Wireless Programming with Reflective Sensor and Backpack-Wearing Bees

Electronics enthusiast Ido Gendel has created a remote-controlled proximity sensor that can be programmed wirelessly. The device uses an off-the-shelf sensor with an IR LED and a phototransistor pointed in the same direction that gives a digital output when the light bouncing back into the phototransistor exceeds a certain threshold. Gendel's programmable drop-in replacement uses an ATtiny212 microcontroller and a couple of components to control the power of the LED so the sensor can do double duty. A programmer using the same sensor and a USB-to-UART adapter completes the system, and allows the sensor threshold to be set just by shining the programmer in its general direction from up to 25 cm away.