Patent ID: 7312854

Claim:
A position sensitive photoelectric sensor comprising: a light emitting device for emitting a light; a projection lens for projecting the light emitted from the light emitting device onto a target; a reception lens; a light receiving device for receiving a reflected light from the target through the reception lens; a main controlling portion for calculating a distance to the target by processing a signal from the light receiving device to calculate a position of a received light spot on a photosensitive surface or a center-of-gravity position of a received light quantity distribution; and an optical adjusting mechanism for changing the position of the received light spot on the photosensitive surface of the light receiving device or the center-of-gravity position of the received light quantity distribution, by adjusting an angle or a position of at least one of the light emitting device, the projection lens, the reception lens, and the light receiving device, wherein the main controlling portion has a function of outputting a binary signal as a compared result between the calculated distance to the target and a reference distance, and a change adjustment of the reference distance is performed in a situation that an adjustment is made by the optical adjusting mechanism, wherein the change adjustment of the reference distance includes setting the reference distance by the optical adjusting mechanism, and further comprises a change adjustment of the reference distance performed by teaching and executed by the main controlling portion by software, and a fine adjustment of the reference distance made by a manual operation of an increase/decrease switch.