- Color sensor principle: The TCS230 is 8-lead SOIC surface mount package with 64 photodiodes integrated on a single chip. These diodes are divided into four types. Among them, 16 photodiodes have a red filter; 16 photodiodes have a green filter; 16 photodiodes have a blue filter; the remaining 16 do not have any filters and can pass all the light information.
- These photodiodes are interdigitated in the chip, which minimizes the inhomogeneity of the incident light radiation, thereby increasing the accuracy of color recognition; on the other hand, the 16 photodiodes of the same color are connected in parallel and evenly distributed. In the diode array, color position errors can be eliminated.
- In operation, the desired filter is dynamically selected through two programmable pins. The sensor’s typical output frequency range is from 2 Hz to 500 kHz, and the user can also select 100%, 20%, or 2% of the output scaling factor or power shutdown mode via two programmable pins. The output scaling factor allows the sensor’s output to adapt to different measurement ranges, improving its adaptability.
- For example, when using a low-speed frequency counter, you can select a small scaling value to match the output frequency of the TCS230 to the counter.
