This post covers my experiences with a Sharp IR sensor marked 2YOA2I F 7I I received courtesy of @@bluehash clearing his desk a while back.
Sharp IR sensors can be obtained that cover ranges from 4 - 30 cm up to 100 - 550 cm. This one has a listed range of 10 - 80 cm. The coverage envelope / angle was not listed in the data sheet but seemed relatively narrow. Current consumption is around 30 mA on average. Response time is listed as 39 ms. The output from the sensor is an analog voltage which is inversely proportional to the distance in a nonlinear manner.
Of particular note to th