EEVblog Electronics Community Forum

General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: Poe on April 05, 2016, 02:08:09 am

Title: Light sensor recommendations
Post by: Poe on April 05, 2016, 02:08:09 am

Have a project that requires a light sensor (~visible range, not picky) with a fast response time (<1uS).  I need to measure the intensity of the light to a resolution of ~12 bits. 

Looking for a dev board or set of dev boards if they exist... or equipment recommendations to start as our point of reference.  This is for a cobbled together piece of test equipment, not a finished product.

Any suggestions or tales of warning?

Thanks.

Title: Re: Light sensor recommendations
Post by: dannyf on April 05, 2016, 11:06:44 am

Photo diodes are fairly fast. Configuring phototransistors output on the emitter helps too.

Title: Re: Light sensor recommendations
Post by: lapm on April 05, 2016, 12:23:00 pm

How  much light is question that pops in my head first... Its different to measure direct sunlight then it is to measure indoor lighting...

Title: Re: Light sensor recommendations
Post by: Poe on April 05, 2016, 01:25:12 pm

It will receive a fairly directed beam from an industrial tachometer, advertised as "works in direct sunlight", so my guess is that it's at least as bright as the sun. 

We're trying to just buy something quickly versus build it from discrete components.  Even just an analog output read on our scope would be fine.  Time is more the issue.  We're passing the cost onto our customer so money will not be an issue until they get the bill.

Unfortunately all I found were discrete components and slow ambient light sensor dev boards.  Our typical go-to test equipment suppliers didn't have much either. 

Thanks again.