The Raspberry Pi has no built in analogue inputs which means it is a bit of a pain to use many of the available sensors. I wanted to update my garage security system with the ability to use more sensors so I decided to investigate an easy and cheap way to do it. The MCP3008 was the answer.
MCP3008 – 8-Channel 10-Bit ADC With SPI Interface – Need to add analog inputs? This chip will add 8 channels of 10-bit analog input to your microcontroller or microcomputer project. It’s super easy to use, and uses SPI so only 4 pins are required. We chose this chip as a great accompaniment to the Raspberry Pi computer, because its fun to have analog inputs but the Pi does not have an ADC. (read more)
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