Hello, I need to help to set up a raspberry pi 4 to record light exposure.
We will need a light sensor that records the amount of light (lumens) that it is exposed to and when it hits a specific target it outputs a message. Can this be done? Can anyone help and give advise please?
I am helping some students with a project and could do with some expertise as I have never done this before.
-
Pi_Newbee_2023
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2023 4:41 pm
-
terribleted
- Posts: 929
- Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2020 8:07 pm
Re: How to set up Pi4 with light sensor
Depending on where you are, there are numerous vendors.
I'm in the USA, and i use Adafruit a lot....
www.adafruit.com
if you look under "products - sensors" you will find light sensors.
for example, "Adafruit VEML7700 Lux Sensor - I2C Light Sensor "
I'd look for one that uses I2C or SPI, as the PI has no analog inputs to measure voltage.
of course, you can buy an A/D converter.... depends on how complicated you want this project to be (grin)
Adafruit is pretty good at providing a tutorial on their stuff.
(see the "learn" under the product)
I'm in the USA, and i use Adafruit a lot....
www.adafruit.com
if you look under "products - sensors" you will find light sensors.
for example, "Adafruit VEML7700 Lux Sensor - I2C Light Sensor "
I'd look for one that uses I2C or SPI, as the PI has no analog inputs to measure voltage.
of course, you can buy an A/D converter.... depends on how complicated you want this project to be (grin)
Adafruit is pretty good at providing a tutorial on their stuff.
(see the "learn" under the product)
Last edited by terribleted on Sat Jan 28, 2023 8:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
i had a Trash-80 model 1 (circa 1980). upgrading from 4k to 16k of RAM, i thought "i'll never use this much RAM".
Now i have a computer with a million times that much memory. And i keep running out of it.
Not the computer....ME.
Now i have a computer with a million times that much memory. And i keep running out of it.
Not the computer....ME.
Re: How to set up Pi4 with light sensor
You could use a light dependant resistor (LDR) and capacitor.
It all depends on how accurate or repeatable across devices you need to be...
It all depends on how accurate or repeatable across devices you need to be...
Re: How to set up Pi4 with light sensor
I find these I2C based light sensors easy to use on Raspi:
If only Visible is needed, the latter is hard to beat!
- LTR390 (has UV and Visible light)
- BH1750 (also under the name of GY-30 (Visible only)
If only Visible is needed, the latter is hard to beat!