This page covers a variety of light sensors, most of which are either single-channel or three- or four-channel sensors (RGB or RGBC). There are also a few specialty sensors, like the MAX30105 sensor which can be used for pulse oximetry or the APDS-9960 sensor which can measure RGB as well as sensing gesture and proximity. There is a separate page for multi-channel spectral sensors.
TSL2591 - Light levels, visible & IR
ISL29125 - RGB with IR blocking filter
TCS34725 - 4-channel, red, green, blue, clear
APDS9960 - RGB and gesture
- Sparkfun breakout board
- Sparkfun Library Adafruit breakout board
- Adafruit Library
- Arduino BLE Sense
- Arduino Library
- Datasheet
MAX30105 - red, IR, green, for pulse oximetry and particle detection
- Sparkfun breakout board
- Sparkfun library
- Datasheet
- Being replaced by MAX30101
GA1AS202L - ambient light
APDS9301 - ambient light sensor
- Sparkfun breakout board part is retired
- Sparkfun library part is retired Datasheet
- Rune Madsen's Programming Design Systems book is a great intro to visual design and programming and his chapters on color are a helpful intro to color theory for understanding sensors and LED color mixing:
- A pretty good introduction to colorimetry
- A quick introduction to Melanopic Equivalent Daylight Illuminace (EDI)
- CIE Position Statement on Non-Visual Effects of Light
- User Guide to the α-opic Toolbox for implementing CIE S 026
- Userguide to the Equivalent Daylight (D65) Illuminance Toolbox
- White paper from AMS: Chip-scale spectral sensing: understanding the new uses for ultra-precise light-source measurement
- AMS Application Note: DN40-Rev 1.0 – Lux and CCT Calculations using ams Color Sensors
- Accurate method for computing correlated color temperature
- Correlated Color Temperature Determination for LED Modules Using a Digital Color Sensor
- Calculate CIE 1931 xy coordinates from color temperature
- An interesting discussion on the CCT calculation in the Adafruit TCS34725 library