Need a short distance range finder (<1m) that is 5v and puts out a 0-5v signal based on distance? Answered

I did a little more research to better understand the Arduino board. Unfortunately, this sensor seems to require an Arduino board or something with digital input and output in order to send the pulse and then translates what it gets back. I am not afraid to tackle this but it doesn't seem like a full blown Arduino board is needed for this. Perhaps there are smaller, simpler boards that can be programmed just to do this one function and then provide me with a single 0-5v reference output that I may input into the engine management system?

Look up the picaxe system you only need the picaxe 08 chip and a programming cable which you could make.

http://www.picaxe.com/Distributors/

PS the free program editor has an example program to run the USonic module.

Use one of the very many tiny arduino-like boards. Arduino is an eco-system of compatible boards and a software tool to program them. A barebones arduino project is a processor and a couple of capacitors.

I ordered a starter kit yesterday. From my reading and watching YouTube videos, it looks like I could make my own board. All the small boards that I found lacked an analog 5v out.

The analogue out function on the boards is done by a PWM signal. All you need is an RC filter to turn it into an analogue voltage. Something like 47k into a 2.2uF cap would probably work, but it depends on the input resistance of what the signal has to feed.

Thank you so much for the link. It says that it is for Arduino. I am not familiar with the robotics lingo so just for clarification, I put 5v reference and ground to this board and it reports back with a 0-5v signal based on a range of 2cm-450cm? My application is automotive and I have a controller that supplies the sensor 5v and ground with a definable scale for the input that should then display the correct distance once configured properly. Thanks in advance.

Theoretically yes. Arduino is probably the most common use for these but in the end it's just a sensor and if you have some way to power it and read it then it should work. I have one but haven't used it so I'm not sure how to calibrate the readout to the distance exactly but you can find plenty of guides on this site, I even see a couple in the "Related" section to the right ----->