Skills

SparkFun Ambient Light Sensor Breakout - TEMT6000

Description: Basic breakout board for the TEMT6000 Ambient Light Sensor. Only what you need, nothing you don’t. Sensor acts like a transistor - the greater the incoming light, the higher the analog voltage on the signal pin.

Customer Comments

I had a question about the output this sensor gives off…
I’m using it with a basic stamp 2pe microcontroller and haven’t been sure how to convert the analog output into lux. Is there a specific equation I have to use for this or are there several (like ones that include temperature, etc)?

Although the datasheet does not provide this information, an email to Vishay got some dynamic response data. The upshot is that for the fastest response to changing light conditions one must have a high current flowing through the device. Icmax is defined at 20ma. With the 10K resistor (assuming no current out the signal line), and a 5 volt supply, than the maximum collector current is 5/10K or a tiny 500 micro amps. At this condition, rise and fall times are around 15 micro seconds. Increase Ic (by lowering the value of the resistor) and you can drop the times to bellow 10 usec.

SFE, how about a breakout board with this sensor and a logarithmic amplifier? I don’t care for the difference between 100 lux and 105 lux, which you won’t notice anyway, but I do care about the difference between 10 lux, 100 lux and 1000 lux. Log amp, please!

With a photoresistor you build a voltage divider which is anything but linear, this one is linear. Also, a phototransistor has a much wider range and is faster. Phototransistors are being used to trigger slave strobe light in photostudios, a photoresistor is orders of magnitude too slow for this.

Would this be a good device for measuring and data logging sunlight in a garden? Also, is there a waterproof version, or a good way to waterproof this without diffusing the light from hitting the sensor? Thanks!

Amazingly simple to use.
I’m using it as a trigger in a spectrometer, gives the go signal when the emission starts.
highly stable and incredibly easy to work with. Only problem is, my fingers are too big

Remarkable. I swapped this in place of a potentiometer in my Arduino project and it worked exactly as expected without any changes. It’s great to have this as a breakout.
Now I have to modify the software to provide some dampening.

I would like to use this in an application where I need much higher resolution, but it won’t need to measure more than 2 lux or so. If I just put a big resistor on the ground pin, will that effectively multiply the voltage on the signal pin? Also, while this won’t need to actively measure more than 2 lux, it will still regularly be exposed to 100+ lux while it’s on. If putting the resistor on there will fry a 5V picaxe I/O pin, it won’t work.
If this doesn’t work, I’d appreciate any ideas for something that would. I would just use a CdS photoresistor, but linearity is very helpful.

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