# Piezoelectric Ribbon Sensor - 2 feet / 600mm long

**Type:** Product page · **SKU:** ADA4931 · **Brand:** [Adafruit](https://core-electronics.com.au/brands/adafruit-australia)
**Page:** https://core-electronics.com.au/piezoelectric-ribbon-sensor-2-feet-600mm-long.html ([markdown](https://core-electronics.com.au/piezoelectric-ribbon-sensor-2-feet-600mm-long.html.md))

This thin silvery ribbon is an interesting sensor. It's made of 2mm wide by 600mm long piezoelectric film sandwich. Piezo film can be used to detect motion or vibration - when shifted around or touched, it creates a small current pulse across the terminals. If a 1 Mega-ohm resistor is placed across the two terminals you will see the current converted into a voltage that can be read by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC).

## Pricing

- **Price:** $42.95 (inc GST) — $39.05 AUD, exc GST
- **Quantity discounts:** 10+ $37.87 (exc GST) · 50+ $37.09 (exc GST)

## Availability & dispatch

- Available with a lead time — expect dispatch between Aug 19 and Aug 24.

## Description

This thin silvery ribbon is an interesting sensor. It's made of 2mm wide by 600mm long piezoelectric film sandwich. Piezo film can be used to detect motion or vibration - when shifted around or touched, it creates a small current pulse across the terminals. If a 1 Mega-ohm resistor is placed across the two terminals you will see the current converted into a voltage that can be read by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC).

Basically, connect one tab to ground, another tab to the ADC input of your microcontroller or ADC, and a 1M resistor across both, then read the analog input while touching/poking/twisting the piezo element and you'll see little spikes of voltage whenever the piezo has vibrated. [This Arduino guide shows a wiring and code example](https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/BuiltInExamples/Knock).

Usually piezos are round hard disks, which is why Adafruit thought this thin and flexible version was interesting. There could be some unique sensing projects that need to sense over a long, flexible distance. Like perhaps a wearable project with a sensor sewn into clothing, or feedback for a robotic actuator. Initially, these were designed for sleep sensors, to be placed underneath a mattress to detect how much the sleeper shifted around through the night.

Comes with a dual metal contact tab with 0.2" spacing between the two contacts, on one end. You can cut this down if desired but once cut you won't be able to reattach!

## Images

- [Product image 1](https://core-electronics.com.au/media/catalog/product/4/9/4931-02.jpg)