adafruit-circuitpython-hcsr04

Introduction

The HC-SR04 is an inexpensive solution for measuring distances using microcontrollers. This library provides a simple driver for controlling these sensors from CircuitPython.

Dependencies

This driver depends on:

Adafruit CircuitPython

Please ensure all dependencies are available on the CircuitPython filesystem. This is easily achieved by downloading the Adafruit library and driver bundle.

Installing from PyPI

On supported GNU/Linux systems like the Raspberry Pi, you can install the driver locally from PyPI. To install for current user:

pip3 install adafruit-circuitpython-hcsr04

To install system-wide (this may be required in some cases):

sudo pip3 install adafruit-circuitpython-hcsr04

To install in a virtual environment in your current project:

mkdir project-name && cd project-name
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip3 install adafruit-circuitpython-hcsr04

Usage Example

You’ll need to dedicate two pins to communicating with the HC-SR04. The sensor communicates in a very rudimentary manner, so it doesn’t matter which pins you choose, as long as they’re digital IO pins (pins that start with “D” are digital).

There are two ways of instantiating a HCSR04 object: with or without using a context manager.

Without a Context Manager

In the example below, we create the HCSR04 object directly, get the distance every 2 seconds.

import time
import board
import adafruit_hcsr04

sonar = adafruit_hcsr04.HCSR04(trigger_pin=board.D5, echo_pin=board.D6)

while True:
    try:
        print((sonar.distance,))
    except RuntimeError:
        print("Retrying!")
    time.sleep(2)

With a Context Manager

In the example below, we use a context manager (the with statement) to create the HCSR04 instance, again get the distance every 2 seconds, but then the context manager handles de-initializing the device for us.

import board
from adafruit_hcsr04 import HCSR04
with HCSR04(trigger_pin=board.D5, echo_pin=board.D6) as sonar:
    try:
        while True:
            print(sonar.distance)
            sleep(2)
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        pass

Documentation

API documentation for this library can be found on Read the Docs.

For information on building library documentation, please check out this guide.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Code of Conduct before contributing to help this project stay welcoming.

Release files for adafruit-circuitpython-hcsr04 0.4.25

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for adafruit-circuitpython-hcsr04 0.4.25
File	Size	Uploaded
adafruit_circuitpython_hcsr04-0.4.25.tar.gz	281.2 kB	Apr 23, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for adafruit-circuitpython-hcsr04 0.4.25
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
adafruit_circuitpython_hcsr04-0.4.25-py3-none-any.whl 6.9 kB Apr 23, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 288.1 kB

Release files / adafruit_circuitpython_hcsr04-0.4.25.tar.gz

Download URL	adafruit_circuitpython_hcsr04-0.4.25.tar.gz
Size	281.2 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`dc38f4cdc4ed900e7879ee6256cb1f72b3be977ef89e6a50ec3da208f218f33c`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`852ff641f94931ac3215985042cb389ee7fe25e785fa9eda0d8e489e485e8bfa`
Upload date	Apr 23, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.11.15`

Release files / adafruit_circuitpython_hcsr04-0.4.25-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	adafruit_circuitpython_hcsr04-0.4.25-py3-none-any.whl
Size	6.9 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`b7aab62bbbb883569d8ed1afcc01217ba30d27922698cd0d35cc546b22569bab`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`23cfdc7cd9118b8c431d5c0d21c0b52e1d7c8b19a53b2a493a233baff6d0fb6c`
Upload date	Apr 23, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.11.15`