Hey everyone! I’ve got some exciting news for all you Proteus users out there. I’ve added a Metal Touch Sensor that you can now experiment with right in your simulations! If you’ve ever wanted to include a simple “touch here” input in your projects, perhaps as a basic button, an interactive display feature, or just to play with sensing capabilities, you can now test it all virtually with ease.
I’ll show you how to grab the sensor and wire it up in Proteus so you can start adding touch functionality without needing physical hardware right away. Happy simulating!
Metal Touch Sensor
A metal touch sensor is basically a switch that only kicks in when it’s touched by something that carries a little charge, like your finger. Inside the module there’s a high-frequency transistor that responds to tiny electromagnetic signals. When you tap the metal probe, your body acts like a mini antenna, snagging stray electrical noise in the air. The sensor’s circuitry picks up on that faint disturbance, cranks it up through an amplifier, and then cleans it into a straightforward signal. That way, your microcontroller (or whatever you’re using) gets a clear “someone’s touching me!” message without any fuss.
KSP13 - NPN Epitaxial Silicon Darlington Transistor
The KSP13 is a NPN Darlington transistor manufactured by onsemi (formerly ON Semiconductor). The KSP13 transistor is commonly used in metal touch sensor modules, where it plays a key role in amplifying the tiny electrical signals generated when someone touches a metal surface. As an NPN Darlington transistor, it provides a very high current gain, which makes it especially well-suited for picking up weak input signals, such as those caused by the body’s natural capacitance and surrounding electrical noise.
You can download the official datasheet for the KSP13 NPN Darlington transistor directly from onsemi, the current manufacturer of this component.
Official KSP13 Datasheet: onsemi KSP13
Metal Touch Sensor Proteus Model
The standard hardware module usually offers both analog and digital outputs, but the metal touch sensor I’ve designed provides only a digital output, ideal for most projects that just need a simple touch trigger. If you’d also like an analog output option, let me know in the comments and I’ll whip one up.
This sensor even features a hand-touch animation, and its digital pin goes HIGH on touch, so you can drive LEDs directly, no resistors or extra protection required.
Proteus Simulation
Connecting the Metal Touch Sensor in your Proteus simulation to an Arduino is really simple:
- VCC – Hook this up to the Arduino’s 5V pin.
- GND – Connect to the Arduino’s ground.
- D0 – This digital output goes HIGH when the sensor is touched and LOW when it isn’t.
Just wire D0 to any of your Arduino’s digital input pins (for example, pin 2, 3, or 4). In your sketch, use digitalRead() on that pin: when it returns HIGH, the simulation has registered a touch. From there, you can trigger LEDs, buzzers, or any other fun behavior in your code. It’s a super-easy way to get touch sensing up and running!
Download Library
Simply click on the button to download the library. You can refer to this post for instructions on how to install the library in Proteus 8. How to Download and install Library in Proteus (electronicstree.com)
ZIP Password : electronicstree.com
If you have any requests for Arduino Module Libraries in Proteus, please leave a comment or message us using the contact form.
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