hey guys

i can detect signal strength with an IR Seeker
but my values seem to be always inconsistent
is there a flaw in my coding or is the seeker naturally inconsistent

You need to provide more info than this for us to help. What do you mean by inconsistent?

By inconsistent i mean that one time when i take a signal reading it will say something like 80
then when i run my program again, the same spot will give a reading of a number like 150

How did you read the values? Were you reading the raw values? I suspect the raw values may have noise in it due to other IR sources.

If you download my driver suite (link in signature), have a look at the hitechnic-irseeker-v2-test2.c sample, specifically the HTIRS2readEnhanced() function, it may provide you with the info you need to get an idea of the relative distance to the object you're trying to detect.

As MHTS said, interference, position of the stars, solar flares and psychokinetic energy build-ups can really mess with your readings. Seriously though, using the IR Seeker to gauge distance is like using a screw driver to hammer in a nail; sure, you can do it, but it's not exactly fit for purpose. The IR Seeker is for tracking the relative position of the ball to the position of the sensor. There are other, far more suitable sensors out there for measuring distance to a target.

= Xander