Raspberry Pi and TEMT6000 light sensor

TEMT6000X01 ambient light sensor is a silicon NPN epitaxial planar phototransistor in a miniature transparent 1206 package for surface mounting. It is sensitive to visible light much like the human eye and has peak sensitivity at 570 nm.

Here is a picture of a module

Here is a schematic of the module

APPLICATIONS

Ambient light sensor for control of display backlight dimming in LCD displays and keypad backlighting of mobile devices and in industrial on/off-lighting operation.

• Automotive sensors
• Mobile phones
• Notebook computers
• PDA’s
• Cameras
• Dashboards

Connection

I used an Analog Zero board which contains an MCP3008

Code

[codesyntax lang=”python”]

import spidev
import time

spi = spidev.SpiDev()
spi.open(0, 0)

def readadc(adcnum):
# read SPI data from MCP3008 chip, 8 possible adc’s (0 thru 7)
if adcnum > 7 or adcnum < 0:
return -1
r = spi.xfer2([1, 8 + adcnum << 4, 0])
adcout = ((r[1] & 3) << 8) + r[2]
return adcout

while True:
value = readadc(0)
print (“%4d/1023” % (value))
time.sleep(0.5)

[/codesyntax]

Output

Links

TEMT6000 Light Sensor

https://www.vishay.com/docs/81579/temt6000.pdf