Using a Sparkfun Sound Detector

What is the Sound Detector?

The Sound Detector is a board made by Sparkfun electronics that provides a way to detect ambient sound levels. sound detector.png

There are three connections on the board:

Wiring

There are two options for wiring, you can use both at the same time:

Digital

Wired up in digital mode the sound detector signals if the sound level is low with a LOW signal, and high with a HIGH signal.

This method requires:

  1. Power (VCC to 5V)
  2. Ground (GND to GND)
  3. Gate to a digital pin on the Arduino (yellow wire in the diagram)

There are three wires: soundDetectorDigitalDiagram-01.png

Analog

Wired up in analog mode the sound detector provides voltage proportional to the sound level.

This method requires:

  1. Power (VCC to 5V)
  2. Ground (GND to GND)
  3. Envelope to a analog pin on the Arduino (turquoise wire in the diagram)

There are three wires:

soundDetectorAnalogDiagram.png

Getting started

Once wired, the code is that of a standard digitalRead or analogRead to obtain the value.

Example code reading envelope

#define envelopePin A0

void setup() {
  Serial.begin( 9600 );
  pinMode( envelopePin, INPUT );
}

void loop() {
  Serial.println( analogRead( envelopePin ) );
}

Example code reading gate

#define gatePin 2

void setup() {
  Serial.begin( 9600 );
  pinMode( gatePin, INPUT );
}

void loop() {
  Serial.println( digitalRead( gatePin ) );
}

Resources


Revision #3
Created 8 May 2017 12:33:55 by Tom Lynch
Updated 7 July 2025 10:45:38 by Joanne Leung