How To Use The TSL2561

May 22, 2012

Filed under: Electronics,Spectrometer jethomson @ 2:07 am

The TSL2561 is a light-to-digital converter from TAOS. It senses light intensity and transforms its
measurement into a digital output that is transferred over I2C or SMB. If you are familiar with the
TSL230R light sensors, you shouldnt have much trouble working with TSL2561s, but there are a
few important differences. The TSL230R outputs its data as a pulse train, so a microcontroller with
frequency counting code is required to read the sensors output. The TSL2561 outputs its data
directly over I2C or SMB, so the sensors output is simply read from the bus. The TSL230R is
controlled by bringing purpose specific pins high or low. The TSL2561 is controlled by writing data
to it over the bus. The TSL230R is available in a breadboardable package and runs at 5V. The
TSL2561 needs an adapter board for breadboarding and its power supply must not exceed 3.3V.
The TSL2561 also has a second diode specifically for sensing infrared.
Since the TSL2561 is so similar to the TSL230R in theory, Ill only be writing one condensed article
for the TSL2561. Please refer to the series of article of the TSL230R for a more in-depth
explanation of how to acquire and process data from these sensors.
Serial Control
TSL2561_DAQ.ino (view online) enables serial control of the TSL2561 via a simple serial protocol
between the host computer and Arduino. It allows the user to set the number of output samples,
adjust the TSL2561s sensitivity and integration time, and switch power to a light source. The
Arduino IDE has a built in serial monitor, which you can use for testing serial commands.
However, Tod E. Kurts arduino-serial is smaller and has more functionality.

The command:
./arduino-serial -b 9600 -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -d 3000 -s s016 -d 100 -s i101 -d
100 -s l111 -d 100 -s t005 -d 10000 -r -d 500 -r -d 500 -r -d 500 -r -d
500 -r -d 500 -r -d 100 -s l000
Outputs one read for each -r:
read: 697
read: 697
read: 696
read: 697
read: 696
read: EOT
This command waits three seconds for the bootloader to load the program ( -d 3000) then it tells
the program to set the sensitivity to 16x (s016), the integration time to 101 ms (i101), turn the
light on (l111), and transmit five samples (t005). The command then waits 10 seconds for the
buffer to fill (-d 10000), reads five samples (-r -d 500 repeated five times), and finally turns
the light off. The blank lines in the output are from the line feed (i.e. \n) printed after each
number. The uc code uses Serial.print('\n') instead of Serial.println() and the string
EOT so that it can communicate with code written for GNU Octave and MATLAB.
Data Acquisition Scripts
The archive TSL2561_code.zip contains the m-files (view online: get_data, save_data, serial_open)
necessary for controlling the TSL2561 within GNU Octave and MATLAB and reading the counts
output from the ATmega uc.

Spectral Responsivity

The spectral responsivity for the Channel 0 diode when the gain is 16x, the integration time is 101
ms, Vdd = 3V, and Ta = 25C is saved in Re2561.mat in the essential_data_sets folder within the
archive TSL2561_code.zip
Converting Counts to Irradiance
With Re() and a model of the spectral content of the light source irradiating the photodiode array
we can calculate the spectral irradiance and total irradiance of the light source more accurately
than in the simplistic case of assuming all the light sources photons are 640 nm in wavelength.
For example, if we model a red LED with a peak wavelength at 640 nm and a full width at half
maximum (FWHM) of 34 nm with MATLAB like so:

% mathematically model lamp's spectrum as a gaussian curve with a peak

% wavelength at 640 nm and full width at half maximum of 34 nm
e = exp(1);
func_lamp = @(mu, FWHM) e.^(-2.7726*((lambda_Re-mu)/FWHM).^2);
X = func_lamp(640, 2*17); % [uW/(nm*cm^2)]
Then the output counts, cX, that would result if X irradiated the photodiode array can be
calculated thusly:
However, cX is not the actual output counts of the TSL2561 because X is only a model of the
shape of the lights spectrum and lacks radiometric calibration. Since we can measure counts,
finding the proper radiometric calibration multiplier for X is as simple as dividing counts/cX.

Therefore, a good approximation of the radiometrically calibrated spectral irradiance of the light
source should be:

and the total irradiance is:

Acknoledgements
Newark gave me a TSL2561T light to digital converter from TAOS to evaluate as part of their
product road testing program.
Thanks go out to ladyada for providing a library and basic example for working with the TSL2561.