Ambient Light Level Monitoring

[Dave]

scottl, I have used 4 of the TSL230's in a sun tracking sensor unit for a solar furnace with great success. All you need to do is count the pulses gererated by the units. No need for linearization or amplifiers. The Texas Advanced Optical Systems (TAOS) TSL230 sensor precisely measures light using an array of photodiodes, with an output of digital square waves. The TSL230 has an input dynamic range of 160dB; that is, it can measure light over a range of 100,000,000-to-1. Parallax still has them for $4.95 each.

Dave Purola,
N8NTA

[scottl]

Dave,

This look like this will do the trick. I am going to order a couple to try and I will let you everyone know the results.

Mouser also has stock at $4.75!

Thanks,

Scott

[ardhuru]

Hi,

I just used an LDR in a simple voltage divider configuration, and it works very well.

Use the circuit Sayzer's given minus the transistor; feed the junction of the LDR and the resistor directly to the pic.

Regards,

Anand

[scottl]

Thanks for the reply! I will give it a shot this week.

Scott