I'm doing some work with pulsing the individual elements of RGB LEDs. Now that I've got that code pretty well worked out, I need a good (and cheap) way to measure the light intensity, preferably in different parts of the spectrum. I'm considering using LEDs in reverse, but wonder if the picaxe has enough sensitivity to get a decent reading. If anyone has tried this, I'd appreciate some feedback.
Alternately, I'd purchase a ready-made sensor if there's one available at a decent price. I've got my eye on a light to frequency module, the TCS3200 Color Sensor, and wonder how good that is. I wouldn't be using the light source LEDs on that, so there would have to be a way to turn those off when taking measurements.
I pretty much need to cover the visible spectrum, no IR but a little near UV would be nice. I'm looking to measure the light intensity of my flashing units over periods of time. Ultimately, I need to know how much light has been produced in various regions of the spectrum. Although I can calculate these values from the timings I'm sending, I want the feedback to keep the data honest. There's no guarantee, for instance, that all my LEDs will operate at the same intensity throughout the run. So I'll use the sensor to take a snapshot every so often.
Ideas and suggestions welcome.
Alternately, I'd purchase a ready-made sensor if there's one available at a decent price. I've got my eye on a light to frequency module, the TCS3200 Color Sensor, and wonder how good that is. I wouldn't be using the light source LEDs on that, so there would have to be a way to turn those off when taking measurements.
I pretty much need to cover the visible spectrum, no IR but a little near UV would be nice. I'm looking to measure the light intensity of my flashing units over periods of time. Ultimately, I need to know how much light has been produced in various regions of the spectrum. Although I can calculate these values from the timings I'm sending, I want the feedback to keep the data honest. There's no guarantee, for instance, that all my LEDs will operate at the same intensity throughout the run. So I'll use the sensor to take a snapshot every so often.
Ideas and suggestions welcome.