Color Detector Sensor

SKU: SEN-11195 Brand: Sparkfun

Retired Product

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This product has been retired. It is no longer available, but this page has been kept for reference.

Atlas Scientific is on a mission to make high-quality sensors for environmental monitoring available to everyday hackers and makers. All of their kits are easy to calibrate and connect to your microcontroller-based project.

Color light sensors are awesome devices for everything from environmental sensors to general robotics. They can be used to monitor slowly changing events like algae blooms or leaf death, or to determine light absorption through a medium. But for all their utility, they have some flaws. First off, they can be complicated to interface to since RGB data often has to be derived using complex signal processing. Secondly, they’re less than rugged, and when you want to deploy one in the field you need a device that can stand up to the weather. Even moisture in the air can make an unprotected sensor unreliable.

Atlas solved these problems by embedding the light sensor in a rugged housing below a layer of transparent epoxy which protects the sensor from moisture while still allowing light to get in. The resulting light probe is water- and dust-proof, sleet and ice tolerant, non reactive in salt water and will readily sink when submerged. On top of all that, it provides both RGB level (in 8-bit RGB format) and light intensity (in lux) as simple comma separated strings over RS-232!

Features:

R,G,B data is in true 8-bit RGB format from 0-255
light intensity is output in lux (lx)
lx given for R ,G and B as well as full spectrum lx
RGB color data and lx can be output simultaneously
lx range from 0- 3,235 lux
Light saturation indicator if lx is over 3,235
Three different output modes:
- RGB only
- Lx only
- RGB and lx
Data output is a single comma separated string
Simple RS-232 connectivity (voltage swing 0-VCC)
Harsh environment ready: NEMA 6P and IP 68 rated
Wide operating temperature range: -40 Celsius to +85 Celsius
Simple instruction set consisting of only 5 commands
Reading time: 620ms
Wide operating voltage range: 3.1V to 5.5V
Shock resistant to 16 mega Pascals

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Unit 18, 132 Garden Grove Parade
Adamstown
NSW, 2289
Australia

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