I purchased one of each of these cheap sensors recently from aliexpress for testing purposes. Compared with the ubiquitous HC-SR04^(*), I liked the idea of having a combined emitter/receiver, i.e. smaller footprint, and the I2C/UART interface. As documentation on the web is sparse, I decided to collect the little information I found and throw my I2C mode test code into a little library.

My overall test results and experiences are a bit mixed, I think in many cases the good old HC-SR04 will still be an adequate choice, due to the 1X05's depressingly long minimum range of 25 cm.

I made a fischertechnik compatible case for both versions which you can find over at thingiverse or printables:

^(*)Note: only after writing most of this up, I realized there is a "newer" HC-SR04P module (notice the "P") which probably uses the same flavor of chip. I expect that most of what I write here, as well as the library and the UART/serial example sketch, will apply.

The library for the sensors' I2C interface supports three modes of operation, oneShot (blocking), triggered (non blocking), and continuous (non blocking). See example code below and library documentation for RCWL_1X05::setMode().

Results can be raw or filtered, see RCWL_1X05::setFilter().

The default timeout of 100 ms can be changed with RCWL_1X05::setTimeout().

A temperature correction is available, but due to incomplete documentation it might be off, see RCWL_1X05::setTemperature().

By default, Wire.h is used, but other I2C libraries derived from TwoWire can replace it, see RCWL_1X05::begin(TwoWire*,uint8_t).

Find the full library documentation here.

#include <RCWL_1X05.h>
#include <Wire.h>

RCWL_1X05 sensor;

void setup() {  
  Serial.begin(115200); delay (500);
  Serial.println("==============\nRCWL_1X05 demo\n==============\n\n");  
  Wire.begin(); // must be called before sensor.begin()
  if (not sensor.begin()) {
    Serial.println("Sensor not found. Check connections and I2C-pullups and restart sketch.");
    while (true) {}
  } else {
    Serial.println("Sensor ready, let's start\n\n");
    delay(1000);
  }
  
  Serial.print("One shot mode measurement (blocking) = ");
  sensor.setMode(RCWL_1X05::oneShot); // not really needed, it's the default mode
  Serial.print(sensor.read()); Serial.println(" mm\n\n");
  delay(2000);
  
  Serial.print("Triggered mode measurement (non blocking) = ");
  sensor.setMode(RCWL_1X05::triggered);
  sensor.trigger();
  delay(100); // do something meaningful here, but wait long enough before reading.
  Serial.print(sensor.read()); Serial.println(" mm\n\n");
  delay(2000);
  
  Serial.println("Switching to continuous mode measurement with filter and 50 ms timeout\n\n");
  sensor.setFilter(true); // filter is turned off by default
  sensor.setTimeout(50); // 100 ms is recommended, but lower values might work
  sensor.setMode(RCWL_1X05::continuous);  
}
    
void loop() {
  bool newData = sensor.update(); // calling update() repeatedly is crucial in continuous mode
  if (newData) {
    Serial.print(sensor.read()); Serial.println(" mm");
  }
}

The English "datasheet" I included is compiled from different aliexpress product sites, it is not an official datasheet. However, the information seems to be a more or less direct translation of the Chinese "datasheet", which honestly I can't remember where and how I found it, it might have been a product page at a Chinese only market place, taobao or something.

The company website of "Wuxi Richen Wulian Technology Co., Ltd." is hard to find, the one mentioned in the "datasheet", www.wx-rcwl.com, is not working. I managed to track them down with the help of the self-diagnostic company info which the modules provide in serial/UART mode (see Serial_demo.ino), by googling for the GB18030 encoded Chinese company name 无锡日晨物联, which led to the correct URL https://www.sz-rcwl.com/. However, they don't provide datasheets there, neither in the Chinese, nor the English page version. I tried to contact them, but have not heard back to date.

It seems both module use a chip developed by said manufacturer. Its name varies in the sources, RCWL-9624, RCWL-9625, RCWL-9623, RCCL-9624 all can be found. The website only lists a 9600 chip, I assume we are dealing with variants of this chip. Note it seems the new HC-SR04P modules are equipped with the "default" 9600 flavor, which identifies itself as RCWL-2020 in UART/serial mode.

I could not find any useful information on the differences between the two versions, apart from the diameter of the combined emitter/receiver, which is encoded in the first two digits, i.e. 10 mm (RCWL-1005) and 16 mm (RCWL-1605). I assume this diameter will have an impact on range, angle, and sensitivity, but I did not run systematic tests on that.

Also, it could be both modules use different variants of the aforementioned chip, RCWL-9624 vs. RCWL-9623, but that could just be typos as well. I could not identify any chip label on my own modules. The serial/UART sketch shows that both modules correctly identify themselves as 1605 vs. 1005, so the chips differ at least in that regard.

You can select the interface mode with two resistor bridges by adding 10K resistors or leaving them open. For a change, this is documented quite well in a table in the "datasheet" and on the module itself. The bridges are labeled M1 (= R8) and M2 (= R6). Looking at the module schematic, I think that the resistors are not (only) simple pullups. The 10K value might actually be meaningful, as they are also part of a voltage divider for the emitter/receiver. My knowledge of electronics is limited, though, and I have not tested other values than 10K.

The modules' I2C mode is extremely basic, at least as far as it is documented. See the library documentation and example code below for details.

According to the schematic there's no I2C pullups included on the module, so be sure to add them to the bus, and of course set the 10K resistor at M2.

Serial mode is also very basic, but it includes an additional info/version command. See Serial_demo.ino if you want to test it, but don't forget to set the 10K resistor at M1.

The module's default two-wire mode should work just like the HC-SR04 by using the trigger and echo pins. I have not tested this mode.

One-wire needs both M1 and M2 set with 10K resistors. I assume it uses the "Trig_RX_SCL_I/O" pin. It should work just as the HC-SR04 in pin shared mode, as supported e.g. by AsyncSonar libarary. I have not tested this mode.

Major differences are highlighted.

⁽¹⁾ "GPIO mode", emitter (output) and receiver (input) on separate pins

⁽²⁾ shared pin, switched between out- and input during one measurement cycle

⁽³⁾ by connecting trigger and echo pin, implemented e.g. by AsyncSonar libarary

Contact me at [email protected].

Jan (juh)

This software is Copyright (C) 2023 juh ([email protected])

This software is distributed under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2.

see releases page