IR Break Beam Sensor (5mm LEDs)

Infrared (IR) break-beam sensors are a simple way to detect motion.

They work by having an emitter side that sends out a beam of human-invisible IR light, then a receiver across the way which is sensitive to that same light. When something passes between the two, and its not transparent to IR, then the 'beam is broken' and the receiver will let you know.

Compared to PIR sensors, breakbeams are faster and allow better control of where you want to detect the motion. Compared to Sonar modules, they're less expensive. However, you do need both emitter and receiver on opposite sides of the area you want to monitor.

This is the 5mm IR version.  It works up to 50cm / 20". You can power it from 3.3V or 5V, but 5V will get you better range and is what we suggest. The receiver is open collector transistor output which means that you do need a pull up resistor if you want to read a digital signal off the signal wire. Most microcontrollers have the ability to turn on a built in pull up resistor. If you do not, connect a 10K resistor between the white wire of the receiver and the red wire. If you want to control a relay or LED or whatever, it can sink up to 100mA to ground. The sensor wires have bare (tinned) ends.

Check out Adafruits IR breakbeam tutorial for how to get started quickly

Need more details? Check out the datasheet!

12 customer reviews

a month ago
Used a pair of these for as timing gates with an Arduino Uno as part of a school physics experiment. Worked exactly as expected. Happy.
by Andrew about IR Break Beam Sensor (5mm LEDs) via REVIEWS.io
a year ago
Amazing, small and effective break beam sensor. It has a great response time and worked fantastic for my coin counter project. Would highly recommend for anyone wanting something like this for a project
by howard about IR Break Beam Sensor (5mm LEDs) via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Working reliably well in the 50cm range and even up to 55cm. When in side-by-side comparison, it even seemed to have more protruded LEDs than the 5mm LEDs sold by PiHut(https://thepihut.com/products/ir-break-beam-sensor-5mm-leds), which might be helping with the longer, more reliable range. With the PiHut product I only got it reliably and repeatedly working in 33cm range. Also slightly thicker wires. I bought 35 pairs to use them as an automatic speedometer in a bird flight tunnel in the field to measure natural flight speed as birds break beams in three different sections consecutively.
by Kyu about IR Break Beam Sensor (5mm LEDs) via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
These work perfectly to trigger an Arduino-controller stepper motor. Added short sections of 8mm tube to help ensure a tighter beam for a more precise activation.
by Daniel about IR Break Beam Sensor (5mm LEDs) via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Arrived quickly. Good price. Service as always great from pimoroni. I bought them to use in an arduino project. They work really well. I have attached a video the prototype.
by S about IR Break Beam Sensor (5mm LEDs) via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
I bought two pairs. They arrived promptly and worked. The transmitter/receivers were set up about 50mm appart. The power was 5 volts from an Arduino and the output detected by Arduino inputs progammed to have internal pull-up resistors. Everything just worked.
by Anonymous about IR Break Beam Sensor (5mm LEDs) via REVIEWS.io

1 user photo