Using Adafruit TSL2561 Digital Luminosity/Lux/Light Sensor ,

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mtglen
 
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Using Adafruit TSL2561 Digital Luminosity/Lux/Light Sensor ,

Post by mtglen »

I am wondering if the Adafruit TSL2561 Digital Luminosity/Lux/Light Sensor , is a ready to use photo-optic analog to digital converting circuit, that I can hook up to an Ardunio board, to create the guts for a laser harp ? Up until now all i have seen is that one must create your own circuit/board, to allow the conversion of an analog input form a photo-optic sensor, into a readable digital signal, to use in triggering midi sounds.

Has anyone used this circuit in this way ?

Thanks ! Glenn mtglen at laserharps dot com

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Using Adafruit TSL2561 Digital Luminosity/Lux/Light Sens

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Do you just want to detect if a light beam is broken? This will do that.

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mtglen
 
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Re: Using Adafruit TSL2561 Digital Luminosity/Lux/Light Sens

Post by mtglen »

Yes, ...................How I want to use it is to have a low powered laser beam, <5mw, shining at the sensor circuit, and when the beam is broken, have the Ardunio board send a midi-on signal to the midi sound source. I am also wondering if I could use this sensor circuit with a Miditron controller as well , as I believe that both the Miditron and the Ardunio work the same way?

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Using Adafruit TSL2561 Digital Luminosity/Lux/Light Sens

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

If all you need is beam-break detection, this is probably a better option: https://www.adafruit.com/products/161
The problem with using the TSL2561 in a harp is that the number of 'strings' will be limited by the available i2c addresses (only 3 with this sensor). Using simpler sensors like the cds photocell, you can have as many strings as you have GPIO pins.

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mtglen
 
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Re: Using Adafruit TSL2561 Digital Luminosity/Lux/Light Sens

Post by mtglen »

Thanks ! But with teh photocells, I would need to design and construct the needed additional circut parts to allow the analog signal from the photocell to be converted to digital , is this correct ?

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Using Adafruit TSL2561 Digital Luminosity/Lux/Light Sens

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

That is correct. But the circuit need not be very complicated. You can probably do it with just a resistor divider. The photocell acts as a variable resistor in the divider, so breaking the beam will cause a change in voltage. If you choose your resistor values right, breaking the beam can change the voltage from logic LOW to logic HIGH.

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