up some defaults for us to get going and also tells
the sensor how many samples per reading we want. If you’re using more
than one sensor, you’ll have to call this function for each one with the
appropriate I2C address.
void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.println("TMP006 Example");
config_TMP006(sensor1, samples);
}
Within the loop function, we call two main functions. The first gives us the
temperature of the object in front of the sensor, and the second gives us the
temperature of the sensor itself. Both are then sent via serial to your
computer and can be viewed using the Serial Monitor. Again, you’ll need to
add duplicates of these functions if you’re talking to multiple temperature
sensors.
void loop()
{
float object_temp = readObjTempC(sensor1);
Serial.print("Object Temperature: ");
Serial.print(object_temp); Serial.println("*C");
float sensor_temp = readDieTempC(sensor1);
Serial.print("Sensor Temperature: ");
Serial.print(sensor_temp); Serial.println("*C");
delay(2000); // delay 1 second for every 4 samples per readi
ng
}
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Running this code with the default configuration and the basic hardware
hookup, you will see both the object and sensor temperatures displayed on
the serial monitor every two seconds.
Exploring the Gorier Details…
So you want to learn more about the details of what’s going on in the
background? Read on!
There are two tabs in this example that implement the I2C functionality,
I2C_16.h and I2C_functions.ino . These allow the reading and writing of
data to the sensor. Take some time to learn about I2C via our tutorial
mentioned in the beginning. Also learn some about Arduino’s Wire library,
as it is what’s used to make this communication possible. Of course it is
possible to write your own I2C communication from scratch, but the Wire
library makes it much easier.
When it comes to acquiring the object temperature, we must make some
calculations because the sensor only gives us the thermopile voltage and a
raw temperature reading of the actual sensor itself. The equations
necessary for calculating object temperature can be found in section 5.1 of
the user guide. The TMP006_functions.ino tab includes the various
implementations necessary to get temperature readings. The calculations
based on the user guide can be found there. Within TMP006.h , you’ll find
various constants for the calculations, configuration settings, and the
sensor’s register addresses.
Feel free to explore this code as much as you want, and don’t be afraid to
modify it to better suit your needs.
Going Further
Now it’s time for you to go out and explore the real world applications where
you can use this sensor to measure the temperatures of the various things
you find. You have also gained enough knowledge that will allow you to use
other types of sensors that utilize I2C communication more easily. See
what you can build, and feel free to show it to us or give us feedback
regarding this tutorial. Enjoy!
Resources
•Example Code
• TMP006 Datasheet
• TMP006 User Guide
• Breakout Board Schematic
• Breakout Board Eagle Files
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Other
I
C Projects and Products
Both of these tutorials have I C communication. They can also both be
used in conjunction with this sensor to act as a display for the temperature.
• Serial 7-Segement Display Hook-Up Guide
• OpenSegment Hook-Up Guide
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