Ambient Light Bricklet¶

Features¶

• Measures ambient light up to 900lux
• Output in 0.1lux steps (12bit resolution)

Description¶

The Ambient Light Bricklet can be used to extend the features of Bricks with the capability to measure ambient light. The measured illuminance can be read out in lux. With configurable events it is possible to react on changing illuminance without polling.

Typical applications are illuminance dependent switching of backlights, motors etc.

Technical Specifications¶

Resources¶

• TEMT6000 datasheet (Download)
• Schematic (Download)
• Outline and drilling plan (Download)
• Source code and design files (Download)

Test your Ambient Light Bricklet¶

To test a Ambient Light Bricklet you need to have Brick Daemon and Brick Viewer installed. Brick Daemon acts as a proxy between the USB interface of the Bricks and the API bindings. Brick Viewer connects to Brick Daemon. It helps to figure out basic information about the connected Bricks and Bricklets and allows to test them.

Connect the Ambient Light Bricklet to a Brick with a Bricklet Cable (see picture below).

If you connect the Brick to the PC over USB, you should see a new tab named "Ambient Light Bricklet" in the Brick Viewer after a moment. Select this tab. If everything went as expected you can now see the illuminance in lux, a graphical representation of the illuminance and a graph that shows the illuminance over time.

A good test for the sensor is to darken the room and slowly move a flashlight over the sensor, the graph should then look approximately as in the screenshot shown below.

After this test you can go on with writing your own application. See the Programming Interface section for the API of the Ambient Light Bricklet and examples in different programming languages.

Case¶

A laser-cut case for the Ambient Light Bricklet is available.

The assembly is easiest if you follow the following steps:

• Screw spacers to the Bricklet,
• screw bottom plate to bottom spacers,
• build up side plates,
• plug side plates into bottom plate and
• screw top plate to top spacers.

Below you can see an exploded assembly drawing of the Ambient Light Bricklet case:

Hint: There is a protective film on both sides of the plates, you have to remove it before assembly.

Programming Interface¶

See Programming Interface for a detailed description.