Thermal Infrared Sensor — GY-906

MLX90614 —Melexis Contact-less Infrared Sensor thermometer over a 2-wire, I2C-like interface (SMBus)— NaveTECH & UNIR Series — Episode # 03

Published in

Jungletronics

3 min readJan 4, 2024

Hi, In this episode, we will be crafting Version 1 of a non-contact thermometer.

This is my straightforward setup. You can cross-reference it with the pinout below to better comprehend the actions you are taking.

Above is the Fritzing schematic provided for your convenience. SCL=YELLOW=A5 and SDA=GREEN=A4

Here’s the pinout of the MLX9614 SENSOR.

Our leading-edge IR sensing technologies are used for motion detection, presence monitoring, temperature measurement, and gas detection to enable smarter homes, improved energy efficiency, better health, safer home security, and a more expansive and connected IOT.

The Sensor

This cyber-tronic looking sensor hides a secret behind its glimmering eye. Unlike most temperature sensors, this sensor measures infrared light emitted off of remote objects so it can sense temperature without having to touch them physically. Simply point the sensor towards what you want to measure and it will detect the temperature by absorbing IR waves emitted. Because it doesn’t have to touch the object it’s measuring, it can sense a wider range of temperatures than most digital sensors: from -70°C to +380°C! It measures a 90-degree field of view so it can be handy for determining the average temperature of an area.

This sensor comes in an easy-to-use metal can. You can easily solder it or plug it into a breadboard. The four pins are used for power, ground, i2c clock, and i2c data. There are two versions, one for 3V power and logic levels and one for 5V power and logic levels. This item is the 5V version! — good for use by classic Arduinos. You’ll also want two 10K pull-up resistors for the I2C data lines, which we thoughtfully include.

Of course, we wouldn’t just hand you a datasheet and wish you luck, we’ve written an easy-to-use tutorial & Arduino library with an example that will have you up and running in 5 minutes. The code can also be ported to any microcontroller with i2c support. (from https://www.adafruit.com/product/1748)